Posted on 05/10/2005 12:19:53 PM PDT by kingattax
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Some people see nothing wrong with it, while others say it's immoral. But the question in North Carolina is: Should shacking up be illegal?
The ACLU is suing to overturn a North Carolina ban on cohabitation.
In all, seven states have such laws.
The case centers on a woman who says she was forced to quit her job as a sheriff's dispatcher for refusing to marry her live-in boyfriend.
The ACLU points to a 2003 Supreme Court decision that struck down an anti-sodomy law. The organization says that ruling protects consensual sex between adults.
Supporters of the ban say the state has a legitimate interest. One of them said there are studies showing that couples who live together before they get married have higher rates of marital problems and divorce.
Oh this one will go down. The Supremes have already told us we have to treat immorality and morality as equal.
So in these seven states, you can't have roommates of the opposite sex?
..Former sheriff's dispatcher Deborah Hobbs is pictured on April 22, 2005 in Wilmington, N.C. Hobbs, 40, says her boss, Sheriff Carson Smith, told her to get married, move out, or find another job after he found out about she and her boyfriend had been living together for three years
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Slippery slope? What slippery slope? There is no slippery slope here...
It's why we lived together for 4-5 years before we were married.
And that's none of the Government's business.
I think it's the state perfect right to regulate the state of someone's marriage. There has always been such laws. However, I don't think that this is a wise one in this day and age.
Since 1789.
The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.--Federalist 45
Perhaps those that have moved into the old North State that don't like our laws should take a hint and move out of this state. This law has been on the books for 200 years, just as the anti-sodomy law was. No one seemed to have a d#mn problem with this law until more 'enlightened' folks started moving here. If the legislature of the state of North Carolina decides to overturn this legislation, then it's the business of our legislature. Not the ACLU, not the national government, and not the court system.
"I think it's the state perfect right to regulate the state of someone's marriage. There has always been such laws."
There is nowhere in either the Constitution of the US or the constitution of NC where the government has the authority to regulate the state of someone's marriage. It is not the legitimate function of government.
I did see that you do disagree with the wisdom of this particular law.
Take a page from Ronald Reagan...we need to get government off our backs and out of our bedrooms
ACLU would like to ban marriage of men to women. (If gays can't marry, then NOBODY should be allowed to marry!)
try to imagine what an "America" would look like if the ACLU could make one exactly the way they want and are actively trying to create.
No, it's that we must treat all "moralities" as equal. As this thread will no doubt illustrate (yesterday's on the topic did), there are plenty of self-declared conservatives out there who claim an absolute right to do what they will when it comes to sexual behavior. As for the evidence that cohabitation leads to problems for children--and, as a result, massive social problems later on--they could not care less. Their supposedly informed opinions are hook-line-and-sinker adaptations of the prejudices of the elites, including the judicial elites.
It's been a part of state law since before we became a nation. I don't know about the NC constitution and I know it's not part of the US constitution, which it certainly should not be. Genealogy is my hobby and I can assure that there have been laws around in that area of the south that has regulated legitimate marriage since before there was a United States. If states could not regulate it, then we could marry anyone--our sister, our dog, our parent. There has to be legitimate parameters. I do not believe that homosexual marriage should be lawful, but I think this should be unless the moral convictions of our population should substantially change, which I do not see happening.
Try again. You quoted to Federalist papers, which have no legal standing. The actual Constitution of the US or of NC does NOT give the state the power to be our nanny.
"Perhaps those that have moved into the old North State that don't like our laws should take a hint and move out of this state"
Or maybe those who want the government to have the power to regulate every aspect of their lives should move to a more suitable country, like North Korea.
Well, in 1789, there were state laws that said slavery was perfectly legal, too.
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