It should not, primarily (though not solely) for the above stated reason. Whether marriage itself is a right or privilege is irrelevant to the Fourteenth Amendments Equal Protection Clause; the law must sanction all or no marriages between consenting adults, because it can neither be restricted to nor exclude any one group.


We cannot assume they would not be barred from entry in the first place, because they would: Section 212a10 of the Immigration and Nationality Act specifically states, "Practicing polygamists.-Any immigrant who is coming to the United States to practice polygamy is inadmissible."

I wish those debating this made more effort to distinguish marriage as religious rite from marriage as legal contract, because the First Amendment bars any government role in the former. "Civil unions" should be the sole legally recognized marriage available to anyone (and thus everyone, via the Equal Protection Clause.) Religious rites may or may not go further at the discretion of those involved, but that cannot include government, which the Constitution bars from establishing religion.

As religion, it is none of governments business how we choose to worship (or not;) government can no more regulate marriage than communion, baptism or any religious rite. As law, "no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."