Cheaters prosper? Adultery is now legal in New York state

They say cheaters never prosper, but in New York state they at least won’t be charged with a crime.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill Monday that officially legalizes adultery. Cheating on your spouse had been a misdemeanor in New York state since 1907, punishable by up to three months in jail.
The law was rarely enforced, but such bans on adultery were reportedly created to reduce the number of divorces at a time when adultery was the only way to secure a legal split. A married man and a 25-year-old woman were arrested under the New York law when the man’s wife sued for divorce shortly after it took effect in 1907, but only about a dozen people have been charged with it since 1972 — with just five cases leading to convictions.
New York lawmakers passed a bill repealing the law in April. Hochul’s signature makes it take effect immediately, making adultery no longer a crime under state law.
Adultery was defined in New York 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.” NYS Assemblyman Charles Lavine, who sponsored the bill to repeal the ban, said it was unnecessary since it wasn’t enforced and argued prosecutors shouldn’t dig into what willing adults do behind closed doors.
“It just makes no sense whatsoever and we’ve come a long way since intimate relationships between consenting adults are considered immoral,” he said. “It’s a joke. This law was someone’s expression of moral outrage.”
Several other states still have adultery laws classifying extramarital affairs as misdemeanors, but Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Michigan charge them as felonies.