#Socialites, get a load of this! Cheating on your spouse may no longer be considered illegal in New York as a new bill seeks to repeal the ban.
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In 1907, it became illegal to commit adultery in New York. It’s currently considered illegal to cheat on your spouse and if you do you could face a misdemeanor charge. However, cheating on your spouse may soon be legal in the Empire State thanks to a new bill making its way through the New York Legislature. The new proposal would essentially repeal the rarely-used ban that makes cheating on your spouse illegal and punishable by up to three months behind bars and a $500 fine.
The 1907 cheating ban has been defined as when a person “engages in sexual intercourse with another person at a time when he has a living spouse, or the other person has a living spouse.”
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According to a New York Times article at the time, just weeks after the 1907 law went into effect, a married man and a 25-year-old woman were the first two people to be arrested under the new law. The two were arrested as the man’s wife sued for a divorce.
Since 1972, about a dozen people have been charged under the 1907 New York ban that makes cheating on your spouse illegal. Of those cases, only five have resulted in convictions, according to Assemblyman Charles Lavine, who sponsored the bill to appeal the ban.
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It’s reported that the last adultery charge in New York was filed in 2010 against a woman who was busted for engaging in a sex act in a public park. However, the charges were later dropped as the women copped a plea deal. Per Assemblyman Charles Lavine, now is the time to eradicate the law, especially as it was never really enforced. He further claims that prosecutors shouldn’t be allowed to “dig into what willing adults do behind closed doors.”
Lavine said, “It just makes no sense whatsoever and we’ve come a long way since intimate relationships between consenting adults are considered immoral. It’s a joke. This law was someone’s expression of moral outrage.”
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Siding with Lavine using another argument, Katharine B. Silbaugh, a law professor at Boston University who co-authored ‘A Guide to America’s Sex Laws,’ stated that laws prohibiting adultery are just punitive measures that target women. She further said that the adultery bans attempt to discourage extramarital affairs that could shine a light on an offender’s parenting. She insists, “Let’s just say this: patriarchy.”
Furthermore, the new bill seeking to repeal New York’s adultery ban has already passed the Assembly and is due to pass the Senate soon, before moving forward to Governor Kathy Hochul‘s office for signature.
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