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It's a wide belief between Islamists in my country that in the West, men are not allowed to marry more than one woman even if all parties (both women and the man) accept it,

As Islamists view it, this is a restriction of freedom, because those people are not hurting anybody.

In the USA, is this the case?

Fawzy Hegab
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    I guess we are talking about polygamy, here is a map. http://womanstats.org/substatics/Prevalence%20and%20Legal%20Status%20of%20Polygyny_2010tif_wmlogo3.png – GEdgar Jun 28 '15 at 13:44
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    I have focussed this question to talk just about whether polygamy is permitted, and not about the motivations - which are about political opinions, not empirical evidence. I believe it should be sufficient to show that it is illegal in at least one US state to answer the question. – Oddthinking Jun 28 '15 at 14:36
  • @Oddthinking, I agree with you that it should be focused on is it the case or not, not the motivations. I think I made a mistake about asking for motivations which is beyond the scope of the site. – Fawzy Hegab Jun 28 '15 at 18:57
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    The word "marry" doesn't mean the same thing in the Islamist view than it does in the standard Western view. In Islam married means a relationship blessed by an Imam. US laws on the other hand recognize people as married when they are officially registered by the state as married. – Christian Jun 28 '15 at 19:24
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    Removed comments about motivations, ethics and the future. Important discussions, but not the place to have them. – Oddthinking Jun 29 '15 at 03:27
  • Flagging for closure. There's no notable claim tha polygamy is legal in the US. – David Richerby Jun 29 '15 at 05:50
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    @DavidRicherby: there's a notable (but extremely widely-attributed, to "Islamists in my country") claim that it's illegal. – Steve Jessop Jun 29 '15 at 08:45
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    Would it be a restriction of freedom to prohibit a woman from marrying more than one man? – Russell at ISC Jun 29 '15 at 17:44
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    @DavidRicherby: The claim is "polygamy is illegal in the USA". That is notable. I have heard that! The OP, apparently from Egypt, is skeptical that it is true. I think he is asking in good faith, even though [it is widely accepted as true](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/1406/if-a-claim-is-commonly-accepted-does-questioning-it-require-a-notable-counter-c). – Oddthinking Jun 29 '15 at 17:45
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    Maybe Questioner should clarify what they mean by 'marry'. The answer depends whether they mean arrange specifically for **the state** to declare a marriage, or a more general sense of the word. – bdsl Jun 30 '15 at 12:52
  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/25362/discussion-on-question-by-questioner-is-it-prohibited-to-marry-more-than-one-wom). – Oddthinking Jun 30 '15 at 13:57
  • While polygamy is illegal, polyamory is not. Basically you can "marry" as many girls as you want. You cannot get government to recognize such marriage. So Kevin got a point. That being said, having many girls is politically incorrect. Others may come up with something else to make that difficult. –  Sep 13 '18 at 07:15

2 Answers2

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There is an aspect of this that is overlooked by the question and the existing answers. In most US states, there are no laws regarding people living as if they were married without being legally married. (Such laws are on the books in a few states, but they are not enforced, and would likely be struck down as unconstitutional if challenged in court.) It is very common for monogamous couples to live together for years before getting married, or never get married at all.

So in practice, people can and do practice polygamous lifestyles. The practice of polygamy without legal recognition is commonly called polyamory, and it is widely practiced, as evidenced by the large number of references that can be found about the legal and emotional challenges faced by people who practice it. Advocates of polyamory define and distinguish it from other types of extralegal relationships. This page lists some of the challenges they face due to lack of legal recognition. In many ways, these are similar to the challenges faced until just a few days ago by homosexual couples.

Kevin Krumwiede
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  • Although true, can you please add a citation for *people can and do practice polygamous lifestyles*? Just add a few links to documented cases or, better, to a study of such cases. – gerrit Jun 28 '15 at 22:11
  • @gerrit Edited, though admittedly not with the most authoritative sources. Perhaps someone can improve. – Kevin Krumwiede Jun 28 '15 at 22:28
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    [Polygamy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygamy) is defined as being married to multiple spouses. Cohabiting with multiple partners in a romantic relationship is [polyamory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyamory). The question is specifically asking about polygamy, not "living together as though married" which would be polyamory. –  Jun 29 '15 at 04:54
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    @Snowman It's relevant because in some cultures, particularly theocratic ones as mentioned by the OP, legal marriage and religious marriage are one and the same, and all other relationships are prohibited. The way the question is phrased, it may not have occurred to the OP that in the US, there is a gray area between "officially sanctioned" and "forbidden," in which many people effectively practice polygamy. – Kevin Krumwiede Jun 29 '15 at 05:01
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    @Snowman For example, you could be "religiously married" to more than one person but legally single or only married to one of your partners. – Sumyrda - remember Monica Jun 29 '15 at 05:55
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    You answered about living together, whereas the question is about poligamy. – BЈовић Jun 29 '15 at 14:54
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    while a good point, you haven't really answered the OP question. I would first address rather legal marriage is possible, then get into the point you have below. Otherwise, as good a detail as it may be, it technically is off topic. – dsollen Jun 29 '15 at 15:40
  • Polygamy without legal recognition is polyamory, but so is polyandry without legal recognition. ;-) – DevSolar Jul 11 '17 at 09:23
  • @devsolar Polygamy encompasses polyandry and polygyny. – Kevin Krumwiede Jul 11 '17 at 22:22
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Bigamy - marrying another person while still being married - is illegal in the United States. You can receive fines and / or prison time, depending on the state. For example, in Utah, Bigamy is a "Felony of Third Degree", meaning you can have between 2 and 10 years in prison (see Sec. 12.34.). Child bigamy second degree, and so is 2 to 20 years (see Sec. 12.33.). It is also enforced.

