The Mississippi Constitution of 1817, Article VI, Section 17 , provided that “Divorces from the bonds of matrimony, shall not be granted but in cases provided for by law, by suit in Chancery; provided that no decree for divorce shall have effect until the same shall be sanctioned by two-thirds of both branches of the General Assembly.”

At the time Mississippi became a state it took a vote by 2/3 of the legislature to get a divorce, after a Judge determined you had grounds for divorce.

This requirement for legislative approval was removed in 1869 and likewise did not reappear in the 1890 Mississippi, the state’s current Constitution.

So, no, it does not take an act of the legislature to get a divorce…anymore, but it can still be difficult and possibly impossible in Mississippi without provable fault grounds.

Matthew Thompson is a divorce and civil litigation attorney in Mississippi.