Do Polygamy Bans Backfire?

Stephanie Zvan, reading a recent court decision upholding Canada's prohibition on polygamous marriage, says yes:

[B]y specifying that the problem is only with marriages, the [Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints] has already said that they now know how best to circumvent the law. That means that the reasonable part of what this ruling was intended to do–protect those coerced into these marriages–is undone by the ruling, while the less defensible portion–the legal codification of a social norm–stands. That is not the mark of a good legal decision.

Russell Blackford nods.