Hey, Scalia Was Right! So Who Cares?

In his scathing dissent to last year's Supreme Court decision overturning the Texas sodomy statute (Lawrence v. Texas), Justice Scalia employed that favorite rhetorical device - the slippery slope - to show the parade of horribles which would now be legal in light of the Court's ruling. One of those things was polygamy. Guess what? A lawyer from - wait . . . for . . it - Utah has filed a challenge to that state's polygamy laws, on the basis of the Lawrence decision.

Personally, I don't share Scalia's concern that one thing leads to another. Lawrence was about criminal punishments because of private behavior between consenting adults. Legalized polygamy, on the other hand, would require the extension of a government benefit - marriage - to 3 rather than 2 people. I think the ideas are conceptually different and the Court will be able to make that distinction. But on the other hand, who cares? If more than 2 people wanna get hitched, who is society to care? Assuming everyone is a consenting adult, of course.