Jonathan Turley, the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington Law School, has some vey clea insights into how Polygamy Laws Expose Our Own Hypocrisy as these laws were not put in place to protect anyone but were placed as a means of religious intolerance . . . an intolerance that no longer has a place in our society. Most judicial decisions on polygamy cases have been filled with racial and religious bigotry with much of the bias uninformed.

The US Supreme Court may be forced to deal with this issue . . . assuming the Tom Green appeal is heard . . . which is hopeful and makes perfect sense as he was convicted of polygamy despite never having sought a formal marriage with any of the four women he was living with . . . it is technically illegal to marry more than one woman at a time but it is not illegal to live with them . . . prosecutors have been using a tactic of prosecuting what they consider de facto polygamy by using common law strictures to mandate that individuals who have never formally sought marriage should be considered married and polygamous and convicted. With the striking down of anti-sodomy laws in Texas, the US Supreme Court has show that archaic views on homosexuality have no place in contemporary laws as the individual’s rights should be protected . . . as long as their lifestyle does not knowingly endanger others and is among consensual adults.

However, opponents of polygamy say that some children are forced into polygamous marriages or that some women are abused in such marriages . . . as Turley points out, there are already laws to protect children and spouses from abuse and these laws have no exceptions. If a polygamist abuses a child, then he should be prosecuted under those laws . . . just as any pedophile who abuses a child should be prosecuted . . . if a polygamist abuses his spouses then he should be prosecuted under spousal abuse laws . . . there is no need to single out polygamy as being inherently a bad thing when there is NO EVIDENCE that polygamy in and of itself leads to abuse just as individual cases of abuse in monogamous relationships does not prove that monogamy is a bad thing.

Sure, just becasue seventy-eight percent of the planet recognizes polygamy as a viable marriage structure, it doesn’t mean that all Americans should . . . most will stick to their monogamous beliefs (or, more accurately, a form of water-downed polygamy known as serial monogamy with a divorce and remarriage rate that is growing at an ever-accellerating rate) . . . however, if the court does hear the Green case, it will have to consider how much of the anti-polygamy laws are based upon simple bigotry and how much on reality and fact.

Turley makes a very good point in that “For polygamists, it is simply a matter of unequal treatment under the law.” and . . . despite his personal feelings on the issue, he does believe the law should be fair and unbiased with protections for everyone in an appropriate way:

I personally detest polygamy. Yet if we yield to our impulse and single out one hated minority, the First Amendment becomes little more than hype and we become little more than hypocrites. For my part, I would rather have a neighbor with different spouses than a country with different standards for its citizens.

I know I can educate my three sons about the importance of monogamy, but hypocrisy can leave a more lasting impression.

A wonderful essay with very tight ideas.