Is Cheating Illegal? Adultery Laws in the United States, State by State

On December 10, 2025, police in Osceola County, Michigan, answered a domestic call and left with an adultery case. A married man, separated and in the middle of a divorce, had reportedly been found by his wife with another woman, and the county prosecutor, Anthony Badovinac, charged him under MCL 750.30, a statute that dates from 1931 ^[1][2]. "It's still a crime, still a four-year felony," Badovinac told Cadillac News ^[1]. The defense moved to dismiss on constitutional grounds, then withdrew the motion before the judge ruled, so the question of whether such a law can survive in court is still open in Michigan ^[1].

Is adultery still a crime in the United States?

Adultery is still a crime on paper in a minority of states, but there is no federal criminal law against it for civilians. Each state writes its own criminal code, which is why the answer to "is cheating illegal?" changes at every state line. The Michigan statute is typical of the older texts: section 750.30 says simply that any person who commits adultery "shall be guilty of a felony," a wording that dates from Act 328 of 1931 and earlier versions going back to 1846 ^[2].

Definitions vary in ways that matter. Most codes define adultery as sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than the spouse, and many also make the unmarried partner guilty ^[3][4]. Others reach only a narrower situation: Alabama requires that the two people live together in cohabitation ^[5], Florida punishes "living in open adultery" ^[6], and Illinois requires conduct that is "open and notorious" ^[7]. Legal reference works add that in states with fault divorce, adultery is also a ground for ending a marriage and may be weighed in alimony, property and custody decisions, which is where it has real effects today ^[8].

The criminal and civil sides are separate. A state can repeal its adultery crime and still let a spouse cite adultery in a divorce; New York did exactly that in 2024 ^[9]. Most of the legal consequences of an affair in 2026 come from family courts and civil juries.

Criminal adultery statutes in state codes (checked November 2026)

State	Statute	What it covers	Penalty in the code	Status
Alabama	§ 13A-13-2	Sex with a non-spouse while living together, either party married	Class B misdemeanor	In the code (2025 edition)
Arizona	A.R.S. § 13-1408	Married person, or unmarried partner of a married person	Class 3 misdemeanor; only on a spouse's complaint	In the code
Florida	§ 798.01	Living in open adultery	Second-degree misdemeanor	In the code (2026 statutes)
Georgia	O.C.G.A. § 16-6-19	Married person with a non-spouse	Misdemeanor	In the code (2025 edition)
Illinois	720 ILCS 5/11-35	Open and notorious adultery	Class A misdemeanor	In the code
Kansas	K.S.A. 21-5511	Married person, or unmarried person who knows the other is married	Class C misdemeanor	In the code
Maryland	Crim. Law § 10-501	Adultery	$10 fine	In the code
Michigan	MCL 750.29 to 750.32	Adultery; divorced people who cohabit again	Felony, up to 4 years; spouse's complaint within 1 year	In the code; 2024 repeal passed the Senate only
Mississippi	§ 97-29-1	Unlawful cohabitation in adultery or fornication	Up to $500 each and 6 months	In the code (2025 edition)
North Carolina	G.S. 14-184	Unmarried man and woman who cohabit	Class 2 misdemeanor	In the code
North Dakota	N.D.C.C. § 12.1-20-09	Married person with a non-spouse	Class A misdemeanor; spouse's complaint within 1 year	In the code
Oklahoma	21 O.S. §§ 871, 872	Married person with a person of the opposite sex	Class D1 felony, up to 5 years and/or $500	In the code; class set from Jan. 1, 2026
South Carolina	§§ 16-15-60, 16-15-70	Cohabitation or habitual intercourse, one partner married	$100 to $500 and/or 6 months to 1 year	In the code
Virginia	§ 18.2-365	Married person with a non-spouse	Class 4 misdemeanor	In the code
Wisconsin	§ 944.16	Married person, or partner who knows the other is married	Class I felony	In the code (2025 edition)
Colorado	former adultery law	Adultery	None specified	Repealed, signed March 2013
New Hampshire	HB 1125 (2014)	Adultery	None	Repealed, effective Jan. 1, 2015
Massachusetts	G.L. c. 272, § 14	Adultery	None	Repealed by Acts 2018, c. 155 (July 25, 2018)
Utah	§ 76-7-103	Adultery	None	Repealed by H.B. 40, effective May 14, 2019
Idaho	§ 18-6601	Adultery	None	Repealed by S.B. 1325, effective July 1, 2022
Minnesota	§ 609.36	Adultery	None	Repealed, 2023 c. 52
New York	Penal Law § 255.17	Adultery	None	Repealed, Chapter 462 of 2024 (Nov. 22, 2024)

Which states still have adultery laws in 2026?

