Will polygamy become legal in the US?

[Aimless]

If homosexual people--an unprotected class--can be free to marry people irrespective of gender, will polyamorous people eventually become free to marry multiple people at the same time?

The matter of polygamy is often presented as a slippery-slope argument against legalizing same-sex marriage. I'd like to know whether or not the recent SCOTUS ruling can be expected to have any significant influence on the possible future legalization of polygamy. If so, in which specific ways? If not, what are the legal arguments against it? Does it have to do with the state's/nation's interest in keeping things simple and minimising the potential for abusing artificial incentives for getting married?

[Lewkowski]

Tricky situation. The simple fact is that there are some legal advantages to getting married (pension/SS). All the more reason government should do away with marriage as a legal institution.

[LittleFuzzy]

It seems unlikely that the ban will be lifted anytime soon though I've never seen much point or legitimate interest in the ban myself.

[RandBlade]

Not likely though I couldn't care much either way.

[agamemnus]

Isn't the argument by the majority opinion of the Supreme Court that marriage isn't defined by the Constitution, and so a state can't discriminate between marriages between ????? and ??????. I would think that polygamy should become legal as well if it were adopted my a vocal minority, but in our society I do not see polygamy becoming ever widely accepted.......................................... .............................................. however, I do see people legally marrying "grown" cyborgs in the "near future". (i.e.: human-machine hybrids that were not grown in a womb) Give it a decade or 2.

Side-note: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/artic...number=4797851.

[GGT]

If homosexual people--an unprotected class--can be free to marry people irrespective of gender, will polyamorous people eventually become free to marry multiple people at the same time?

Polyamory is different from polygamy.

The matter of polygamy is often presented as a slippery-slope argument against legalizing same-sex marriage. I'd like to know whether or not the recent SCOTUS ruling can be expected to have any significant influence on the possible future legalization of polygamy. If so, in which specific ways? If not, what are the legal arguments against it? Does it have to do with the state's/nation's interest in keeping things simple and minimising the potential for abusing artificial incentives for getting married?

Who knows. Marriage in the US has religious roots that would probably be un-constitutional by today's standards. When Utah wanted statehood, it came by banning polygamy in the (majority) Mormon Church. Polygamy didn't meet the religious standards set by Christian Protestants in power at the time. Ironic, huh.

Civil Marriage is a social construct....so people can make it and change it over time, as they like. Since monogamy and religion are learned behaviors, and cultural norms are constantly changing, it's possible that marriage will become nothing more than a religious ceremony that won't matter to a state/nation or government policy.




edit/rant: But that time won't come until the principle of separation between church and state are taken seriously....and "In God We Trust" is removed from our currency, judicial courtrooms, and legislative buildings. And our Pledge of Allegiance redacts the "under one God" that was added during the hyper anti-communism era. And our politicians stop courting religious groups (mostly Christian sects) as voter blocs, and stop trying to get Ten Commandments monuments on state grounds. And US officials no longer call us a "Judeo-Christian nation", with the requisite "God Bless America" in every damn speech.