BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Legislators are again being asked to do away with a state law that forbids unmarried couples to "openly and notoriously" live together as if they were married.

Freshman state Sen. Tracy Potter, D-Bismarck, said he will sponsor a bill in the 2007 Legislature to repeal the cohabitation law, which officials say is rarely enforced.

Efforts to repeal the law have failed in the last two sessions.

A violation of the law is a misdemeanor offense listed as a sex crime, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $1,000

Potter said that when he was campaigning this fall, even law enforcement officers told him the cohabitation law should be abolished.

"I just don't understand - if nobody's going to enforce it, why do we have it on the books?" he said. "It clearly steps on the toes of freedom of association. We should be able to lead our lives the way we want to."

Rep. Mary Ekstrom, D-Fargo, who sponsored the unsuccessful repeal efforts in 2003 and 2005, said she will be a co-sponsor on Potter's bill.

Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, said he does not believe the law prohibits heterosexual couples from living together and opposes a repeal. He believes the law only bars couples from living together in a way that fraudulently leads others to believe they are legally married. The state Supreme Court rejected that view in 2001.

Mathern said he would vote against a repeal again "if it's the exact same bill and the exact same argument" as before.

A North Carolina judge ruled in July that that state's 201-year-old cohabitation ban is unconstitutional. The American Civil Liberties Union, which sued to overturn it, said then that Florida, Michigan, Mississippi, North Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia had laws that bar cohabitation.