Map Shows 16 States Where It’s Illegal to Cheat on Your Wife

It may seem surprising, but cheating on your spouse remains illegal in over a dozen states.

In New York, where adultery is classified as a Class B misdemeanor that is punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine, legislators are considering repealing the 1907 state law.

Despite previously unsuccessful efforts to change the law, the current outlook is optimistic. Last month, the state Assembly overwhelmingly voted in favor of Bill A4714, which would decriminalize the act of adultery, and last week a Senate committee brought a matching bill to the floor for a full vote.

Although New York may be one of the more surprising states on the list, extramarital sex is considered a crime in 16 states and Puerto Rico. In those places, adultery is very rarely prosecuted, but the laws are strictest in Michigan, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, where adultery is considered a felony.

Under the Michigan Penal Code, adultery is punishable by up to five years of imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $5,000, while Oklahoma law punishes adultery by up to five years of imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $500. In Oklahoma, it’s a crime not only for the married person but also for the other person involved, even if that person is single.

And in Wisconsin a fine for adultery can go as high as $10,000. The crime also carries up to three and a half years of imprisonment.

Adultery is also a misdemeanor in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Virginia.

If New York’s legislation passes, the Empire State would join a handful of other states that have recently repealed their adultery laws. Last May, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed into law a sweeping omnibus bill that removed adultery as a crime from the state code. A year before that, Idaho Governor Brad Little signed a law repealing the state’s adultery law. Adultery was no longer considered illegal in Idaho as of July 1, 2022.

“Any criminal law that penalizes intimate behavior between consenting adults does not deserve to be on the books,” New York Assembly member Charles Lavine, who is sponsoring his state’s bill, told The New York Times on Monday.

Lavine said his bill was about more than repealing outdated laws, insisting that decriminalizing adultery was part of the larger fight around reproductive rights.

“We are all in danger of losing our rights,” 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.”

Although the U.S. Supreme Court has never taken up a case concerning an adultery law, its landmark decision in Lawrence v. Texas in 2003 struck down a law criminalizing sodomy, based on a constitutional right to privacy.