If two men can marry, and two women can get married, why can’t a man and two women be married?
Because every state has laws against it, and unlike laws banning same-sex marriage, bigamy laws haven’t been overturned, that’s why. But never mind details like that.
A Montana man marched into a local courthouse yesterday and filled out an application for a marriage license for himself and his second wife, whom he “married” in a religious ceremony in 2007. He also lives with, and is not legally divorced from, his first wife whom he married in 2000. He thinks it’s only fair his second wife should have a legal marriage, too, because “she’s put up with my crap for a lot of years, and she deserves legitimacy.” Click here for story.
He’s not, precisely speaking, a Mormon inasmuch as he was excommunicated for polygamy. He describes himself as not belonging to any religious organization. But for our purposes, describing him as a polygamy-practicing Mormon will serve as a working identifier.
He intends to seek legal assistance from the ACLU if his application is refused. A spokesperson for the ACLU’s Montana chapter told CBS News she hasn’t seen his request yet, but pointed out that same-sex marriage and plural marriage are “very different” things.
He’s basing his case on a comment in Chief Justice Roberts’ dissent that people in polygamous relationships could make the same argument that lawyers for same-sex couples made. The problem with this line of thinking is that dissents aren’t the law. A dissent, by definition, is not the law. If it were, it wouldn’t be a dissent.
Personally, while no doubt his wives are very sweet (see photo), I think he should have his head examined for wanting two wives. That’s twice as much alimony if things go south in his marriages.