Talk:Cohabitation in the United States

Salon article
Live in sin, break the law --Franz (Fg68at) de:Talk 05:16, 2 July 2012 (UTC)

Outlawed in how many states?
The article states that cohabitation is outlawed in 4 states: Mississippi, Virginia, Florida, and Michigan. The citation given refers to the state codes. These are primary sources, and they are inadequate as sources because laws which are still on the books can be ruled to be unconstitutional. I've removed the citation, and added a citation-needed.

This image appears to claim that 11 states outlaw cohabitation (but doesn't provide a citation): File:Polygamy_laws_usa.png

The article linked to by Franz in the section above claims it's outlawed in 5 states (but only mentions Michigan by name as far as I read).

And this item talks about an ongoing legal challenge to an anti-cohabitation law in Utah: http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2012/09/challenge-to-utahs-anti-bigamy-law-is.html

A cursory Googling does not seem to reveal any good sources.--holizz (talk) 01:04, 3 October 2012 (UTC)
 * the point is that states passed the laws and the citations are appropriate. Speculation as to whether they "can be ruled" unconstitutional is irrelevant--every law can be so ruled. Rjensen (talk) 03:06, 3 October 2012 (UTC)


 * The states did pass the laws, yes. Georgia passed a law against "sodomy". It's 16-6-2 in the GA code, you can go look it up. However it would be incorrect to say "Georgia criminalizes sodomy" because in Powell v. Georgia that law was ruled unconstitutional. State codes reflect the will of the state legislature at the time, and laws are not stricken from the books when ruled unconstitutional by courts.--holizz (talk) 22:49, 10 October 2012 (UTC)
 * people who come to the article looking for legal advice are told the laws involved are not enforced. The fact that a legislature passes law is typically used an an index of public disapproval, which is the role here.Rjensen (talk) 23:49, 10 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Okay, I've amended the article to say "have laws on their books" (if you can think of a less clunky phrasing, I would be grateful) rather than "criminalize" since we don't actually know or have a citation as to whether or not they're still considered constitutional by the courts.--holizz (talk) 22:34, 11 October 2012 (UTC)

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