New state of affairs: Jewish legislator seeks to decriminalize adultery in NY

(New York Jewish Week) – According to New York state law, murder and theft are illegal. But another ordinance that accords with the Ten Commandments — a law prohibiting adultery — is about to be taken off the books, thanks to the efforts of a Jewish lawmaker. 

New York Assemblymember Charles Lavine, a Democrat from the 13th district in Long Island’s Nassau County, is seeking to put the state’s affairs in order by repealing Section 255.17 of the state’s penal law, which outlaws sex when one of the participants has another living spouse. The crime is classified as a class B misdemeanor punishable by up to three months in prison and a fine of $500.  

Lavine’s bill to “repeal the crime of adultery” seeks to roll back that law. He says the state has no business regulating sexual behavior between consenting adults — regardless of their marital status.

“Laws that are meaningless and are simply expressions of someone’s moral sense of supremacy have no business in our criminal laws,” Lavine said. “This law criminalizes and makes illegal intimate behavior between consenting adults. That makes no sense whatsoever in our modern world.”

Lavine’s bill passed the full chamber on Monday by a vote of 137-10 and now heads to the State Senate.

Lavine is the president of the New York chapter of the National Association of Jewish Legislators, but he told the New York Jewish Week that the connection between his Jewish identity and the legislation is “only to the extent of the concept of tikkun olam,” the Jewish imperative to “repair the world.”

He said the law was a “glaring anachronism” that did not serve as a deterrent against bad behavior or a means to protect citizens. He also argued that, even though the law is rarely enforced, it still presents a threat — especially against women, who he said are more likely to be charged as adulterers in New York and other areas where similar laws are in place.

“It’s not right and it’s a terrible stigma,” Lavine said.

A different lawmaker, Dan Quart, first introduced the bill in 2021 but left the Assembly to become a judge. Lavine, who cosponsored that bill, said he had approved of it and submitted it again under his own name.

The law has been in place since 1907, but it is rarely enforced. Since 1972, only 13 people have been charged with adultery and five convicted, almost all of whom had committed some other crime, Lavine’s office said. Records from before 1972 are hard to scan, so it’s unclear how often the law was enforced before then.

The first arrest under the law took place in September 1907, The New York Times reported at the time. 

In that case, a “wealthy railroad contractor” named Patrick H. Hirsch was arrested for having an affair with a woman named Ruby Yeargin. The pair had been living together as a couple for several years. Hirsch’s wife, Elizabeth, tracked the couple down with private detectives and obtained a warrant for their arrest as part of divorce proceedings after Hirsch “kidnapped” their son, the report said.

In the most recent case, in 2010, a couple was charged with adultery after they were caught having sex on a park picnic table in the western New York town of Batavia. One of the suspects pleaded guilty to public lewdness and the other skipped court and moved to Florida.