US law banning pre-marital sex challenged

Civil liberties activists are going to court to challenge a US state's law that outlaws sex between unmarried couples.

Civil liberties activists are going to court to challenge a US state's law that outlaws sex between unmarried couples.

According to the 2000 census, nearly 150,000 people in the state of Georgia live together as unmarried couples.

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We hope this case finally gets the state of Georgia out of our bedrooms
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Ms Beth Littrell of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Georgia

"We hope this case finally gets the state of Georgia out of our bedrooms," said American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Georgia lawyer Ms Beth Littrell.

"Most unmarried people would be outraged if they knew that their private, consensual expressions of intimacy turned them into criminals."

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The American Family Association said the challenge was to marriage, not to an antiquated law.

Living together outside of marriage "is a social experiment with little history, but what little history we have shows it's doomed to failure," said AFA lawyer Mr Bryan Brown.

AP