In this episode, legal historian John Dinger joins us to uncover the little-known world of rogue probate judges in frontier Utah. These weren’t your average courtroom clerks. Mormons wielded sweeping powers, defied federal authority, and turned probate courts into parallel governments under Brigham Young’s theocracy. What happens when local law outruns the Constitution? Tune in for a wild ride through legal loopholes, ecclesiastical power plays, and the federal government’s slow-burning panic.