Fifteen states still have a criminal adultery provision in the version of their codes checked for this article: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin. Cadillac News, reporting on the Michigan case, gave a figure of 16 states ^[1], and counts in the press differ because some statutes cover only adulterous cohabitation. The table on this page lists each text with the penalty it states.

The penalties range widely. At the light end, Maryland's Criminal Law Article § 10-501 says a person "may not commit adultery" and sets a $10 fine ^[10]. Virginia makes it a Class 4 misdemeanor under § 18.2-365 ^[11], Georgia a misdemeanor under O.C.G.A. § 16-6-19 ^[12], Kansas a class C misdemeanor under K.S.A. 21-5511 ^[4], Arizona a class 3 misdemeanor under A.R.S. § 13-1408 ^[3], and Illinois a Class A misdemeanor, last amended by P.A. 103-154 in 2023 ^[7]. Florida's § 798.01 is a second-degree misdemeanor, and Alabama's § 13A-13-2 a Class B misdemeanor ^[6][5].

Three states treat it as a felony. Wisconsin's § 944.16 makes adultery a Class I felony for the married person and for the partner who knows the other is married ^[13]. Oklahoma defines the offense in title 21, § 871, and § 872 now classes it as a Class D1 felony punishable by up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $500, or both, after an amendment by Laws 2025, c. 486, effective January 1, 2026, the date Oklahoma's new felony classification system, House Bill 1792, came into force ^[14][15][46]. Michigan's crime is a Class H felony carrying up to four years, and a companion section, § 750.32, extends the same penalty to divorced people who live together again ^[16].

The Carolinas and Mississippi are a separate group, since their laws grew out of old cohabitation offenses. South Carolina defines adultery as living together or "habitual" intercourse when one partner is married to someone else, with a fine of $100 to $500, six months to a year in jail, or both ^[17]. North Carolina's G.S. 14-184, still titled "Fornication and adultery," punishes an unmarried man and woman who "bed and cohabit together" as a Class 2 misdemeanor ^[18]. Mississippi's § 97-29-1 punishes unlawful cohabitation "in adultery or fornication" with a fine of up to $500 each and up to six months in the county jail ^[19]. North Dakota's § 12.1-20-09 is a class A misdemeanor, but only the offender's spouse can start a case, and it must be filed within a year ^[20].

The texts also differ on who is guilty. Michigan's 1931 wording still says that when a married woman and an unmarried man commit adultery, "the man shall be guilty" and faces the same punishment ^[2]. Alabama lets a defendant escape conviction by showing a reasonable belief that both partners were unmarried ^[5]. Illinois exempts a person whose liability would rest only on evidence given under the state's Public Aid Code ^[7]. Wisconsin and Kansas punish the unmarried partner only when that person knows the other is married ^[13][4].

Two caveats apply. Several of these texts were read on Justia's 2025 editions rather than on the state's own site, and Wisconsin's official statute site could not be opened for this article ^[13]. The list also counts only general criminal codes; it leaves aside military law and narrow provisions on public indecency.

Which states have repealed their adultery laws?

At least seven states have repealed their adultery crimes since 2013, most often as part of a wider cleanup of old morals offenses. Colorado went first in this run: Gov. John Hickenlooper signed the repeal on March 22, 2013, along with a little-used ban on providing a place for unmarried people to have sex ^[21]. Sponsors described the goal as "keeping government out of people's bedrooms," while Republican Sen. Kevin Lundberg argued that moral standards still mattered ^[21]. New Hampshire followed with HB 1125, "repealing the crime of adultery," signed on May 27, 2014 and in force from January 1, 2015 ^[22].

