{"id":29689,"date":"2015-06-11T17:00:37","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T23:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?p=29689"},"modified":"2015-06-11T17:23:46","modified_gmt":"2015-06-11T23:23:46","slug":"will-gay-marriage-lead-to-marriage-with-multiple-partners-emory-symposium-says-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/will-gay-marriage-lead-to-marriage-with-multiple-partners-emory-symposium-says-no\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Gay Marriage Lead to “Marriage with Multiple Partners?” Emory Symposium Says No."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo Source: Flickr Creative Commons by Bombman https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ajay_g\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

If the Supreme Court creates\u00a0a 14th Amendment right to gay marriage in it upcoming decision, will that open the gateway to a legal right to polygamy?<\/p>\n

Justice Alito asked that question directly<\/a> during hearings on this decision. There was predictable outrage<\/a> in certain quarters because of Justice Alito\u2019s question.<\/p>\n

Now Emory Law Journal attempts to put the question to rest by taking it seriously and answering it in the negative.<\/p>\n

The journal recently held a \u201cpaper symposium\u201d on this question. The upshot of the papers it published is that polygamy imposes\u00a0a preponderance of harm to the human rights of women and children, as well as to the social order in terms of polygamy\u2019s poverty and inequality creating force within societies.<\/p>\n

For this reason, that\u00a0authors argue that America would be able to avoid legalizing marriage between anybody and anything, even if gay marriage is considered a 14th Amendment right, based on arguments in favor of the public good.<\/p>\n

This is sophistry in defense of what the authors consider to be a done deal. The forward to the symposium flatly states that the author anticipates that the Court will find a \u201cright\u201d to gay marriage in the 14th Amendment.<\/p>\n

These papers and this symposium attempt to soften the blow of such a decision. They\u2019re a scholarly version of the there-there-little-buttercup, it-doesn\u2019t-mean-all-that-much stuff that came out after the DOMA decision. That was bogus\u00a0then, and this line of reasoning is bogus\u00a0now. Here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

The authors of these papers seek to answer the serious question of what legal basis for restricting marriage to any definition at all remains if the Court creates a 14th Amendment right to gay marriage. They answer that there is a basis for restricting marriage to two people. Their reason for claiming that the courts will protect marriage between two people is, essentially,\u00a0because it is best for the common good.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The authors outline arguments against polygamy and for restricting marriage to two people based on the harms polygamy inflicts on society and on persons. They emphasize the\u00a0obvious harms to the the civil and human rights of women and children that are inherent in polygamy, and also discuss polygamy\u2019s poverty-creating force, as well as its destructiveness to men without money. They then claim\u00a0that this gives the state a legitimate legal basis for restricting marriage to two people.<\/p>\n

In other words, they are claiming that creating a 14th Amendment right to gay marriage will not lead to future rulings in favor of polygamy because polygamy harms the common good.<\/p>\n

This is nonsense. The Catholic Church cares about the common good. The United States Supreme Court clearly does not.<\/p>\n

The Court has a long\u00a0history of ignoring the public good in decisions such as this. The Supreme Court single-handedly created the culture war that is ripping this country apart with it bench legislating in the Roe v Wade decision. It set the country on the road to destruction of marriage with the hydra-headed<\/a> DOMA decision.\u00a0\u00a0If it uses the 14th Amendment to create a \u201cright\u201d to gay marriage, it will simply be doing more of the same.<\/p>\n

The idea that we can base our hopes of\u00a0preventing a rush to legalize marriage between everybody and everything by trusting the Supreme Court\u2019s desire to protect the common good is fantastical.<\/p>\n

If the Supreme Court \u201cfinds\u201d (good word) a 14th Amendment right to gay marriage, the agitation to legalize polygamy will ramp up within a couple of months, if not sooner. If you think I\u2019m being alarmist, then hide and watch.<\/p>\n

This agitation will be coupled with an all-out attack on the First Amendment rights of small business owners as well as individuals who express opinions in the workplace or other public venues that challenge politically correct thinking.<\/p>\n

