ALBANY, NY — New York on Friday repealed a rarely used, more than century-old law that made it a crime to cheat on your spouse — a crime that once could have landed adulterers in jail for up to three months.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill repealing the statute, which dates to 1907 and has long been considered outdated and difficult to enforce.
“Although I have been fortunate enough to share a loving married life with my husband for forty years – which makes it somewhat ironic for me to sign a bill that decriminalizes adultery – I know that people often have complex relationships” , she said. “These cases should clearly be handled by these individuals and not by our criminal justice system. Let’s get this silly, outdated statute off the books once and for all.”
Adultery bans are actually enshrined in law in several states and were introduced to make it more difficult to divorce, at a time when proving a spouse had been cheated on was the only way to obtain a legal divorce. Indictments are rare and convictions even rarer. Some states have also taken steps to repeal their adultery laws in recent years.
About a dozen charged under New York’s adultery law in the past 45 years
New York defined adultery as when a person “has sexual intercourse with another person at a time when he has a living spouse, or the other person has a living spouse.” According to a New York Times article, the state law was first used a few weeks after it went into effect to arrest a married man and a 25-year-old woman.
State Assembly member Charles Lavine, a sponsor of the bill, said about a dozen people have been charged under the law since the 1970s, and only five of those cases have resulted in convictions.
“Laws are designed to protect our community and deter anti-social behaviour. “New York’s adultery law furthers neither of those goals,” Lavine said in a statement Friday.
The state law appears to have last been used in 2010, against a woman caught engaging in sex acts in a park, but the adultery charge was later dropped as part of a settlement.
New York came close to repealing the law in the 1960s, after a state commission charged with reviewing the criminal code said it was nearly impossible to enforce.
At the time, lawmakers initially agreed to lift the ban but ultimately decided to keep it in place after a politician argued that repealing it would give the impression that the state was officially condoning disloyalty, according to a 1965 New York Times article.
