North Carolina, lowering the bar again.

Oh, Christ. First, it's the dingbat minister who kicked out all the Democrats in his congregation, and now this:

WASHINGTON -- When Sheriff Carson Smith of Pender County, North Carolina, found out that Deborah Hobbs, a recently hired emergency dispatcher, was unmarried and "living in sin," he gave her a choice.

"She was given an ultimatum," said Jennifer Rudinger, executive-director of the North Carolina branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. "She could marry her boyfriend, move out of the house they were living in together or quit her job."

The sheriff was backed by the state's 200-year-old anti-cohabitation law, which declares starkly that "if any man and woman, not being married to each other, shall lewdly and lasciviously associate, bed and cohabit together, they shall be guilty of a class-two misdemeanour."

Unwilling to have her boss decide on her living arrangements, Ms. Hobbs, who's 40, quit and went to the American Civil Liberties Union, which has helped her launch a constitutional challenge of the North Carolina law, where violators are subject to a fine of up to $1,000 (U.S.) and a sentence of up to 60 days in jail...

And you have to read some of the rationalization for this:

Lynn Wardle, a professor of family law at Brigham Young University, a Mormon institution in Utah, concedes that there is a good chance the courts will find the North Carolina statute unconstitutional, but he said that decision would be unfortunate for U.S. society.

"If people can get together for a night of sodomy, they might be able to live together without a criminal statute making it illegal. That's the logic."

He contends that unmarried cohabitation has been proven to lead to much higher rates of child and spousal abuse. "It's exhibit A for the kinds of relationships that have been proven to be socially detrimental, destructive and very problematic."

With that kind of stunning intellect, I expect to see Wardle analyzing Social Security and tax cuts on "Brainster" any day now.