Quote:
Originally posted by Not Me
Just take the Mass Supreme Court opinion and substitute polygamy for gay marriage and polygamist for homosexual and read it. There is no legitimate state interest in stopping polygamy if it is a consensual union between adults.
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You mean here:
"In a real sense, there are three partners to every civil marriage: two willing spouses and an approving State.
See DeMatteo v. DeMatteo, 436 Mass. 18, 31 (2002) ("Marriage is not a mere contract between two parties
but a legal status from which certain rights and obligations arise");"
Or here
"As both Perez and
Loving make clear, the right to marry means little if it does not include the right to marry the person of
one's choice, subject to appropriate government restrictions in the interests of public health, safety, and
welfare. See Perez v. Sharp, supra at 717 ("the essence of the right to marry is freedom to join in marriage
with the person of one's choice").
Or here:
And central to personal freedom and security is the
assurance that the laws will apply equally to persons in similar situations. "Absolute equality before the
law is a fundamental principle of our own Constitution." Opinion of the Justices, 211 Mass. 618, 619
(1912). The liberty interest in choosing whether and whom to marry would be hollow if the
Commonwealth could, without sufficient justification, foreclose an individual from freely choosing the
person with whom to share an exclusive commitment in the unique institution of civil marriage.
Sure, the justifications/rationales for marriage apply to polygamy, but the equality basis for the decision doesn't. And you haven't supplied that logical link, either.
