Supreme Court of the United States, 1879

The Court denied Reed's habeas application, holding that a paymaster's clerk was subject to naval court-martial jurisdiction and that the court could revise its sentence before dissolution under governing naval regulations.

The Supreme Court affirmed George Reynolds's Utah territorial bigamy conviction on all six assigned errors, holding that sect. 5352 of the Revised Statutes was constitutional and that religious belief cannot justify an overt act made criminal by law: the First Amendment protects mere religious opinion but leaves…