DescriptionUnited States Adultery Laws Enacted by Party Penalized.svg
Who adulterly statutes penalized as of 1996. State laws criminalizing sex between a married person and someone other than her/his spouse. Before most states adopted no fault divorce laws in the 1970's, most states had statutes allowing divorce caused by a spouse's adultery. There is currently no explicit U.S. Supreme Court ruling on adultery laws, many legal scholars consider the Lawrence v. Texas ruling to have overturned existing adultery statues. As of 2013, approximately 23 states still have adultery laws in statutes.
Legend
No statute
Law applies only to man
Law applies to both parties
Law applies only to married partner(s)
Minnesota*
Unknown
Minnesota's statute applies to both partners if they are both married. If one partner is unmarried, the law only applies to the married woman. The law does not apply to married man and unmarried woman.
I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.
Licensing
I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license:
to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.