Justice alito .. why not let 4 lawyers marry one another.

[GandD 5,966]

But not if that personality entered without inspection.

I guess I was assuming it was just a visa overstay.

[Teddy B 17,251]

But not if that personality entered without inspection.

[elmcitymaven 9,711]

Making marriage a contract between more than two people would honestly not offend me in the slightest. That being said, it would entail a great deal of overhaul in terms of things like health insurance and divorce law in order to make it make sense. The American system as it is now could not sustain it.

Gay marriage is as simple as changing 'between one man and one woman' to 'between two people'. The system can and will sustain it quite easily.

Comparing the two in the US legal system is a false equivalency. One requires an actual overhaul of the society's financial and legal infrastructure. The other does not.

Bingo. Marriage is, like it or not, about property rights and inheritance. We dress it up in hearts and flowers and romance, but ultimately marriage is a contract under which the parties agree to join their property, or under which one party (and possibly that party's family) agrees to transfer property to another. In some jurisdictions, a man in an opposite-sex marriage is given more or total control of the joined property. Happily, as Justice Ginsberg pointed out on Tuesday, this state of affairs no longer exists in the US since 1979. The parties and sometimes the state then determine how the property may be shared, and what benefits and burdens accrue to the couple as a unit and as individuals, and how their estate jointly and severally may be distributed.

Our legal system is set up so that only two persons may enter into a marriage contract. Permitting multiple partners to enter into wedlock would necessitate the overhaul, as you point out, of not merely matrimonial law. Tax law, estate planning, Social Security benefits, veterans' survivors' benefits, and on and on would need to be amended. Ultimately, there is no practical impediment to permitting same sex marriage beyond reprinting items that say "bride and groom" or "husband and wife" to say "spouses."

[Rob L 3,811]

Gay marriage does not translate into multiple people.

The term marriage does not mean btw only two people, or man and woman. It needs to be opened up to let marriage be a union between people.

I see your flagship is Malaysia - I think man can have 4 wives in there. Philippines, Man can have as many wives as he can afford.

Where do you see that it is legal to have multiple wives in the Philippines? There may be a exceptions for Muslim marriages that is not enforced , but it is not the law of the land.

Edited May 1, 2015 by Rob L