I did a search and found some threads that touch upon the points I’m going to raise here, but none that actually addressed them directly.
Simply put: what makes polygamy, polygamy.
If I invite another woman to live in the Homie House, and she shares in all of the marital rights (sex, companionship, etc.) & responsibilities (housekeeping, childraising, etc.), and Mrs. Homie doesn’t have a problem with it, is the State of Illinois going to have a problem with it? Assume that we don’t obtain or try to obtain another marriage license, so for all intents & purposes she’s just a live-in mistress.
Would the introduction of a religious “marriage” ceremony make a difference? That is, Mrs. Homie and I marry legally (obtain a marriage license) and ceremonially (go through a ceremony); wife #2 just goes through the ceremony. If the introduction of a religious ceremony is a factor, then does the “seriousness” of the cermony make a difference; that is, if I have some cockamamy “Jedi life-binding” ceremony vs. a real religious ritual?
Does the nomenclature involved come into play? If I refer to both Mrs. Homie and Wfie #2 as my wives, does the state consider that evidence? Would it make a difference if I only referred to the second wife as my mistress?
DISCLAIMERS: You are not my lawyer, I am not your client, blah blah blah. And also, this is purely hypothetical. I have no intention of bringing a third party into my marriage.
This is actually a complicating factor in a lot of legal cases when authorities attempt to prosecute polygamy. They will often have fudge factors like this to protect themselves.
I wondered about the Utah prosecutions for bigamy. As the state doesn’t recognize the marriages (after the first one) how is it bigamous? A man may boast of multiple wives, but as they’re not legally married to him how is he breaking any law?
The state’s action in recognizing or not recognizing the marriage is not at issue. It is the action of the person who, already legally married, “purports” to marry or “cohabits with” another person.
ETA: “Bigamy” as a legal concept is not the same as “polygamy” as a social concept.
IANAL, but … Bigamy isn’t being married twice at the same time, because you can’t legally be married twice at the same time. It’s attempting to marry twice, or holding yourself out as being married twice, that’s the crime. So you can have as many live-in lovers or mistresses/paramours as you like (because fornication and adultery are not illegal, at least in the US), but don’t say that more than one of them is your wife/husband.
Now, whether those provisions of the law (and the other similar laws in other states, including Wisconsin) are legally enforceable in the face of Lawrence v Texas is not settled, but since the Court stated in that case that “intimate, adult sexual contact” is protected conduct, I would be hard-pressed to believe that a court would find that two unmarried adults are criminals for having consensual sex.
In general, and in Utah particularly, anti-polygamy laws are only enforced in cases where a person is sexually abusing minors, forcing minors or adult women into arranged marriages, or committing welfare or tax fraud (for example, by claiming multiple wives as dependents).
If you are legally married to one woman and you extend your marital relationship to another, as long as you don’t purport to be married to the second woman for the purpose of any legal or financial transaction, they usually won’t bug you.
I’m cohabiting with two girlfriends. I’m good.
If I marry one and go through the motions of marrying a second, I’m a criminal.
I get that.
If I go from guy with two live-in girlfriends to guy who just married one of those two, I just broke the law?
So why can’t these sects of Mormonism which believe in these polygamous relationships skirt the law by simply not getting a state-issued marriage license for any spouse. Have a religious cerimony and call all eight of the women you live with your “wives” but have no paper at the courthouse, and you haven’t violated the polygamy laws. Right?
Well, from the sound of things, this is an area where the letter of the law and the spirit in which it is actually enforced are miles apart. The Utah statute quoted by Otto does seem to make it a crime to have a live-in girlfriend if you’re married to another woman, unless I misunderstand the legal meaning of cohabit.
But also you are breaking the UT law by cohabiting with even one, let alone two women, as that would be fornication as posted above.
Again, probably not enforceable, but as Scalia pointed out in his dissent in Lawrence V. Texas, the decision leaves in doubt ALL laws prohibiting consensual relationships between adults, including polygamy…
No. If they are not related to you, you must provide over 50% of their support and they must reside with you for the entire calendar year (small vacations and such are fine).
Much of the problems with polygamy don’t stem from simple moral issues. Instead, it causes severe problems with federal and state law. This includes everything from inheritance law to tax laws and a whole lot in between. They simply aren’t compatible with multiple spouses and it is just better to forbid in in the first place rather than having such complications winding through all kinds of courts as the issues surface. One clear, legal spouse plus some secondary lovers doesn’t pose the same legal problems as two official marriages.
What about those states (FL?) where cohabitating with someone for some length of time counts as a marriage? I understand that if you live with someone for so many years, you are legally married. This only comes to mean something in the case of a divorce, btw. So what if you live that many years with two women?
I believe your have to publicly represent yourselves as a married couple before commonlaw marriage comes into force. That wouldn’t happen with a simple live-in extra lover unless you already knew about it,