New York State Will Legalize Adultery

The Assembly overwhelmingly voted in favor of a bill to repeal the adultery law last month, and a Senate committee last week moved a matching bill to the floor for a full vote that could come as soon as this week.

“Any criminal law that penalizes intimate behavior between consenting adults does not deserve to be on the books,” said Mr.

Lavine, who added that he has been “happily married” for 54 years.

While adultery is still illegal in a handful of states (in Oklahoma, Michigan and Wisconsin, adultery is considered a felony offense), the vast majority of states repealed their adultery laws long ago or never outlawed it in the first place.

New York’s law declares a person 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 New York’s penal code. Adultery is classified as a Class B misdemeanor, and it is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine.

The push to decriminalize adultery is about more than updating the penal code to reflect modern values, Mr. Lavine said. He viewed recent events, including an Alabama judge’s ruling that frozen embryos in test tubes are children and the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision rejecting the constitutional right to an abortion, as evidence of a growing political desire to foist governmental oversight on sex and chip away at Americans’ assumed right to privacy.

“We are all in danger of losing our rights,” Mr.…   Lavine said. “Those most likely to be prosecuted for this crime, not only in New York, but throughout the United States and even worldwide, are women. I think it’s time for our state legislatures throughout the United States to stand up for human rights. And women’s rights are human rights.”

Though adultery charges have always been rare, the law was occasionally used as justification in divorce proceedings in the years before New York adopted no-fault divorce, Mr. Degnan said.

“It’s embarrassing that this is still on the books,” Mr. Degnan said. “Even in law school, everyone burst out laughing every time it came up.”