Georgia's high court considers fornication law

ATLANTA - Two teenagers convicted of fornication could bring down Georgia's law banning sexual intercourse between people who aren't married.

Lawyers for a boy convicted of the crime last year argued before the state Supreme Court Tuesday that fornication laws invade the privacy of anyone old enough to consent to sex.

The long-standing statute is seldom enforced. About 150,000 unmarried Georgians live together as couples.

But American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Gerry Weber says the law violates a constitutional right to privacy and should be thrown out.

Weber represented a 17-year-old Fayette County boy who was fined and forced to write an essay as punishment for being caught last year having intercourse with a 16-year-girl in her bedroom.

There was no question the sex was consensual, but her parents notified authorities and both were charged with fornication.

The girl had a prior record and was given probation.