A 1907 New York law making adultery punishable by up to three months behind bars may soon come off the books.
The misdemeanor offense is rarely enforced, though Long Island Assemblyman Charles Lavine, who’s campaigning for the law’s repeal, said several cases have resulted in convictions over the past 50-plus years.
About a dozen people have been charged since 1972.
The law states that “a person is guilty of adultery when he engages in sexual intercourse with another person at a time when he has a living spouse, or the other person has a living spouse.”
According to The Associated Press, such laws were introduced in several states to reduce divorces during a time when being cheated on by one’s spouse was a clear path to a legal split.
The law was first enforced shortly after being introduced, resulting in the arrest of a wealthy railroad contractor and his 25-year-old mistress, according to the New York Times. The pair were busted in an Upper West Side apartment and held on $500 bail (the equivalent of roughly $16,000 today).
The antiquated law appears to have been most recently enforced in 2010 when a married 41-year-old Batavia woman was accused of having sex in a public park with a 29-year-old man who wasn’t her husband. A plea deal reportedly led to the charge being dropped.
That woman’s attorney, divorce lawyer Raoul Felder, said at the time the law compels people to commit perjury in divorce cases and “should not be on the books,” according to ABC News.
Lavine calls the law a “joke” and suggested it got onto the books as an expression of “moral outrage” in very different times.
“It just makes no sense whatsoever and we’ve come a long way since intimate relationships between consenting adults are considered immoral,” the Democratic assemblyman said.
Efforts to repeal the bill cleared the Assembly and are expected to be supported by the Senate. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature would put the 117-year-old legislation to rest.
Colorado and New Hampshire are also in the process of revisiting adultery misdemeanor laws in their own states. Infidelity is still considered a felony in Michigan, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.
With News Wire Services
