How does polygamy break the law if no legal marriages?
The TX incident deals with underage sex, which is sex abuse under the TX laws. The polygamy stuff is unrelated. Multiple marriages are only illegal is they are state-sanctioned, and the bigamy laws are aimed at fraudulent marriages (i.e. man marries two women without them knowing of each other), not polygamy. If 5 women all want to “marry” one man, and the only have these “marriages” solemnized by their church, and do not attempt to have them become legal marriages by getting marriage licenses, filing the required paperwork, etc., then the state can do nothing about those “marriages” because they aren’t legal in the state’s eyes. There used to be laws aimed at polygamist activities (i.e. prohibiting the multiple sex partners aspect), but one side effect of Lawrence v. Texas (the case saying the anti-gay sodomy law in Texas was unconstitutional) is that the state cannot prohibit any acts in the bedroom when the people are consenting adults; of course, you couldn’t consent to, say, allow
