MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
If you cheat on your spouse in New York state, you could be committing a crime. But that might not be the law much longer. Jon Campbell with WNYC reports.
JON CAMPBELL, BYLINE: Attorney Timothy Tippins smokes a pipe while we chat in his suburban Albany driveway. We're both sitting in camp chairs.
TIMOTHY TIPPINS: I teach a course on matrimonial law and practice. Part of that is the grounds for divorce.
CAMPBELL: He's been teaching at Albany Law School since 1986, and each year, he gives his law students some advice. If adultery comes up, have your client plead the Fifth.
What reaction do you get from your students?
TIPPINS: Shock. Everybody's shocked. Nobody would think that in the year 2024, adultery is still a Class B misdemeanor.
CAMPBELL: New York is one of just 17 states with an adultery law on the books. It's been there since 1907, back when the state was trying to discourage people from getting a divorce, and it carries a maximum sentence of 90 days in jail. But that could soon change. State lawmakers passed a bill earlier this year that would remove it from the state's penal code. And now it's up to Governor Kathy Hochul whether to sign it into law.
LIZ KRUEGER: I would find it extremely surprising if the governor had a problem with signing this bill.
CAMPBELL: That's State Senator Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat who sponsored the bill. She says she first learned of the adultery law more than two decades ago. At the time, Republicans were trying to pass a bill with welfare restrictions for people evading a crime. She recalls flipping through a list of misdemeanors that she keeps in her desk.
KRUEGER: And it's this enormously long list of things that, frankly, I thought were somewhat amusing.
CAMPBELL: When the bill came up for debate on the Senate floor in 2002, she started asking the Republican sponsor, what about this crime? What about that one?
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KRUEGER: And adultery - that's also a misdemeanor.
And the looks on my colleagues' faces - if I had had a camera, oh, my God.
CAMPBELL: There were cameras, actually. Republican Senator George Maziarz was captured letting out the slightest chuckle as he broke into a huge, uncomfortable smile.
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KRUEGER: It's...
GEORGE MAZIARZ: Misdemeanors, Senator...
KRUEGER: It's a misdemeanor, sir.
CAMPBELL: Only about a dozen people have faced adultery charges in New York over the last 50 years.
BRIAN DEGNAN: My name is Brian Degnan. I'm an attorney in Batavia, New York.
CAMPBELL: Degnan took the law professor Timothy Tippins' class back in 2004. Seven years later, a married 41-year-old woman was charged with adultery in Degnan's hometown. She was caught in a sex act with a man in a public park. Degnan took her on as a client.
DEGNAN: I had all kinds of people emailing about it at the time. I mean, it made national news. Over what? Over two consenting adults engaging in a private act.
CAMPBELL: The charge was eventually dropped, and the woman pleaded guilty to public lewdness. But the damage was already done. When she later faced charges in a totally unrelated case, all the news articles noted she was once charged with adultery.
DEGNAN: She would never escape that charge, and that's why I call it the scarlet A.
CAMPBELL: So far, there hasn't been much opposition to repealing the adultery law. But Bill Donohue is the president of the Catholic League, a national advocacy group. He says the law should stay on the books.
BILL DONOHUE: I'm concerned about the coarsening of our society and the kind of nonchalant attitude that men will have. It sends a signal.
CAMPBELL: That's not to say all Catholics are against a repeal. The Catholic Church in New York hasn't taken a position on the bill, but says not all sins should be crimes. Governor Hochul has until the end of the year to sign or veto the legislation.
For NPR News, I'm Jon Campbell in Albany, New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF OSLO'S "NEVADA") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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