Category: Legal Issues
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God Makers II Lawyer Threatens Tanners With Suit
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner Unfortunately, our last newsletter regarding the video The God Makers II, has stirred up a real hornet’s nest. While we tried to be very accurate and tactful in our presentation, in an article entitled, “The Tanners Strike Again,” J. Edward Decker exclaimed: One would think that I’d have developed some…
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Nightmare Ends at the Supreme Court (Clayton Diaries copyright suit)
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner In the April 1986 issue of the Salt Lake City Messenger we printed an article entitled, “LAW SUIT OVER—UNFAIR VERDICT IS OVERTURNED.” In this article we told how a man by the name of Andrew Ehat, with the help of a lawyer who represents Brigham Young University’s Religious Studies Center,…
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Lawsuit Over: Unfair Verdict Is Overturned (Clayton Diaries copyright suit)
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner On April 28, 1983, the Mormon scholar Andrew Ehat filed a lawsuit against us (Jerald and Sandra Tanner) in an attempt to stop publication of some extracts from the diaries of Joseph Smith’s private secretary, William Clayton. Because these diaries contain embarrassing material on the origin of polygamy and other…
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Update on Appeal (Clayton Diaries copyright suit)
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner On May 15, 1985, the final hearing on our appeal of the Ehat lawsuit was heard before three judges of the 10th circuit court. The hearing went very well for our lawyer. Mr. Ehat’s lawyer, on the other hand, had a difficult time fielding the thorny questions the judges threw…
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Suit Drags On (Clayton Diaries copyright suit)
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner It has been a year and eight months since Andrew Ehat brought a lawsuit against us for publishing the book, Clayton’s Secret Writings Uncovered. Although Mr. Ehat was able to convince a Mormon judge that we were guilty of “unfair competition,” he was unable to prove the claim of copyright…
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Tanners Found Guilty! (Clayton Diaries copyright suit)
Judge Threatens Damages “Many Times” $16,000 By Jerald and Sandra Tanner “The atmosphere in the courtroom was electric,” wrote Christine Rigby. “Many of the big guns in Mormon history were there. They would finally be testifying in a case against Jerald and Sandra Tanner, the notorious anti-Mormon publishers. . . . For years the Mormon historical establishment…
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Cover-Up on Lawsuit (Clayton Diaries copyright suit)
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner As we have indicated in previous issues of the Messenger, on April 28, 1983, the Mormon scholar Andrew Ehat filed a lawsuit against us (Jerald and Sandra Tanner) in an attempt to stop publication of some extracts from the diaries of Joseph Smith’s private secretary, William Clayton. Because these diaries…
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Church Fights Subpoena for Joseph Smith’s Secretary’s Diaries (Clayton Diaries copyright suit)
In 1983, Andrew Ehat sued Jerald and Sandra Tanner to stop them from publishing William Clayton’s diary extracts. The Tanners defied the lawsuit while the LDS Church suppressed the diaries.
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Suing the Tanners (Clayton Diaries copyright suit)
On May 7, 1983, we were served with a summons to appear in court, claiming that we were being sued for reproducing extracts from William Clayton’s diaries.
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FBI Wins Suit
By Jerald and Sandra Tanner In the Salt Lake City Messenger for November 1980 we told how we had learned that the FBI had material on us which dated back to at least April 30, 1970. Someone had reported that we were “allegedly communists” and had “been circulating petitions against the Church of Jesus Christ…