Polygamy is different to Bigamy - it is broader. It includes bigamy, and is not used in legal context. Polygamy also doesn't have to be illegal. You can hold a religious ceremony and declare yourself married to 3, 5, 10 - as many people as you want. As long as you only legally marry one of them, you've not committed a crime. This is because of the difference between a legal marriage and a religious marriage in the US. However, living with them, and committing adultery is illegal in 21 states, but it often seems to be that:

no prosecution for adultery shall be commenced except upon complaint of the husband or wife

Despite that, This site says that someone is having to argue for them to enforce a law (which seems a little strange), and the post suggests he might not win (saying "could be prosecuted").

US law was also based on English Law (3rd Paragraph):

The principle that a person could only be married singly, not plurally, existed since the times of King James I of England in English law, upon which United States law was based.

The 1878 court case Reynolds v. United States was an important test case.

ypercubeᵀᴹ
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Tim
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    @nomenagentis Bigamy tends to be rare since it requires you to do legal paperwork in more than one state and claim that you are not already married. This means that it is a lot easier to prosecute since you they just need to prove false testimony. – rjzii Jun 28 '15 at 15:56
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    @nomenagentis No, it's not impossible. The US does not keep official national records of your marital status, like some other countries do. It follows that in the US you aren't required to present an official national record of marital status to marry. – Dan Getz Jun 29 '15 at 00:18
  • Your link backing up "also enforced" doesn't seem that convincing evidence. It looks like it's only sometimes being enforced. – Martin Smith Jun 29 '15 at 05:20
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    @Martin Smith: Lots of things are illegal, but only enforced when some law enforcement officer wants to make an example, get some publicity, or just doesn't like you. – jamesqf Jun 29 '15 at 06:21
  • @MartinSmith Yes, well for this case I *think* enforced once does count as it being enforced. I'll try to find other examples. – Tim Jun 29 '15 at 09:37
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    This answer is excellent but would be better if it pointed out the legal different in the US between legal marriage and religious marriage. 2, 3 or even 20 people can hold a big ceremony in a church and declare themselves religiously married and not fall foul of the bigamy laws as long as they don't *legally* marry anyone. – Murphy Jun 29 '15 at 10:57
  • @Murphy I've edited that in, but haven't found a good source, so will probably remove it. – Tim Jun 29 '15 at 11:05
  • Fair enough, though as written I think what you edited in may be technically incorrect as some states do have rules against cohabiting with someone who's married to someone else or if you're married to someone else and there have been court cases fought about it but none have gone to the supreme court yet. (http://polyinthemedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/sister-wives-family-wins-ruling-right.html) – Murphy Jun 29 '15 at 11:54
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    I would note that laws against adultery are pretty much never enforced in the U.S. (in 29 years of living here, I've never heard of it happening even once) and would almost certainly be struck down if challenged. It's a quite common practice in all 50 states, unfortunate as that may be. – reirab Jun 29 '15 at 13:50
  • @reirab have edited to clarify the first point. The second point was a mistake left over from edits about the difference between polygamy and bigamy. editing to fix. – Tim Jun 29 '15 at 13:56
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    Hmm... from a quick search I don't see any follow-up articles on that case. I suspect it was not prosecuted, but knowing the outcome would be interesting. It should be noted, though, that there are lots of old laws on the books in the U.S. which are not enforced and would almost certainly be struck down by the courts if someone tried to enforce them. It's not really that uncommon. Adultery laws fall into that category. – reirab Jun 29 '15 at 14:10
  • @rjzii it's hard to know how common bigamy really is, since it tends not to be prosecuted as such. Instead, it comes up as a basis for annulment or divorce proceedings; that was a plot element in _War and Peace_, and just this year a congressman from Florida converted a divorce proceeding into an annulment proceeding because his ex-wife's prior marriage was still in effect when they had married ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Grayson#Personal_life . – david Jun 29 '15 at 19:52
  • "You can hold a religious ceremony and declare yourself married to 3, 5, 10 - as many people as you want." - no, that is patently false. That's NOT considered "married" in usa, unless the religious figure acts "by the power invested in me by the state of XYZ" - in which case they don't have authority to marry >2 people. – user5341 Jun 30 '15 at 04:45
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    @DVK no but it is considered married in their religion, which is relevant to what the OP is asking. – Tim Jun 30 '15 at 10:33
  • @Tim - we JUST went through the whole thing in USA, where the highest court of the land VERY VERY clearly said that "NO, what your - or ANY - religion - says about marriage - is 100% irrelevant. ONLY what the law says". And the law clearly says no poly marriages. – user5341 Jun 30 '15 at 10:42
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    @DVK yes I know the law says that. But the *OP may still consider themselves married* - whether or not the USA agrees. – Tim Jun 30 '15 at 10:43
  • Let's take any further argument about the different magisteria of marriage to chat. – Oddthinking Jun 30 '15 at 13:59
  • @reirab every single article has the same info, and there is nothing in the Arizona courts database. Plus I can't contact them because I don't know the court. – Tim Jun 30 '15 at 15:45
  • May want to mention that the legal contract of marriage (or any business dealing) gets very complicated when multiple parties are involved. – makerofthings7 Jun 30 '15 at 16:28
  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/25391/discussion-on-answer-by-tim-is-it-prohibited-to-marry-more-than-one-woman-in-us). – Larian LeQuella Jul 01 '15 at 02:22