Mississippi Legislature
The Mississippi Legislature is the state's bicameral legislature, made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Entries naming it record bills it passed, generally alongside the governor who signed them. Its measures in the archive include religious exemptions from service provision and directives to state agencies to compile records about residents.
2026 Events (3)
Mississippi Gov. Reeves signed SB 2114 directing state police to compile a registry of undocumented residents and criminalizing unlawful presence
On April 8, 2026, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed Senate Bill 2114, which directs the Mississippi Department of Public Safety to determine on an ongoing two-year basis the number and identities of all undocumented residents in the state, collecting names, addresses, country of origin, minor status, criminal history, and deportation-proceeding status. The law also criminalizes unlawful presence as a state offense, carrying a six-month minimum with felony enhancements, and requires state and county agencies to seek 287(g) cooperation agreements with ICE. Civil-rights groups warned the registry invites racial profiling and echoes historical list-making against disfavored groups.
Mississippi Gov. Reeves signed SB 2322 requiring driver's licenses to show sex assigned at birth and nullifying court-ordered gender changes
On April 8, 2026, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed Senate Bill 2322, which requires the sex designation on every Mississippi driver's license to reflect the holder's sex as determined at birth and provides that a court order recognizing a change of gender "shall have no effect" on the sex indicated on a license. The law permits changes only for a scrivener's error or a verified disorder of sex development, barring transgender residents from obtaining or renewing a license that matches their gender identity. The measure took effect July 1, 2026.
Mississippi Gov. Reeves signed the SHIELD Act requiring citizenship checks for new voters and annual ICE voter-roll audits
On April 1, 2026, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed the SHIELD Act, requiring local election officials to run additional citizenship checks on voter-registration applicants who lack or cannot provide a driver's-license number, effective July 1, 2026. The law also requires Mississippi's secretary of state to annually cross-check the voter rolls against a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement database to flag potential noncitizens for eligibility review. The Southern Poverty Law Center said the law could disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Mississippians who lack a passport or birth certificate, or whose surnames no longer match their birth certificates due to marriage.
2025 Events (2)
Mississippi Gov. Reeves signed HB 1193 banning DEI programs and barring instruction on transgender identity and gender theory in public schools
On April 17, 2025, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed House Bill 1193, banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and offices in the state's K-12 public schools and public universities. The law separately bars teaching or promoting concepts described as "transgender ideology, gender-neutral pronouns, heteronormativity, gender theory, sexual privilege or any related formulation," and requires institutions to affirm a two-sex, chromosome-based definition of gender. A federal judge later found the law unconstitutionally vague and issued a preliminary injunction blocking its enforcement statewide.
Mississippi Gov. Reeves signed HB 188 mandating correctional-facility housing and restroom segregation by sex assigned at birth
On March 18, 2025, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed House Bill 188, the "Dignity and Safety for Incarcerated Women Act," after it passed the House 103-4 on February 10, 2025 and the Senate 48-0 on March 7, 2025. The law defines "sex" in state corrections law as biological sex observed or verified at birth and requires restrooms, changing rooms, and sleeping quarters in Mississippi correctional facilities to be segregated on that basis rather than gender identity. It also creates a private civil cause of action letting an incarcerated person sue a facility for declaratory and injunctive relief if they encounter someone of the opposite biological sex in those spaces.
2024 Events (1)
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed SB 2753 requiring birth-sex-based restrooms and housing in public schools and universities
On May 13, 2024, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed Senate Bill 2753, the "Securing Areas for Females Effectively and Responsibly Act" (SAFER Act), into law. The measure requires public schools, community colleges, and universities to designate restrooms, changing facilities, and student housing by sex "determined solely by a birth" and codifies statewide definitions of "male" and "female" fixed at birth, creating a private civil cause of action to enforce it. Sponsored by Sen. Josh Harkins and passed by the Mississippi Legislature, the law took effect immediately.
2023 Events (1)
Mississippi enacted HB1125 banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors and revoking providers' licenses
On February 28, 2023, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed HB1125, the Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures (REAP) Act, making Mississippi the seventh state to bar minors from receiving puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or gender-transition surgery. The law, which took effect immediately, strips the medical license of any provider who furnishes such care, blocks public funds and Medicaid from covering it, and lets patients sue providers for up to 30 years. It was passed by the Republican-led Mississippi Legislature over objections from LGBTQ advocates and medical groups.
2021 Events (1)
Mississippi Gov. Reeves signed SB 2536 banning transgender students from women's and girls' school sports
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves signed SB 2536, the "Mississippi Fairness Act," on March 11, 2021, barring transgender students from competing on women's and girls' sports teams at the state's public K-12 schools and universities. The bill designates those teams as not "open to students of the male sex" without establishing how sex is determined or how eligibility disputes are resolved. It was the first anti- transgender law enacted in the United States that year.
2016 Events (1)
Mississippi Gov. Bryant signed HB 1523, authorizing religion-based denial of service to LGBT people
On April 5, 2016, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed HB 1523, the "Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act," into law. The statute lets state employees, private businesses, religious organizations, and state-funded providers refuse services based on three specified religious beliefs about marriage, sex, and gender, shielding refusal of marriage licenses to same-sex couples and denial of services to LGBT people and unmarried people. A federal judge enjoined the law in June 2016, but the Fifth Circuit later reversed on standing grounds and it took effect on October 9, 2017.