Massachusetts acted in 2018. Chapter 155 of the Acts of 2018, titled "An Act relative to reproductive health" and approved on July 25, 2018, repealed section 14 and sections 18 to 21 of chapter 272 of the General Laws, the block that held the adultery and fornication offenses ^[23]. Utah's HB 40, signed on March 25, 2019 and effective May 14, 2019, repealed the adultery section, § 76-7-103, and removed consensual sodomy from the code; its summary says it "repeals the criminal offenses of adultery and sodomy" ^[24][45]. The fornication ban, repealed by SB 43, ended on the same date, as told in Utah's 2019 repeal of its fornication law.

Idaho's repeal came out of a commission review. On October 25, 2021, a subcommittee of the Idaho Criminal Justice Commission agreed to repeal both the adultery statute, § 18-6601, and the fornication statute, § 18-6603, noting that they criminalized sex outside marriage, conduct protected under Lawrence v. Texas ^[25]. The resulting bill, SB 1325, passed the Senate 33-0 on February 28, 2022 and the House 65-5 on March 17, was signed on March 22 and took effect on July 1, 2022 ^[26]. Minnesota's revisor now shows § 609.36 as "Repealed, 2023 c 52 art 4 s 25" ^[27].

New York is the most recent and the best documented. Senate Bill S8744, sponsored by Sen. Liz Krueger, repealed Penal Law § 255.17; the Senate passed the Assembly version, A4714, by 57 to 4 on April 3, 2024, and Gov. Kathy Hochul signed it as Chapter 462 on November 22, 2024, with immediate effect ^[9]. The 1907 law was a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to three months in jail ^[28]. It had been used against about a dozen people since the 1970s, with five convictions and a last known charge in 2010 ^[29]. Hochul called it a "silly, outdated statute" ^[29].

Michigan shows how repeal can stall. The Legislature removed the lewd and lascivious cohabitation offense from § 750.335 in 2023 through SB 56, signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on July 12, 2023 as Public Act 78 ^[30], but left the adultery sections in place. Senate Bills 1083 to 1085, introduced by Sen. Jeff Irwin on November 7, 2024, would have repealed §§ 750.29 to 750.32 ^[16]; SB 1085 passed the Senate 30 to 6 on December 5, 2024 and reached the House on December 10, with no later action shown ^[31]. The current compiled law, rendered in August 2025, still prints § 750.30 without a repeal note ^[2].

Are adultery laws ever enforced?

Adultery prosecutions are rare, and they nearly always start with a private complaint. Several statutes say so outright. Arizona allows prosecution only "upon complaint of the husband or wife" ^[3], Michigan limits it to the spouse and to one year after the offense ^[16], North Dakota has the same one-year, spouse-only rule ^[20], and Oklahoma reserves it to the spouses unless a couple lives in "open and notorious adultery" ^[14].

The cases that do surface tend to begin with another dispute. In Luray, Virginia, a town attorney pleaded guilty to adultery in late 2003 after a former partner went to the police, a case the law professor Joanna Grossman called remarkable given how rarely the state used the statute ^[32]. Later accounts describe a deal under which he did community service, and quote the local prosecutor as saying the office was not "peeking in windows" ^[33]. The Osceola County charge of 2025 followed a domestic violence call, and the man reportedly admitted the relationship to police ^[1].

Low penalties help explain why prosecutors seldom bother. Grossman noted in 2003 that Virginia's maximum punishment was a $250 fine ^[32], and Maryland's is still $10 ^[10]. Where the penalty is heavier, as in Michigan, the complaint rule leaves the decision to start a case with the spouse, within a year of the offense ^[16].

New York's figures give an idea of scale. About a dozen people were charged under § 255.17 from the 1970s until 2024, and the last known case, in 2010, ended with the adultery count dropped in a plea deal ^[29]. A 1960s state commission had already called the law nearly impossible to enforce, yet legislators kept it after one of them argued that repeal would look like approval of infidelity ^[29]. Prosecution statistics for most other states are not published, so the real number of charges nationwide is unknown.

