All you North Carolinians out there shacking up without the niceties of a wedding license ... LISTEN UP! In 1805 the good law-makers of this state passed a law banning cohabitation without marriage, and listen to me, O my brethren, shacking up is still illegal! Carries a maximum fine of $1,000 and/or 60 days in jail. And according to a tattler that we listen to, there are some 144,000 unmarried couples living together in this state (and that doesn't even begin to count the same-sex couples! there's only so much shuddering immorality we can take at one time).
Thank goodness there's at least one public official who upholds the law (if somewhat selectively)! Sheriff Carson Smith of Pender County found out that one of his dispatchers, Debora Hobbs, 40, was living in sin with her boyfriend. The sheriff ordered Hobbs to cease and desist, or get married, or quit her job. Since she and her boyfriend didn't want to get married, she quit her job. In March, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, she sued, seeking to get the anti-cohabitation law overturned.
Legal experts seem to think she's got an excellent case. But in the meantime, the rest of you 144,000 had better be holding your breath and abstaining from illegal fornication.
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