Nine Michigan Republicans voted Wednesday to uphold a nearly century-old state law that bans unmarried women and men.
A bill to repeal the defunct 1931 law eventually passed 29-9 in the state’s Democratic-controlled Senate. But the fact that half of the state Senate’s GOP lawmakers voted to keep the cohabitation ban has some Democrats scratching their heads.
“What year did they live in?” asked Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D), according to MLive.
Michigan is one of only two states in the country with a law that prohibits unmarried couples from living together, according to a 2016 analysis for the state Senate.
The state’s cohabitation ban could find an unmarried man or woman “who lewdly and lasciviously associates and cohabits together” guilty of a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a maximum fine of $1,000.
The ban has implications for taxpayers. As the state of Michigan Senator Stephanie Chang (D), who introduced the Bill, noted, certain tax benefits are off-limits to people who are in violation of local laws according to the IRS tax code.
“This bill is not about moral issues, it’s not about changing people’s behavior, it’s not about marriage rates — it’s really just bringing us into the 21st century,” Chang said, according to Bridge Michigan.
Under the new bill, there will be no penalty for unmarried couples for living together. This would not repeal the law’s punishment for “lewd and lascivious and violent conduct,” which applies to both married and unmarried persons.
Republican Michigan state Sen. Tho mas Albert said that “the policy of prohibiting cohabitation by criminal punishment is not a good policy,” MLive. But he said the family structure without marriage “is not an optimal environment for raising children.”
“The problem with this reform is that it fails to recognize secondary effects. … This is a policy that I cannot support, because there is clear and overwhelming evidence to show that it is better for children to be at home with married parents,” he said. Albert.
The bill will now head to the Michigan House of Representatives and will then need the signature of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) to become law.