I remember when the DOMA decision was handed down, I predicted<\/a> that what has happened<\/a> would happen<\/a>. A number of people said that I was being too negative, when in fact, I was deliberately down-playing what was coming. I\u2019m telling you now that I\u2019m also soft-peddling what will happen if the Supreme Court creates a right to gay marriage under the 14th Amendment.<\/p>\n

That would be a draconian decision.<\/p>\n

Go here<\/a> to read the papers published in Emory Law\u2019s symposium on marriage.<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/GNBIY0KOZeY<\/a>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If the Supreme Court creates\u00a0a 14th Amendment right to gay marriage in it upcoming decision, will that open the gateway to a legal right to polygamy? Justice Alito asked that question directly during hearings on this decision. There was predictable outrage in certain quarters because of Justice Alito\u2019s question. Now Emory Law Journal attempts to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":29691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,750,40,520,41,6152,5302,1304,548,7118,868,1,46],"tags":[214,3021,7582,3022,7583,398],"class_list":["post-29689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-child-abuse","category-christianity-2","category-marriage-2","category-politics","category-polygamy-2","category-post-christian-west","category-religious-freedom-2","category-same-sex-marriage-2","category-supreme-court-2","category-the-war-on-girls","category-uncategorized","category-feminism","tag-gay-marriage","tag-gay-marriage-and-polygamy","tag-marriage-between-multiple-people","tag-polygamy","tag-supreme-court-and-gay-marriage","tag-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"\nWill Gay Marriage Lead to "Marriage with Multiple Partners?" Emory Symposium Says No.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If the Supreme Court creates\u00a0a 14th Amendment right to gay marriage in it upcoming decision, will that open the gateway to a legal right to polygamy?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/will-gay-marriage-lead-to-marriage-with-multiple-partners-emory-symposium-says-no\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will Gay Marriage Lead to "Marriage with Multiple Partners?" Emory Symposium Says No.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If the Supreme Court creates\u00a0a 14th Amendment right to gay marriage in it upcoming decision, will that open the gateway to a legal right to polygamy?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/will-gay-marriage-lead-to-marriage-with-multiple-partners-emory-symposium-says-no\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Public Catholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-11T23:00:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-06-11T23:23:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2015\/06\/harem-polygamy.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rebecca Hamilton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rebecca Hamilton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/will-gay-marriage-lead-to-marriage-with-multiple-partners-emory-symposium-says-no\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/will-gay-marriage-lead-to-marriage-with-multiple-partners-emory-symposium-says-no\/\",\"name\":\"Will Gay Marriage Lead to \\\"Marriage with Multiple Partners?\\\" Emory Symposium Says No.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-11T23:00:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-11T23:23:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d\"},\"description\":\"If the Supreme Court creates\u00a0a 14th Amendment right to gay marriage in it upcoming decision, will that open the gateway to a legal right to polygamy?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/will-gay-marriage-lead-to-marriage-with-multiple-partners-emory-symposium-says-no\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/will-gay-marriage-lead-to-marriage-with-multiple-partners-emory-symposium-says-no\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/will-gay-marriage-lead-to-marriage-with-multiple-partners-emory-symposium-says-no\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Will Gay Marriage Lead to “Marriage with Multiple Partners?” Emory Symposium Says No.\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/\",\"name\":\"Public Catholic\",\"description\":\"Catholic in the Public Square\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d\",\"name\":\"Rebecca Hamilton\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rebecca Hamilton\"},\"description\":\"During her tenure in the Oklahoma Legislature, Rep. Hamilton has been an advocate for human rights, believing that government must support and defend the sanctity of all human lives, from conception to natural death. Representative Hamilton: Authored the original Victim\u2019s Protective Order to protect battered women, Obtained funding for the first statewide program for adult day care and the first statewide program of domestic violence shelters, and she She has also passed legislation to prevent law enforcement officials from publicly posting the private information of rape victims, Rep. Hamilton authored a 2005 law hailed as the most significant piece of pro-life legislation in Oklahoma in 30 years. She also passed the bill outlawing elective abortions in state-funded hospitals She has passed pro life bills requiring informed consent, parental notification, and limiting forced abortions. She also passed a law allowing prosecutors to file criminal charges against anyone who intentionally causes the death of an unborn child by harming the mother. Rep. Hamilton has also authored legislation ensuring taxpayers are not forced to subsidize elective abortions Rep. Hamilton was one of six original co-founders of first rape crisis center in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Democrat has worked to bring a wide range of groups together to fight on the behalf of abused women, including the creation of the Annual Day of Prayer for an End to Violence Against Women at the Oklahoma Capitol. Rep. Hamilton has been married for 30 years to her husband, Rodney, and the couple has two grown sons. She attends St. James Catholic Church, and is a long-time volunteer at Birth Choice of Oklahoma.