New York Court of Appeals

The People of the State of New York v. Mario Liberta

December 20, 198464 N.Y.2d 152

Summary

The Court affirmed the conviction, holding that a Family Court protection order qualifies as "living apart" so the defendant was not married for purposes of the rape and sodomy statutes, and that both the marital exemption and the gender exemption in those statutes violate the Equal Protection Clause. The Court struck the exemptions while leaving the statutes otherwise intact.