In 2022 how many proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution appeared on the ballot Quizlet

Texas Constitution
Preamble
Articles
1 • 2 3 (1-43) • 3 (44-49) • 3 (50-67) 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17

The Texas Constitution is the fundamental governing document of the state of Texas.

Features

The Texas Constitution describes the structure and function of the government of Texas. It consists of a preamble and 17 articles.

Background

• The current (and fourth) Texas Constitution was adopted in 1876.[1]
• The current constitution has been amended 515 times.[1]
• The most recent amendments to the Texas Constitution, of which there were eight, were approved by voters in 2021.
• Texas does not feature a process for initiated constitutional amendments. Thus, amendments in Texas can be put on the ballot through referral by the legislature. The Texas Constitution is one of 11 state constitutions with no mechanism or a lack of clarity in the process for calling a constitutional convention.

Preamble

The preamble to the Texas Constitution states:

Article 1: Bill of Rights

Article 1 of the Texas Constitution is entitled the "Bill of Rights" and consists of 34 sections. The article originally contained 29 sections; since 1876, five sections have been added. Most of the article's provisions concern specific fundamental limitations on the power of the state government and certain rights granted to citizens that cannot be ignored under any circumstances.[3]

Every provision of the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution has a counterpart in Article 1 of the Texas Constitution.

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Article 2: Power of Government

Article 2 of the Texas Constitution is labeled as the "Power of Government" and provides for the separation of the powers of the government.

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Article 3: Legislative Department

Article 3 of the Texas Constitution is labeled "Legislative Department." It vests the legislative power of the state in the Legislature of the State of Texas and establishes that the legislature consists of the Texas Senate and Texas House of Representatives.

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Article 4: Executive Department

Article 4 of the Texas Constitution is entitled "Executive Department" and consists of 26 sections. It describes the powers and duties the state's executive officials.

Article 5: Judicial Department

Article 5 of the Texas Constitution is labeled as the "Judicial Department" and consists of 32 sections, three of which have been repealed. It describes the composition, powers and jurisdiction of the Texas Supreme Court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, the Court of Appeals, the District, County and Commissioners Courts and the Justice of the Peace Courts.

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Article 6: Suffrage

Article 6 of the Texas Constitution is labeled "Suffrage" and consists of five sections. This article defines classes of persons not allowed to vote including minors, persons convicted of a felony and people deemed mentally incompetent by a court.

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Article 7: Education

Article 7 of the Texas Constitution is labeled "Education" and consists of 20 sections, two of which have been repealed. It establishes provisions for public schools, asylums and universities. This article also discusses the creation and maintenance of the Permanent University Fund and mandates the establishment of a "university of the first class" (the University of Texas) as well as an agricultural and mechanical university (Texas A&M University).[2]

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Article 8: Taxation and Revenue

Article 8 of the Texas Constitution is labeled "Taxation and Revenue." It places various restrictions on the ability of the Legislature and local governments to impose taxes. Most of these restriction concern local property taxes and, in some cases, prohibits statewide property taxes). Texas does not have a personal income tax, and section 24, added by an amendment adopted in 1993, restricts the ability of the Texas State Legislature to impose such a tax.

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Article 9: Counties

Article 9 of the Texas Constitution is labeled as "Counties" and consists of 14 sections, three of which have been repealed and one of which is blank. It provides rules for the creation of counties and determining the location of county seats.

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Article 10: Railroads

Article 10 of the Texas Constitution is labeled "Railroads." It originally consists of nine sections, eight of which have been repealed.

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Article 11: Municipal Corporations

Article 11 of the Texas Constitution is labeled "Municipal Corporations" and consists of 13 sections, two of which have been repealed. It recognizes counties as legal political sub-units of the state, grants certain powers to cities and counties and empowers the legislature to form school districts.

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Article 12: Private Corporations

Article 12 of the Texas Constitution is labeled "Private Corporations" and consists of seven sections, five of which have been repealed.

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Article 13: Spanish and Mexican Land Titles

Article 13 of the Texas Constitution was repealed on August 5, 1969. It was labeled as "Spanish and Mexican Land Titles" and established provisions for Spanish and Mexican land titles.

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Article 14: Public Lands and Land Office

Article 14 of the Texas Constitution is labeled as "Public Lands and Land Office" and consists of its eight sections, seven of which have been repealed. Its single section establishes the General Land Office and the office of commissioner of the General Land Office.

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Article 15: Impeachment

Article 15 of the Texas Constitution is labeled "Impeachment" and consists of nine sections. It lays out the rules under which Texas government officials can be removed from office and describes the process of impeachment. The Texas House of Representatives is granted the power of impeachment.

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Article 16: General Provisions

Article 16 of the Texas Constitution is entitled "General Provisions" and consists of 73 sections, 27 of which have been repealed and one of which has been redesignated.

Miscellaneous provisions include limits on interest rates, civil penalties for murder, the punishment for bribery, prohibitions on garnishment of wages and provisions for the constitutional protection of a mechanic's lien.