Why hasn't the Supreme Court struck down adultery laws?

The Supreme Court has never ruled directly on a criminal adultery law, so the statutes stay in force until a legislature repeals them or a court rejects one in a specific case. The case most often cited against them is Lawrence v. Texas, decided on June 26, 2003, which struck down a Texas sodomy law and protected private, consensual conduct between adults ^[34]. The majority took care to say the case did "not involve minors" and did "not involve public conduct or prostitution" ^[34].

The opinion did not address adultery. In dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia listed adultery and fornication laws among those he thought the ruling called into question ^[34]. Courts and commissions have since read Lawrence in different ways. Idaho's commission treated it as a reason to repeal both its fornication and adultery statutes ^[25], while the Osceola County prosecutor argued in 2025 that Michigan has a legitimate interest in protecting marriage, family stability and children ^[1]. The defense in that case relied on due process and equal protection and on Lawrence, but withdrew its challenge, so no Michigan court has ruled ^[1].

Adultery differs from fornication in one respect: it involves a third person, the spouse, whose interests a state can claim to protect. Virginia shows the split, since its fornication statute went in 2020 while § 18.2-365 remains a Class 4 misdemeanor ^[11]. The history of the earlier fornication cases, from Martin v. Ziherl to Idaho, is covered in how Lawrence v. Texas undermined fornication laws.

How does adultery affect a divorce?

In fault-based systems, adultery still changes the outcome of a divorce, and that is where most people meet the law today. Virginia lists "adultery" first among its grounds for divorce from the bond of matrimony, ahead of a one-year separation or a six-month separation with an agreement and no minor children ^[35]. Its support statute bars permanent maintenance to a spouse at fault on that ground, unless the court finds by "clear and convincing evidence" that denial would be a manifest injustice, and adultery is a factor the court must weigh in setting support ^[36].

North Carolina goes further on alimony. Under G.S. 50-16.3A, if the dependent spouse engaged in "illicit sexual behavior" during the marriage and before separation, the court shall not award alimony; if the supporting spouse did, the court must order it; if both did, the judge decides ^[37]. Either spouse can ask a jury to decide whether marital misconduct took place, and behavior the other spouse condoned does not count ^[37]. Elsewhere, reference works note that courts in some states may consider adultery when dividing property, awarding alimony or deciding custody ^[8].

The trend nationally has been toward no-fault grounds, which spare couples from proving misconduct. Even so, a criminal statute can surface inside a divorce. North Dakota's law grants immunity from prosecution to anyone who gives information about sexual acts during a divorce, annulment or separation proceeding, a sign that legislators expected the two to overlap ^[20].

What are alienation of affection and criminal conversation suits?

Alienation of affection and criminal conversation are civil lawsuits that let a spouse sue the person who had an affair with the husband or wife. They are known as "heart balm" torts, and since 1935 most states have abolished them; by 2016 they survived in Hawaii, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota and Utah ^[38]. Criminal conversation rests on sexual intercourse with the spouse during the marriage. For alienation of affection, as the claim was described in a 2025 North Carolina trial, the plaintiff must prove a loving marriage, the defendant's knowledge of it, and that the marriage still existed during the affair ^[39].

North Carolina is where the large verdicts happen. Its G.S. 52-13 limits the claims to acts before the spouses separate, requires the suit within three years of the defendant's last act, and allows only a natural person to be sued ^[40]. Juries there have awarded $9 million to a wife against her husband's mistress in March 2010 and $30 million in a 2011 case brought by Carol Puryear against Betty Devin ^[38]. In November 2025, a Durham County jury ordered TikTok creator Brenay Kennard to pay Akira Montague $1.5 million for alienation of affection and $250,000 for criminal conversation, after a six-day trial with more than 700 pages of evidence ^[39].

The torts now reach well beyond the state's borders. On September 4, 2026, U.S. District Judge David A. Bragdon let Heather Ammel's suit against former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema go forward under North Carolina law, finding that nine text messages Sinema sent to Matthew Ammel while he was in the state were enough to give its courts jurisdiction ^[41]. Sinema had testified that the relationship became sexual in May 2024 in California and that no encounter took place in North Carolina ^[41].

