Skip to main content California laws go easier on rapists who attack their spouses. Legislation to change that has gone nowhere FacebookTwitterEmail Kolieka Seigle, president of the California National Organization for Women, teamed up with other women’s groups and progressive district attorneys to seek a change to marital rape laws.Stephen Lam / The Chronicle Stanford law professor Michele Dauber thought pushing for changes to the state’s spousal rape laws would be a no-brainer. After all, this is 2021. In so-called progressive California. Why would anybody support old-fashioned laws distinguishing spousal rape from rape, making the latter subject to far more serious consequences?