The Mississippi Supreme Court on Friday ordered new rules requiring additional law school after repeated bar exam failures.

In a divided opinion the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled on new proposed rules governing admission to the Mississippi Bar. The enacted rule requires that after three consecutive failures to pass the bar, the applicant will be required to complete an additional 12 hours of law school before they would be eligible to retake it. After completing the additional 12 hours, the applicant will be entitled to one additional exam. Each failure at this point will again require 12 more hours of law school.

The new rules were issued by Presiding Justice Leslie King. Justice Coleman wrote a separate opinion agreeing with the three-attempt limit but arguing applicants should be ineligible for bar admission after three attempts. Justice Griffis argued in another separate opinion that additional study requirements should be imposed by the Mississippi Bar Association in their discretion and that applicants should be permanently banned from retaking the exam after five failures.