These efforts overlook one key difference between gay marriage and polygamous marriage. One permits equality between two married spouses; the other does not. And that in turn means that allowing polygamy would violate not only the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, but also the U.S. obligation under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to “ensure equality of rights and responsibilities of spouses as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.” So important is this right that both the UN Human Rights Committee and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) have condemned polygamy in no uncertain terms. It should be “definitely abolished,” the Human Rights Committee ruled, because it violates women’s dignity rights and is an “inadmissible discrimination” against them. Similarly, CEDAW notes that it “contravenes a woman’s right to equality with men” and has “such serious emotional and financial consequences for her and her dependents” that it should be prohibited.
Moreover, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled against federal and state laws that give a wife fewer rights than a husband merely because of her sex, just as does a law permitting a husband to practice polygamy. Whether the law is so explicit that it makes the husband “head and master” of the home with the sole right to control property (Kirchberg v. Feenstra, 450 U.S. 455 (1981)) or denies a wife benefits awarded automatically to a husband, such as welfare benefits if the wife is unemployed (Califano v. Westcott, 443 U.S. 76 (1979)), housing and medical benefits for the wife’s spouse (Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973)), child-care benefits for a surviving spouse (Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld, 420 U.S. 636 (1975)), or self-care benefits for a surviving spouse (Califano v. Goldfarb, 430 U.S. 199 (1977), and Wengler v. Druggists Mutual Insurance Company, 446 U.S. 142 (1980)), the Court has found violations of the Equal Protection Clause. Even when the rule discriminated against husbands, as in a state law requiring only husbands to pay alimony (Orr v. Orr, 440 U.S. 268 (1979)), the Court has required equality for husband and wife.
Should Polygamy Be Permitted in the United States? | Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities
Knock it off, both of you. Any further stuff like that and expect thread bans and/or points.