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/author\/rhamilton\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Will Gay Marriage Lead to \"Marriage with Multiple Partners?\" Emory Symposium Says No.","description":"If the Supreme Court creates\u00a0a 14th Amendment right to gay marriage in it upcoming decision, will that open the gateway to a legal right to polygamy?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/will-gay-marriage-lead-to-marriage-with-multiple-partners-emory-symposium-says-no\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Will Gay Marriage Lead to \"Marriage with Multiple Partners?\" Emory Symposium Says No.","og_description":"If the Supreme Court creates\u00a0a 14th Amendment right to gay marriage in it upcoming decision, will that open the gateway to a legal right to polygamy?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/will-gay-marriage-lead-to-marriage-with-multiple-partners-emory-symposium-says-no\/","og_site_name":"Public Catholic","article_published_time":"2015-06-11T23:00:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-06-11T23:23:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":480,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2015\/06\/harem-polygamy.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rebecca Hamilton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rebecca Hamilton","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/will-gay-marriage-lead-to-marriage-with-multiple-partners-emory-symposium-says-no\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/will-gay-marriage-lead-to-marriage-with-multiple-partners-emory-symposium-says-no\/","name":"Will Gay Marriage Lead to \"Marriage with Multiple Partners?\" Emory Symposium Says No.","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-06-11T23:00:37+00:00","dateModified":"2015-06-11T23:23:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d"},"description":"If the Supreme Court creates\u00a0a 14th Amendment right to gay marriage in it upcoming decision, will that open the gateway to a legal right to polygamy?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/will-gay-marriage-lead-to-marriage-with-multiple-partners-emory-symposium-says-no\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/will-gay-marriage-lead-to-marriage-with-multiple-partners-emory-symposium-says-no\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/will-gay-marriage-lead-to-marriage-with-multiple-partners-emory-symposium-says-no\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Will Gay Marriage Lead to “Marriage with Multiple Partners?” Emory Symposium Says No."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/","name":"Public Catholic","description":"Catholic in the Public Square","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d","name":"Rebecca Hamilton","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f6253ced313d53e0b7bfa51e5c9eb56d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Rebecca Hamilton"},"description":"During her tenure in the Oklahoma Legislature, Rep. Hamilton has been an advocate for human rights, believing that government must support and defend the sanctity of all human lives, from conception to natural death. Representative Hamilton: Authored the original Victim\u2019s Protective Order to protect battered women, Obtained funding for the first statewide program for adult day care and the first statewide program of domestic violence shelters, and she She has also passed legislation to prevent law enforcement officials from publicly posting the private information of rape victims, Rep. Hamilton authored a 2005 law hailed as the most significant piece of pro-life legislation in Oklahoma in 30 years. She also passed the bill outlawing elective abortions in state-funded hospitals She has passed pro life bills requiring informed consent, parental notification, and limiting forced abortions. She also passed a law allowing prosecutors to file criminal charges against anyone who intentionally causes the death of an unborn child by harming the mother. Rep. Hamilton has also authored legislation ensuring taxpayers are not forced to subsidize elective abortions Rep. Hamilton was one of six original co-founders of first rape crisis center in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City Democrat has worked to bring a wide range of groups together to fight on the behalf of abused women, including the creation of the Annual Day of Prayer for an End to Violence Against Women at the Oklahoma Capitol. Rep. Hamilton has been married for 30 years to her husband, Rodney, and the couple has two grown sons. She attends St. James Catholic Church, and is a long-time volunteer at Birth Choice of Oklahoma.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/author\/rhamilton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29689"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29694,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29689\/revisions\/29694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}