Maxwell School News and Commentary

Faulkner Discusses New York State’s Adultery Law in Washington Post Article

March 26, 2024

The Washington Post

Carol Faulkner

History Department

Law

New York State

State & Local

The Washington Post

In New York state, it's long been a criminal offense to cheat on one's spouse. But after nearly 120 years, a law against adultery—a misdemeanor in New York—could be removed from the books.

Laws criminalizing adultery are on the books in a handful of other states but are rarely enforced. In most cases, they were put on the books at a time when adultery was among the only ways to obtain a divorce, according to Carol Faulkner, professor of history and author of “Unfaithful: Love, Adultery, and Marriage Reform in Nineteenth-Century America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019).”

“In South Carolina, you couldn’t get a divorce at all,” Faulkner says. “In New York State, if couples wanted to divorce, they’d sometimes have to create an adultery claim.”

Read more in the Washington Post article, “It’s a crime to cheat on a spouse in N.Y. The law might soon change.”