Raleigh, N.C. ? Unmarried couples can live together in North Carolina.

A state judge has ruled a 201-year-old law barring unwed couples from cohabitating unconstitutional.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued to overturn the law last year after a former sheriff’s dispatcher claimed she had to quit her job because she wouldn’t marry her live-in boyfriend.

Deborah Hobbs says her boss told her to get married, move out or find another job after he found out she had been living with her boyfriend for three years. Hobbs quit in 2004 because she didn’t want to get married.

The ACLU says there are six states with laws prohibiting cohabitation: Virginia, West Virginia, Florida, Michigan, Mississippi and North Dakota.