What Is the Covenant of Marriage? Grounds, Counseling, and Divorce

A covenant marriage is a stricter form of legal marriage, available in only four states, that limits how and when either spouse can obtain a divorce. Couples opt into it voluntarily at the time they marry (or by converting a standard marriage later), and in exchange for that choice they give up the ability to end the marriage simply because it isn’t working. A divorce from a covenant marriage generally requires proof of serious misconduct by one spouse or an extended period of living apart.

Only Louisiana, Arizona, Arkansas, and Tennessee currently recognize covenant marriages.1Tennessee General Assembly. HB0315 – Tennessee Covenant Marriage Act Louisiana created the first such law in 1997; Tennessee’s statute took effect on July 1, 2025. The option does not exist anywhere else in the country, and the specific rules differ meaningfully from one covenant state to the next.

How You Enter a Covenant Marriage

Every covenant marriage state requires the same three things before a clerk will issue a covenant marriage license: premarital counseling, a signed declaration of intent, and acknowledgment that both spouses understand the restrictions they are accepting.

Premarital Counseling

Both spouses must attend counseling with a member of the clergy or a licensed marriage counselor before applying for the license.2Louisiana Department of Health. Covenant Marriage The session has to cover the lifelong nature of the commitment, the limited grounds for ending it, and the couple’s obligation to seek further counseling if problems develop later. The counselor signs an attestation confirming that these topics were discussed.3AZ Court Help. Covenant Marriage Information

Declaration of Intent

The central document is the Declaration of Intent. In it, both spouses affirm that they are entering a lifelong marriage and understand the legal consequences of that choice.4Justia Law. Louisiana Code RS 9-272 – Covenant Marriage; Intent; Conditions to Create It includes a recitation of the couple’s promises, the counselor’s attestation, and a notarized affidavit signed by both parties.5Justia Law. Louisiana Code RS 9-273.1 – Declaration of Intent; Form It is filed with the clerk together with the standard marriage license application.

Informational Pamphlet

In Louisiana, the Attorney General’s office publishes a pamphlet explaining covenant marriage law, and both spouses have to confirm they received and read it before signing the declaration.2Louisiana Department of Health. Covenant Marriage Tennessee requires a similar pamphlet from the Secretary of State.6Tennessee General Assembly. Tennessee Covenant Marriage Act SB 737 Arizona provides its own materials through the courts.3AZ Court Help. Covenant Marriage Information Skip any of these steps and the clerk issues a standard marriage license instead.

Converting an Existing Marriage

You can convert an existing standard marriage into a covenant marriage without remarrying. The process mirrors the requirements for a new covenant marriage: both spouses attend counseling, sign a declaration of intent stating they want to be governed by covenant marriage law, and file the paperwork with the clerk or the official who issued the original license.7Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 25-902 – Existing Marriages; Conversion to Covenant Marriage; Recording Requirements

The conversion takes effect from the date the new declaration is recorded. From that point forward, the stricter divorce standards apply. There is no mechanism to revert to a standard marriage later short of divorce itself.

Grounds for Divorce in a Covenant Marriage

The core restriction is that you generally cannot divorce just because the relationship has broken down. The spouse seeking divorce has to prove specific grounds. The lists overlap heavily across the four states and typically include:

Arizona’s statute is noticeably broader. It adds habitual drug or alcohol abuse as a standalone ground, and it allows divorce by the mutual consent of both spouses without proving fault at all.10Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 25-903 – Dissolution of a Covenant Marriage; Grounds That mutual-consent option makes an Arizona covenant marriage substantially easier to exit than one in Louisiana or Arkansas, where no equivalent exists.

Divorce Through Separation When There Are No Fault Grounds

If none of the fault grounds apply, the only remaining path is living apart for a required period. The separation has to be continuous and without reconciliation. The length depends on the state and on whether the couple first obtained a legal separation decree.

Without a prior separation decree, the wait is two years in all four states.9Justia Law. Louisiana Code RS 9-307 – Divorce or Separation From Bed and Board in a Covenant Marriage; Exclusive Grounds If a legal separation was obtained first, the clock runs differently:

Arkansas’s two-year post-separation wait is the longest, making an Arkansas covenant marriage the hardest to dissolve through separation alone. In all four states, if child abuse was the basis for the separation decree, the waiting period drops to one year regardless of whether minor children are involved.

Counseling Before You Can File

The counseling commitment does not end at the altar. By signing the declaration of intent, both spouses agree to seek marital counseling if difficulties arise. In Louisiana, that promise has real teeth: the law requires both spouses to obtain counseling before a court will consider a divorce petition, and if the spouses have begun living apart, counseling is expected to continue until the court issues the divorce judgment.9Justia Law. Louisiana Code RS 9-307 – Divorce or Separation From Bed and Board in a Covenant Marriage; Exclusive Grounds

A spouse who files for divorce without first attending counseling risks having the petition dismissed or delayed. This catches people off guard, especially couples who entered a covenant marriage years earlier and never thought much about the ongoing obligations.

Using Legal Separation to Shorten the Wait

A legal separation decree lets the court address spousal support, property division, child custody, and debt allocation while the couple remains legally married.11AZ Court Help. In a Covenant Marriage, How Can I Get a Consent Decree Signed by the Court It also starts the shorter clock described above. In Louisiana and Arizona, filing for legal separation first effectively cuts the required waiting time in half compared to simply living apart. For a spouse who cannot prove any fault ground, it is often the faster route to an eventual divorce.

What Happens If You Move to Another State

If a couple enters a covenant marriage in Louisiana and later moves to a state that does not recognize the designation, the practical question is whether the new state’s courts have to apply the stricter rules. The answer is usually no.

An Alabama appellate court addressed this directly in 2015, holding that it had no obligation to apply Louisiana’s covenant marriage restrictions to a couple who had relocated. The court reasoned that the power to grant a divorce is “purely statutory,” and a state applies its own divorce laws regardless of where the marriage was formed.12FindLaw Caselaw. Blackburn v. Blackburn

The Full Faith and Credit Clause does not force a different outcome. The Supreme Court has long held that the Clause is far less demanding for another state’s statutes than for its court judgments, and states keep broad freedom to apply their own laws in their own courts.13Congress.gov. Overview of Full Faith and Credit Clause In practice, that means a spouse who establishes residency in a non-covenant state may be able to file for a standard no-fault divorce there, bypassing the restrictions they originally agreed to. The result depends on the new state’s residency rules and whether its courts would, as a matter of comity, give any weight to the law of the state where the marriage was formed.