This is just one ruling by one judge, but I think it's pretty indicative of where we are as a society and where we're headed:
A federal judge struck down key parts of Utah's polygamy law in a case brought by the stars of the television reality show "Sister Wives."
In a ruling handed down late Friday U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups said the laws use of the word "cohabitation" violates constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion and due process.[. . .]
In crafting his decision on Friday, Waddoups took pains to save at least a portion of the Utah law, replacing the cohabitation language with the words "marry" and "purports to marry" and thereby narrowing its construction.
This, he said, allows the law to remain in force as prohibiting bigamy in the literal sense, and also the "impermissible possession of two purportedly valid marriage licenses for the purpose of entering into more than one purportedly legal marriage."
Which is: more and more latitudinarian all the time. If I'm reading the ruling right, he's merely stating formally what has been the common practice just about everywhere as far as I can see: You still can't have more than one legally recognized marriage and be within the law. But as long as you just have the one civil marriage and call the rest of them religiously recognized (by whatever religion you have or care to make up), then whatever you do with the relationships inside your own house is nobody's business but yours.
Now, we can argue all day about whether this is a good place to be or one more sign of societal collapse, but let's not ignore the fact that it is where we are.
