2024 Deseretian protests
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A series of protests and demonstrations have been ongoing in the Deseret since July 12, 2024, in response to the passage of the Deseret Church Disestablishment Act which will formally disestablish The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the official state religion of the Deseret and formally abolish its theodemocratic government and political system in favor of a secular system like those of the other constituent countries. Protests began the day after the passage of the bill by the Council of Fifty and have since grown to occur all across the Deseret and have spilled over into other parts of the Kingdom of Sierra since July 15 with the latter being organized by Deseretians living in other parts of the nation and by supporters of the protestors. The goals of the protest are primarily with the rescinding of the Disestablishment Act and the continuation of the country's current theodemocratic political system, however some factions of the protests have been calling for the secession of the Deseret from the union on the grounds that it is the only way to preserve its cultural, political, and religious identity and sovereignty.
The protests are largely organized by various conservative and Mormon nationalist political organizations and groups such as the Mormon Alliance of Yes for the Deseret, the Deseret Heritage Foundation, and the Mormon Independence Party with the latter seeing an uptick in support and membership following the passage of the bill. Opposition to the protestors mainly comes from pro-secular groups such as the Deseret Equality Alliance, the Deseret branch of the National Secular Alliance of Sierra, the Deseret Humanist Association, among others with support from the Honeybee Party and the Social Democrats of the Deseret. The K.S. federal government has also given its political support to the Government of the Deseret as well. The LDS church for its part has called on the protests to end their actions and embrace civility with the church having agreed to disestablish following the passage of a resolution by the First Presidency following the act's passage.
The protests have quickly become widespread in both Sierra at-large and the Deseret with over 300 people arrested and 50 injured as of July 20, 2024. Many of the protests quickly turned into riots between the protesters against local law enforcement and the Deseret National Police with the Deseret National Guard being deployed to Salt Lake City on July 19 following attempted assassination of Jeremiah Tanner during a press conference. Many political analysts have highlighted the intensity of the protests, comparing them to the George Floyd protests in the Kingdom of Sierra during the summer of 2020, and have cited the decades long controversy of the Deseret's political system and constitutional exemptions along with political polarization as factors behind why the protests are intense.
Background
Every since the Deseret was incorporated into the Kingdom of Sierra as a country in 1896 with the Deseret Organic Act, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been one of the most important social, cultural, and political institutions of the Deseret. Prior to 1950, the LDS church held significant political power in the Deseret and often influenced its policies as the government and political system was modeled on a system of theodemocracy, a combination of theocratic rule and democratic governance as first proposed by LDS church founder Joseph Smith. In 1950, the Charter for the Kingdom of Sierra was implemented which established the modern day system of devolution in which the Deseret maintained its theodemocratic system and was recognized as such by federal law. Under this system, the Mormon majority population has been empowered politically and the LDS church is a political instutuon as well that plays a role in the day-to-day political affairs and governance of the Deseret with non-Mormons having their political participation and ability to run for and be elected to public office restricted under the Lehite Code, all of which has been enshrined within the Constitution of the Deseret since the charter's ratification in 1950.
As a result of the recognition of the Deseret's theodemocratic system, the country itself has historically been exempted from a number of rulings by the Supreme Court of the Kingdom of Sierra such as Williams v. Smith (1974) which ruled that abortion protected under the Constitution of Sierra and as such legalized it nationwide, but was blocked in the Deseret due to the exemptions following the subsequent case Planned Parenthood v. the Deseret. The exemptions along with the Lehite Code have lead to continuous controversies since the 1960s and efforts to legally secularize the Deseret have been ongoing since thew 1970s starting with Kirk Siskind and continuing under several Democratic-Republican/DRPS-led governments since then. Said efforts were opposed by the Royalist Party of Sierra who opposed them as part of their agreement with the People's Party in the Deseret in the Great Salt Lake Declaration and legal efforts to block secularization have been carried out by several conservative groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom.
In 2022, the K.S. Supreme Court ruled in Boulangier v. the Deseret that the Equal Protection Clause of the Sierra constitution protests the constitutional right to marriage for same-sex couples and legalized it nationally including the Deseret and was the first time that its legal exemptions were not recognized and dismissed by the high court. The precedent set by the ruling allowed for the federal government under the Second Kwon ministry to pursue legal secularization and would be continued under the Chan ministry. In 2023, the Salt Lake Review Committee was formed by the federal government by orders of prime minister Maggie Chan to aid with the crafting of policies regarding the secularization of the Deseret and in March 2024 published its report which included the disestablishment of the LDS church, abolition of the Lehite Code and the theodemocratic government, and the replacement with a secular liberal democratic government and a new constitution. The Deseretian government agreed to this and passed the Deseret Church Disestablishment Act in July 2024 which set January 1, 2025 as the date where disestablishment will take effect and a transitional administration will take over until a new constitution has been drafted and new elections are held. The act was agreed to by the LDS church and they began the process of disestablishment following its passage which also included recognizing the end of the Deseret's legal exemptions from previous K.S. Supreme Court rulings meaning that they will also apply to the Deseret by 2025 such as Williams v. Smith and other similar rulings and civil rights legislation.