Other states keep the tort in a weaker form. In New Mexico, the Court of Appeals has required proof of malice and affirmed the dismissal of a claim based only on an affair that led to divorce, in Gutierrez v. Shumate ^[42]. Mississippi's Supreme Court upheld its version in Fitch v. Valentine in 2007, where the husband recovered $750,000 ^[38].

Does military law still punish adultery?

Yes. Service members can still be court-martialed for sex outside their marriage, under a broader offense now called "extramarital sexual conduct." An executive order signed on March 1, 2018 amended the Manual for Courts-Martial, and from January 1, 2019 the Article 134 offense replaced the word adultery with this new label and widened the conduct it covers ^[43]. The government must still prove that the conduct harmed good order and discipline or brought discredit on the service, and a court-ordered legal separation is an affirmative defense ^[43].

The military rule applies to every member of the armed forces, whatever the law of the state where they live, and it is the only federal criminal provision on affairs discussed in this article.

Do Americans still think cheating should be a crime?

Americans disapprove of affairs more than almost any other behavior Gallup asks about, even though most states no longer punish them. In Gallup's Values and Beliefs poll of May 1 to 17, 2026, only 7% of adults called an extramarital affair morally acceptable and 89% called it morally wrong ^[44]. Gallup says affairs and human cloning have typically been the least accepted behaviors in its trend ^[44]. By comparison, attitudes to sex between unmarried adults have moved much further, as shown in American opinion on sex outside marriage.

Lawmakers who repeal adultery laws rarely argue that affairs are acceptable. New York's Assembly sponsor, Charles Lavine, said the 1907 law "advanced neither" protection of the community nor deterrence ^[29], and Idaho's commission spoke of constitutionally protected conduct ^[25]. Opponents, from Colorado's Kevin Lundberg in 2013 to the Michigan prosecutor in 2025, have argued that the law still expresses a public standard ^[21][1]. Repeal bills have passed easily in some states and stalled in others, as Michigan's did in 2024.

Frequently asked questions

Is cheating illegal in the United States?

In most states it is not a crime, but about 15 states still list adultery in their criminal codes. Penalties run from a $10 fine in Maryland to felonies in Michigan, Wisconsin and Oklahoma. Prosecutions are rare and usually begin with a spouse's complaint.

In which states is adultery a felony?

Michigan, Wisconsin and Oklahoma treat adultery as a felony. Michigan sets up to four years in prison, Wisconsin classes it as a Class I felony, and Oklahoma's Class D1 felony carries up to five years and a $500 fine since January 1, 2026.

Did New York legalize adultery?

Yes. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the repeal of Penal Law § 255.17 on November 22, 2024, as Chapter 462, effective immediately. The 1907 law had led to about a dozen charges since the 1970s and five convictions.

Is adultery still a crime in Michigan?

Yes, as of November 2026. Section 750.30 still makes adultery a felony punishable by up to four years, and a 2024 repeal bill passed the Senate but saw no House action. Only the spouse can start a prosecution, within one year.

Can you go to jail for cheating on your spouse?

In theory, yes, in states such as South Carolina, Mississippi, Michigan, Wisconsin and Oklahoma, whose laws list jail or prison terms. In practice, jail sentences for adultery alone are almost unheard of, and recent charges have tended to arise from other disputes, such as a domestic call.

Can I sue the person my spouse cheated with?

Only in a few states. Hawaii, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota and Utah still recognize alienation of affection in some form, and North Carolina also allows criminal conversation. North Carolina juries have awarded sums from tens of thousands to millions of dollars.

Does adultery affect alimony?

In some states, yes. In North Carolina a dependent spouse who committed illicit sexual behavior before separation cannot receive alimony, and in Virginia adultery can bar permanent support unless denial would be a manifest injustice. Many other states allow courts to weigh it.

Is adultery a crime in the military?

Yes. Since January 1, 2019, Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice punishes "extramarital sexual conduct," the offense that replaced adultery. Prosecutors must show harm to good order and discipline or discredit to the service.