Covenant Marriage Laws and Divorce Restrictions in U.S. States

Covenant marriage is a legally distinct form of civil marriage available in three U.S. states — Louisiana, Arkansas, and Arizona — that imposes premarital counseling requirements and severely restricts the grounds on which a couple may later obtain a divorce. Unlike standard marriages, which are governed by broad no-fault divorce statutes, covenant marriages require couples to affirmatively opt into a more restrictive legal framework at the time of the ceremony or by conversion after the fact. This page covers the statutory definition, procedural mechanics, common factual scenarios that satisfy restricted-divorce grounds, and the decision boundaries that distinguish covenant marriage dissolution from standard marriage dissolution.

Definition and scope

Covenant marriage is defined by statute in each of the three adopting states as a marriage in which both parties sign a declaration of intent affirming their commitment to seek premarital counseling, to take all reasonable efforts to preserve the marriage if difficulties arise, and to seek dissolution only on enumerated fault-based grounds (Louisiana Revised Statutes § 9:272; Arizona Revised Statutes § 25-901; Arkansas Code Annotated § 9-11-803). Louisiana enacted the first covenant marriage statute in 1997; Arizona followed in 1998 and Arkansas in 2001.

The scope of covenant marriage law is limited by federalism. Because marriage and divorce are matters of state law, only residents of Louisiana, Arkansas, or Arizona can enter a covenant marriage under those states' statutes. No federal law governs covenant marriage. The 47 remaining states have not enacted comparable legislation, and each of those states retains a purely discretionary, largely no-fault dissolution framework.

Covenant marriage is also distinguishable from legal separation and annulment, both of which remain available to covenant-married couples on separate statutory grounds not tied to the fault-based divorce requirements.

How it works

Covenant marriage operates through a three-stage framework:

Pre-ceremony counseling. Both parties must receive premarital counseling from a licensed professional counselor, a marriage and family therapist, a psychiatrist, a clergyperson, or another counselor authorized by the applicable state statute. Counselors are required by law to explain the nature and purpose of covenant marriage, including its divorce restrictions.
Declaration of intent. At or before the marriage ceremony, both parties sign a notarized Declaration of Intent. In Louisiana, this document is filed with the clerk of court and becomes part of the marriage license record (La. R.S. § 9:273). The signed declaration is the operative legal act that distinguishes the covenant marriage from a standard license.
Restricted dissolution. If a covenant-married couple later seeks divorce, the petitioning spouse must demonstrate that at least one of the enumerated fault grounds exists, or that the couple has lived separately for the statutory separation period. The grounds vary slightly by state but generally include: adultery, commission of a felony with a sentence of imprisonment or death, abandonment for at least one year, physical or sexual abuse of a spouse or child, habitual intemperance (substance abuse), and a period of continuous separation (two years in Louisiana, eighteen months in Arizona, and two years in Arkansas).

A couple married under a standard license in any state may not convert that marriage into a covenant marriage under another state's law simply by moving there. Conversion within a state — from standard to covenant — is permitted under all three statutes and follows the same counseling and declaration process as an initial covenant marriage.

Common scenarios

Several factual patterns frequently arise when covenant-married spouses seek dissolution.

Separation as a grounds pathway. The most commonly used mechanism for dissolving a covenant marriage without proving specific fault is the statutory separation period. In Louisiana, La. R.S. § 9:307 permits divorce after two years of continuous separation. This functions similarly to a limited no-fault ground but imposes a waiting period substantially longer than the 180-day separation period available to non-covenant-married Louisiana couples.

Domestic violence grounds. All three states include physical or sexual abuse as an enumerated ground. When a petitioning spouse seeks dissolution on this basis, the divorce proceeding may intersect with protective orders and domestic violence statutes. A criminal conviction is not required; a civil finding or documented protective order may suffice depending on the specific statute.

Interstate recognition disputes. A covenant-married couple from Louisiana who relocates to a state such as Texas — which has no covenant marriage statute — may file for divorce under Texas's standard no-fault framework. Courts in non-covenant states are generally not bound by the restriction statutes of the marriage state. This creates a recognized enforcement gap addressed in the legal literature but not resolved by any uniform act. The Uniform Divorce Recognition Act does not specifically govern covenant marriage restrictions.

Conversion marriages. Couples who convert from a standard to a covenant marriage after problems have already emerged sometimes later argue that the conversion itself was not freely and knowingly made. These cases involve challenges to the validity of the Declaration of Intent and may implicate prenuptial or postnuptial agreement doctrine by analogy.

Decision boundaries

The critical classification boundaries in covenant marriage law are:

Covenant vs. standard marriage: The presence of a signed, notarized, and (in Louisiana) filed Declaration of Intent is the sole operative distinction. Absence of that document means the marriage is governed by the state's standard dissolution statute.
Fault grounds vs. separation period: Spouses who cannot document a fault ground — or who prefer not to litigate fault — must satisfy the full statutory separation period, which is longer in covenant states than in those states' general divorce statutes.
In-state vs. out-of-state filing: Spouses who relocate to a non-covenant state and satisfy that state's residency requirements may obtain a standard no-fault divorce. The constitutionality of this outcome has been debated but no federal court has invalidated it.
Child-related ancillary matters: Covenant marriage restrictions affect only the grounds for dissolution. Child custody, child support, and property division are determined under the same frameworks applicable to standard marriages in the same state.

The divorce filing process for covenant marriages follows the same procedural steps as standard divorce — petition, service of process, response, and adjudication — but the threshold showing required at the substantive stage is fault-specific or separation-period-specific rather than a simple no-fault declaration.

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