Cheating on your spouse has been a crime in New York since 1907, but that could soon change. Adultery has been dubbed a class B misdemeanor for over 100 years. However, if lawmakers get their way, that law could be abolished. Yes, you read that correctly. Cheating on your spouse may be legalized in New York as lawmakers try to eliminate the longstanding law.
Although it’s not strictly enforced, cheating on your spouse in New York can result in a maximum sentence of 90 days in jail and a $500 fine. So, if you think that cheating on a spouse isn’t a big deal, think twice — for now.
New York isn’t the only state that has this law. In addition to New York, 13 other states and Puerto Rico classify adultery as a misdemeanor. On the flip side, adultery is still considered a felony in Oklahoma, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Adultery in state code is defined as a person who “engages in sexual intercourse at a time when he has a living spouse, or the other person has a living spouse,” per the Associated Press. Not long after the law was implemented, a married man and a 25-year-old woman were the first people arrested after the man’s wife sued, according to The New York Times.
Only a handful of people have been charged with adultery.
Since 1972, only about a dozen people have been punished under the law, and only five have resulted in convictions. Assemblyman and bill sponsor Charles Lanvine sees the law as outdated and thinks it’s time to get it thrown out. He believes that prosecutors shouldn’t be privy to what goes on behind closed doors in one’s marriage.
“It just makes no sense whatsoever, and we’ve come a long way since intimate relationships between consenting adults are considered immoral,” he said via the AP News. “It’s a joke. This law was someone’s expression of moral outrage.”
How will abolishing this law affect relationships?
Unfortunately, we live in a society where being unfaithful is normalized. The reality that cheating on your spouse may be legalized could contribute to the crumbling infrastructure of relationships. After all, toxicity in relationships is being praised these days.
We see it every day in the media and entertainment as people carry out affairs and cause their unsuspecting partners to fall victim to infidelity. If this law goes into effect, we could see an even bigger surge of broken relationships.
On the other hand, this law may seem to come off as antiquated and as a way for prosecutors to be involved in the intimate affairs of people’s marriages. Katherine B. Silbaugh, a Boston University professor, claims that adultery ban laws were specifically targeted toward women to discourage extramarital affairs and disrupt the child’s stable family life.
New York state has tried to repeal the law in the past.
This isn’t the first time that New York has tried to repeal the law. In 1964, a legislative commission believed that the law should be removed from the penal code. However, according to The New York Times, a lawmaker argued that scrapping the law could send the message that they were advocating for adultery. Due to this point, the motion to remove it didn’t go through.
For most people, this law may seem almost comical, considering how infidelity has become quite common in today’s society. Although it is an immoral act, adultery is something that will not exactly hold up in a court of law.
Unfortunately, there is no getting around the fact that cheating on your spouse may be legalized in NY. As a result, some folks believe that the law may change the landscape of relationships. What do you think?
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