Minnesota Women No Longer Face Jail and Fines for Cheating

It's hard to believe that a law like this remained a thing in Minnesota until just last year, and still remains a thing in several states.

Minnesota statute 609.36 deals strictly with adultery, and it was clearly written by men, as it says more about what happens when women cheat, and doesn't have much to say about cheating men, except if you're the guy a married woman cheated with, even then, guys were given a way out.

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The statute reads, "When a married woman has sexual intercourse with a man other than her husband, whether married or not, both are guilty of adultery". If found guilty, both could be sent to jail for a year and/or get up to a $3,000 fine. Here's the catch, the guy that the married woman cheated with can use "I didn't know she was married" as a defense.

The law says,  "if the marital status of the woman was not known to the defendant at the time of the act of adultery", that it could be used as a defense. It is also OK, according to the law, for a married man to cheat with a single woman with zero legal issues.

Thankfully, lawmakers realized that this law was still on the books, and that it should be repealed, and that's what happened just last year when Minnesota statute 609.36 was repealed.

Minnesota is a "no fault" divorce state, so at this point, cheating on your spouse may be morally crappy, but it won't have any effect on any divorce proceeding, and thanks to the repeal of this law, it doesn't have any legal repercussions either.