could the 14th amendment be used to force a state to allow polygamy?

Question

According to the supreme court, "Marriage is one of the "basic civil rights of man," fundamental to our very existence and survival.... To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law." This refers to the Loving case, where Virginia's law that a white guy can't marry a black girl, was found unconstituional.
Well, there is a law that forbids a fundamentalist Mormon form marrying a woman, then marrying another woman while still married to the 1st one, and then marrying a 13 year old girl.
A few years ago I would think that was something a man should not be allowed to do, but with the gay marriage movement going on now, I would think that if the 14th amendment forces you to allow a woman to marry another woman, it also requires you to let a man marry another woman. i.e. he has already got his 1st wife and he wants to marry another woman without divorcing the 1st one.
If you got equal protection for ALL citizens, then a lesbian's right to marry anybody she wants must be defended equally as an already married Polygamist's right to marry again.

Lynn Bodoni · Accepted Answer

Nope, so far, in the US, one person is allowed to marry ONE other person, and be married to one other person at a time.  And both parties must be adults in most cases.  I believe that there are still a few states that allow minors over a certain age to marry with their parents' permission.

Also, note that many states still don't allow same sex marriage.

I'd be for polygamy, if it weren't for the fact that the polygamy always turns out to be polygyny, and in fact it's frequently pedopolygyny (or is it polypedogyny?) and the excess teenage males get dumped in the nearest big city, with no skills to support them.

I'd say, allow polygamy, but ALL parties must be 25 or older in order to take another spouse.

Fly on the wall · Answer

Polygamy for religious reasons was struck done by the US Supreme Court in US vs George Reynolds in 1890.

So, no, polygamy prohibition doesn't conflict with any rights. 

The government has the right to regulate marriage. There is no support for allowing polygamy, especially when people realize the ramifications.

For example, insurance companies can't just give benefits to multiple spouses with dozens of kids and stay solvent. In polygamy, they would be forced to stop giving benefits to spouses and kids altogether, which would hurt countless families.

Ain't gonna happen.

could the 14th amendment be used to force a state to allow polygamy?

2 Answers