NEW YORK — When David H. Petraeus resigned as CIA director because of adultery, he was widely understood to be acknowledging a misdeed but not a crime. Yet in his state of residence, Virginia, as in 22 others including Massachusetts, adultery remains a criminal act, a vestige of the way US law has anchored legitimate sexual activity within marriage.
In most of those states, including New York, adultery is a misdemeanor. But in others — Massachusetts, Idaho, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin — it is a felony, though rarely prosecuted. In the armed forces, it can be punished severely, although usually in combination with greater wrongdoing.
Comments
Yes...protecting the property of white males...sounds very Republican to me!
"many like the idea of the criminal code serving as a kind of moral guide even if certain laws are almost never applied"
The problem with this is that occasionally those laws will be applied - ususally in some very selective and unfair way.