Supreme Court Same Sex Marriage Argumet

[Anima]

Yeah, I agree. I guess there could be rules for a "custom marriage" or something. Are people who are into multiple partners actually likely to all want to get married? I have no idea.

It would be a complicated matter, and would also likely involve greater instability, with the more people involved, the more likely there would be a dissolution of the marriage.  To keep this simple, let us consider the difference between 2 people getting married, and 3 people getting married.  With 2 people getting married, there is only one relationship, the relationship between person 1 and 2.  So for the marriage to hold, all that matters is the one relationship.  But with a 3 person marriage, there is the relationship between person 1 and person 2, and the relationship between person 1 and person 3, and the relationship between person 2 and person 3.  So there are three relationships to maintain, instead of only one.  So even without children, it has much more going on, with a greater likelihood of instability, due to having three times as many relationships that need to work in order for the marriage to last.  (With a fourth person, you would add in 3 more relationships, for a total of 6 relationships, as the fourth person would have a relationship with each of the three added to what is already there.  So you can see that each addition dramatically impacts the complexity of what is going on.)

And with children, things get very complex very quickly.  Who is responsible for which children, and how much responsibility does each person have?  Suppose one of the three stays home to take care of the children, and the other two work.  That might be a very practical arrangement, as long as it lasts.  Now, suppose that one of them leaves the relationship.  This is going to screw up the balance of income versus child care, and everyone is going to be very significantly affected.  Now, for the adults, it was their choice, so too bad for them, they made their bed, so they must lie in it.  But the children did not agree to this arrangement, and we have allowed for the instability by allowing the marriage in the first place.  And the children are all affected by this, regardless of which people in particular are the parents, so that even a marriage partner who is childless is still a part of the totality that affects all of the children.

Figuring out the law of that would probably be a nightmare (and a source of great job security for lawyers dealing with the fallout if polygamy were allowed).

So there may be practical reasons to reject polygamy, though one would want to look into the matter in much more detail than I have here.

Wow! Very nice. The only thing I would add would be current issues regarding step parents. In many state only two parties have parental rights over a child (commonly awarded to the biological parents in recognition of the biological reality of procreation). For another party to be granted parental rights over the child one of the previous parents must surrender their parental rights. A step parent has authority to dictate what occurs within their domicile, but they do not have parental rights over the child unless the biological parent not present has surrendered that right.

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How do you figure that homosexuals could be prohibited under strict scrutiny but not minors?

Sorry I miss read this. Please ignore the original response posted. You are correct. Minor could be prohibited as well. Only polygamist could not.