No.. No.. Notorious. At least living together in North Dakota

The Aberdeen American news has a story on our neighbors to the north who live in that Artic wasteland known as North Dakota. Apparently it's illegal to "openly and notoriously" live together, despite the need to huddle together for warmth:

Legislators are again being asked to do away with a state law that forbids unmarried couples to "openly and notoriously" live together as if they were married.
Freshman state Sen. Tracy Potter, D-Bismarck, said he will sponsor a bill in the 2007 Legislature to repeal the cohabitation law, which officials say is rarely enforced.

Efforts to repeal the law have failed in the last two sessions. Before that, the most recent effort to abolish it was in 1991, when the House voted down a repeal measure by almost a 3-to-1 margin.

and...

"I just don't understand - if nobody's going to enforce it, why do we have it on the books?" he said. "It clearly steps on the toes of freedom of association. We should be able to lead our lives the way we want to."

and...

Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, said he does not believe the law prohibits heterosexual couples from living together and opposes a repeal. He believes the law only bars couples from living together in a way that fraudulently leads others to believe they are legally married. The state Supreme Court rejected that view in 2001.

Mathern said he would vote against a repeal again "if it's the exact same bill and the exact same argument" as before.
Read it here. Anyone notice that both the proponent and the opposition are democratic? (and that I slyly inserted a duran duran reference in there?)

Even conservative me recognizes that the whole measure is silly.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Why don't we have an anti-cohabitation law in SD??????????? Let's get on this LEXREX.
Anonymous said…
Don't give LEXREX ideas. He's likely to push for this on his way out. With our legislature it'll probably pass.
Anonymous said…
Maybe they can just export the law to SD. I'm sure we'd jump all over it.
Anonymous said…
Well, it should pass in South Dakota! If any of you believed in family values or good moral character, you would understand!

What true Christian wouldn't support a law that forbids unmarried couples to "openly and notoriously" live together as if they were married!

You just can't talk of being a Christian! Sorry, it takes a little more than that!

I’m sure the Democrats and probably some members of the Main Stream Coalition Surrender Group would not be in favor of this law.

Good Christians don’t condone sin! It’s as simple as that!
Anonymous said…
Study results on CNN yesterday: 38,000 people of all ages were interviewed (33,000 of them women) and 95% had premarital sex.

While we're at it, let's ban premarital sex too. We need more puritanical, unenforceable laws on the books, right VJ?

Let's just throw everyone in prison who cohabitates without being married and who has premarital sex. The new prison wall will roughly correspond to SD's borders.
Anonymous said…
VJ and GFP are going to be looking through your window.
Anonymous said…
Is that what Jesus was doing? Going to government to pass laws preventing sin? If he wasn't pushing government for a change in the laws, was Jesus a good Christian?
Anonymous said…
I'm glad to see that SD is not the only state run by loonies.
Bob Newland said…
So, VJ, you think that there should be a law prohibiting and punishing whatever the legislature decides is a sin? Just so God will know South Dakotans don't condone sin?

Or are you God?
Anonymous said…
I simply noticed that you misspelled ARCTIC.
Anonymous said…
Speaking as a North Dakotan i can say, yes, the democrats here are loonies! Please help by sending some young republicans our way!

Rock on PP!
Anonymous said…
gman, you can have all of our young republicans. They are eager to provide reinforcements to your senator from Fargo who wants to continue the ridiculous, unenforceable "cohabitation ban". They can even help you take a run at banning premarital sex, banning birth control, banning abortion, banning divorce, and banning megachurch pastors.

Good luck banning all sin!

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