Cheating on your spouse could land you behind bars in New York due to a decades-old law that could soon be appealed through a new bill.
The state legislature is currently considering repealing the law, saying it is outdated and rarely enforced: 13 people have been charged and only five convicted since 1972.
If convicted, violators can receive three months in jail and a fine of up to $500.
On Monday, a near-unanimous vote by the New York State Assembly advanced the repeal, bringing the bill to the state Senate for the final verdict. It is not yet on the Senate calendar for voting and discussion.
Cheating on your husband or wife is still illegal in New York. If convicted, offenders face up to 90 days in jail.
“There are many laws whose purpose is directly to protect the community,” said Assemblyman Charles Lavine, sponsor of the bill that would repeal the law.
“On the other hand, some laws embody nothing more than someone’s idea of moral outrage,” Lavine, a Nassau County Democrat, told Union of times.
This week he and his fellow state assembly members voted officially place the law on adultery in the last category and consign it to the dustbin of history.
Seventeen other US states, as well as the US territory of Puerto Rico, consider adultery a criminal offense.
In Oklahoma, Michigan and Wisconsin it is a serious crime.
It is a misdemeanor in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia and Puerto Rico.
Under current New York law, adultery is a Class B misdemeanor.
He law also defines adultery: “A person is guilty of adultery when he has sexual relations with another person at a time when he has a living spouse, or the other person has a living spouse.”
This obscure law last came into force in 2010, when Suzanne Corona was arrested in Batavia, New Yorkfor engaging in a sexual act with a man at a picnic table in a public park.
She appeared in court hand in hand with her husband.
The charge was eventually dropped and she pleaded guilty to public lewdness, also a Class B misdemeanor.
But with the historic vote, lawmakers have taken a step closer to repealing the law, which lawyers have historically called government overreach and a violation of privacy.
Law enforcement officials have also argued that the law undermines their authority because it is almost universally ignored.
This law, and similar older laws still in effect, are a relic from a different time in history.
When it was first implemented, back in 1907, divorce was not socially acceptable in the United States.
The first person charged under the law, married railroad contractor Patrick Henry Hirsch, was arrested 10 days after the law was enacted.
Lawmakers are pushing to repeal the adultery law, which they say is outdated and based on “someone’s idea of moral outrage.”
On September 1, 1907, police arrested him and his mistress, a milliner named Ruby Yeargain, at their apartment.
Both were charged with adultery and held on $500 bail.
Lawmakers and legal historians tend to agree that the adultery law was implemented to discourage divorce.
Lavine noted that since then, the majority of people charged under the law have been women.
“As the majority of the accused are women, this stigmatizes and victimizes them,” he told the New York Post.
Its repeal was proposed in 1967, but it never crossed the finish line.
Lavine said he suspects that nearly six decades ago lawmakers were still feeling pressure from the public who did not approve of divorce and did not want to take a public stance that could be seen as a seal of approval for infidelity.
New York may have been late in abolishing the adultery law, but it was also the first to establish a law on “alienation of affection.”
This civil statute allowed a person to sue their spouse’s lover for breach of marriage contract and collect monetary damages.
The alienation of affection statute, enacted in 1864, was copied by many states in the United States.
New York State Senator Liz Krueger, seen here in 2017, is the bill’s sponsor in the Senate. Now that she has passed a vote in the State Assembly, she faces a discussion and vote in the State Senate.
Although it was abolished in New York, this statute is still in effect in six states.
And when it persists, it is frequently used in divorce settlements.
It is especially used in cases where a spouse is legally protected by a prenuptial agreement, because the defendant in such a lawsuit is not the spouse but the person they cheated with.
In North Carolina, for example, it is estimated that about 200 cases of alienation of affection occur each year. The state government has repeatedly refused to repeal the law.
Similarly, “alienation of affection” laws are still in effect in Hawaii, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Utah.
As for New York’s adultery law, the next step will be for the state Senate to discuss it before voting on it.
If the bill passes, the adultery law’s language will be erased from New York’s law books.
Outdated laws like this are often the butt of jokes, Lavine said, but for the lawmakers pushing for their repeal, repealing an arcane and morally biased law is very serious.
“It’s not fun for women who have been prosecuted,” Lavine said. “While I certainly appreciate that some people laugh at the idea, there is nothing funny about this.”