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Article 17: Mode of Amending the Constitution of This State

Article 17 of the Texas Constitution is entitled "Mode of Amending the Constitution of This State" and consists of two sections, of which one has been repealed. It prescribes the procedure for amending the constitution.

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Amending the constitution

Texas Constitution
Preamble
Articles
1 • 2 3 (1-43) • 3 (44-49) • 3 (50-67) 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17

• As laid out in Article 17, in order for a proposed constitutional amendment to go before the people, the Texas State Legislature must propose the amendment in a joint resolution of both the Texas State Senate and the Texas House of Representatives.

• The joint resolution can originate in either branch of the legislature. The resolution must be adopted by a vote of at least two-thirds of the membership of each house of the legislature. That amounts to a minimum of 100 votes in the House of Representatives and 21 votes in the Senate.
• Amendments may be proposed in either regular or special sessions.
• Joint resolutions endorsing a proposed amendment must include the text of the proposed constitutional amendment and specify an election date. These joint resolutions may include more than one proposed amendment.
• If more than one proposition is under consideration on a ballot, the Texas Secretary of State conducts a random drawing to assign each proposition a ballot number.
• If voters reject an amendment, the legislature can resubmit it. For example, after Proposition 2 was rejected in August 1991, the legislature re-adopted it and re-submitted it for that year's November ballot, where it was approved as Texas Proposition 13 (1991).
• The ballot wording of a proposition is specified in the joint resolution adopted by the Legislature, which has broad discretion in this matter. Texas courts have heard challenges to proposed ballot wording but have generally ruled that "ballot language is sufficient if it describes the proposed amendment with such definiteness and certainty that voters will not be misled."[4]
• The Legislature may call an election for voter consideration of proposed constitutional amendments on any date, as long as election authorities have sufficient time to provide notice to the voters and print the ballots.
• A brief explanatory statement of the nature of each proposed amendment, along with the ballot wording for each amendment, must be published twice in each newspaper in the state that prints official notices. The first notice must be published 50 to 60 days before the election. The second notice must be published on the same day of the subsequent week. The secretary of state must send a complete copy of each amendment to each county clerk, who must post it in the courthouse at least 30 days prior to the election.
• The secretary of state drafts the ballot explanation. This must be approved by the Attorney General of Texas.
• Constitutional amendments take effect when the official vote canvass confirms statewide majority approval, unless a later date is specified. Statewide election results are tabulated by the secretary of state and must be canvassed by the governor 15 to 30 days following the election.

History

On February 15, 1876, the current Texas state constitution took effect. This version is the state's fifth document since Texas achieved statehood. Prior to entering the United States, Texas had an additional two constitutions, the Coahuila y Tejas and the 1836 Constitution of the Republic of Texas.[5] Once statehood was achieved, Texas adopted a constitution in 1845, 1861, 1866, 1869 and 1876.[6][7]

The current constitution included 289 sections organized into 17 articles when it was ratified in 1876. Since then, 211 new sections have been added, and 66 of the original sections plus 49 of the added sections have been removed.[8] The Texas constitution is one the of longest and oldest still in effect.[8]

See also

• State constitution
• Constitutional article
• Constitutional amendment
• Constitutional revision
• Constitutional convention
• Amendments
  • Initiated constitutional amendment
  • Legislatively-referred constitutional amendment
  • Publication requirements for proposed state constitutional amendments
  • Rules about constitutional conventions in state constitutions
  • State constitutional articles governing state legislatures

External links

• Texas Constitution and Statutes, "Texas Constitution"
• Constitution of the Republic, 1836 from Gammel's Laws of Texas, Vol. I. hosted by the Portal to Texas History.
• Constitution of the State of Texas, 1861 from Gammel's Laws of Texas, Vol. V. hosted by the Portal to Texas History.
• Constitution of the State of Texas, 1866 from Gammel's Laws of Texas, Vol. V. hosted by the Portal to Texas History.
• Texas Legislative Research Library - Constitutional amendments search: A search engine that retrieves summaries of proposed amendments, both adopted and defeated
• Amendments to the Texas Constitution from 1876-present
• Texas State Historical Society, "Constitution of 1876"

Footnotes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Texas Legislative Council, "Amendments to the Texas Constitution Since 1876," May 2014
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Texas Constitution and Statutes, "Texas Constitution," accessed March 30, 2014
3. ↑ Texas Constitution and Statutes, "Article 1. Bill of Rights," accessed November 2, 2016
4. ↑ Texas Legislative Library, "Description of amendment procedure, p. 3," accessed July 13, 2015
5. ↑ Lone Star Junction, "The Constitution of Texas," accessed March 30, 2014
6. ↑ Texas History, "The 1861 Constitution of Texas," accessed March 30, 2014
7. ↑ University of Texas: Austin - Texas Politics, "The Constitution," accessed March 30, 2014
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Texas.gov, "Amendments to the Texas Constitution Since 1876," accessed March 30, 2014

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