Thou shalt not…
Herman Cain's alleged extramarital affair with Ginger White lasted more than twice as long as Newt Gingrich's affair with Callista Bisek.
It’s possible that the trouble that led Herman Cain to “suspend” Herman Cain’s campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination is really just an elaborate conspiracy by a bipartisan coalition of five women who don’t even know each other to bring down his campaign. But in any case, in all of the discussion of the situation one question about Cain’s alleged conduct has been neglected: is it against the law?
As Tim Murphy writes in Mother Jones, in fact it is:
According to title 16, chapter 9, section 9 of the Georgia code of criminal conduct, “A married person commits the offense of adultery when he voluntarily has sexual intercourse with a person other than his spouse and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished as for a misdemeanor.” At least Georgia adulterers are in good company; adultery is a criminal offense in 23 states, with punishments ranging from a $10 fine in Maryland to life imprisonment in Michigan (at least according to one judge). It’s also prohibited by the Uniform Code of Military Justice…
Lest one wonder about one’s own exposure, Murphy and his colleague Tasneem Raja provide a handy map:
click here for larger interactive version
Murphy points out that (rogue Michigan judges notwithstanding) adultery laws are very rarely enforced. Still, they remain in the statute books of the states colored red (or should one say, “scarlet”?) thanks to the efforts of social-conservative activist groups and legislators, who’ve successfully resisted attempts to remove them… the same groups, of course, that were massed behind Cain, and now Gingrich.
Stranger than fiction, truth is…
Read the full story at “Map: Is Adultery Illegal?”
As we wonder if there’s a market in CDOs for the bonds of marriage, we might recall that it was on this date in 1936 that Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; later The Duke of Windsor) became the first English monarch voluntarily to abdicate his throne– a decision he made after the British government, public, and the Church of England condemned his decision to marry the American divorcée Wallis Warfield Simpson. In an address to the nation, Edward explained: “I have found it impossible to carry on the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge the duties of king, as I would wish to do, without the help and support of the woman I love.” The following day, his younger brother, the duke of York, was proclaimed King George VI.
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor (source)