[The Red Zone]

Well, Smith did fairly well explaining why buggery, as odious and reprehensible as it is, does not raise the same issues as bigamy. The state places a privileged status upon marriage. Sex acts, on the other hand, don't get you a tax penalty.

[eno_]

"Why is this different from bigamy?"

That one is easy: Bigamy requires state sanction. If he had asked "Why is this different from group sex?" the simple answer would of course be that it isn't.

Burger was also wrong: "To hold that the act of homosexual sodomy is somehow protected as a fundamental right," he said, "would be to cast aside millennia of moral teaching."

No, it would only cast aside government as an incompetent and incapable enforcer of morality.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Marriage (between 2 or among 3 or more people) is a state sanctioned contract. The states can decide what constitutes a valid contract. We aren't talking about gay marriage in this case.

[supercat]

I would tend to think a laches argument might work well here, given that the government attempts to track down and prosecute less than 0.01% of the acts which violate the sodomy statute.