FARGO - A legislator is again proposing changes in a state law that makes it a crime for unmarried couples to live together.

In a bill being prepared for the 2005 Legislature, Rep. Mary Ekstrom, D-Fargo, plans to remove the cohabitation law from the state's list of sex offenses and make it a crime only when unmarried couples fraudulently take advantage of their living arrangement.

The current law makes it illegal for unwed couples to live "openly and notoriously" as if they were married. Supporters of a repeal say the law is almost never enforced.

The offense is listed among other sex crimes, including rape, sexual assault and incest. Violations carry a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Ekstrom's proposal to repeal the law lost 26-21 in the state Senate last year. She said her new bill would accomplish what she tried to do then while still satisfying lawmakers who want to see cohabitation addressed somewhere in the law.

"The only time that anybody could be prosecuted would be because they were committing fraud, not simply because they were living openly and notoriously as man and wife," Ekstrom said.

Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, called Ekstrom's bill a move in the right direction. But Sen. Ben Tollefson, R-Minot, said the law against unmarried cohabitation reinforces the institution of marriage and he would be "entirely opposed" to any attempt to change it.

The state Supreme Court's most recent cases on the cohabitation law included requests in 1999 and 2002 from inmates who claimed that while they were in prison, their wives began living with other men. In both cases, the Supreme Court ruled prosecutors had the right to use discretion and not prosecute the wives.

In a recent civil case, an attorney for the Fargo Roman Catholic Diocese invoked the cohabitation law to defend the diocese's decision to fire a worker for living unmarried with the father of her child, a violation of diocese policy. The woman's sexual discrimination suit against the diocese is pending.