Hey, Texplainer: Why does the Texas Constitution have so many amendments? This November, another 10 constitutional amendments approved by the state Legislature will be put to a vote in a biennial referendum that’s become something of a tradition in Texas. The proposed amendments, which range from a measure allowing El Paso County to finance parks and recreational areas, to a measure facilitating partnerships between cities, counties or government agencies, will bring the total number of amendments considered by Texas voters to 656 since the current state Constitution was ratified on Feb. 15, 1876. Of those, 467 amendments have been approved — the fourth-highest number of amendments of any state, behind Alabama, California and South Carolina. Why has the Texas Constitution been changed so much? One answer is that amending the state's Constitution is relatively easy. Texas has a relatively low bar for amending its Constitution. Another reason that Texas’ Constitution has needed additions and alterations so often is that, perhaps paradoxically, it takes a highly restrictive view of the powers of state government. Both of these factors, which Texas has in common with many other states, differ markedly from the United States Constitution.The founding fathers wanted to make it a difficult process to amend the federal Constitution, and they succeeded. There are several different ways to change the U.S. Constitution, but it’s only ever been amended by a process that requires a two-thirds vote by both houses of Congress and the approval of three-fourths of the states. Unlike that Constitution, which has remained relatively brief with 27 amendments and has only been changed once since 1971, the Texas Constitution merely requires an amendment be passed by the state Legislature and approved by voters in a referendum.Another reason for the difference between the two constitutions lies in the different philosophical approaches the framers of the constitutions had about the role of government. The U.S. Constitution sets out the responsibilities and powers of government, and then grants Congress the “power - To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying” into being the powers granted in the rest of the document. This, the Necessary and Proper Clause, is the justification for a wide array of federal powers not specifically enumerated by the Constitution itself. There is no equivalent to that clause in the Texas Constitution. Instead, the powers granted to the Legislature and governor include only those specifically written in the state Constitution. So, even small legislative changes — like allowing El Paso County to finance its own parks with local taxes — can require a constitutional amendment and a referendum. A good example of the challenges posed by this type of restrictive constitution is Article X, one of the 17 articles in the Texas Constitution. The article dealt with the regulation of railroads — a hot-button issue in 1876. Article X has remained in the Constitution long after the federal government took over regulatory duties for transportation, and in 1969, all except one of the Article’s sections was repealed. The remaining section is likewise outdated, and has little force of law. Over the years, there have been many attempts to clean up the ever-growing document. A constitutional convention called by the Legislature in 1974 met for 150 days before ending in gridlock: The proposed constitution fell short by three votes, with 118 for and 62 against. When the Legislature tried to add parts of the proposed constitution to the current one a year later in the form of eight constitutional amendments, all were overwhelmingly rejected by voters. In 1999, state Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mt. Pleasant, and state Rep. Rob Junell, D-San Angelo, proposed a rewritten constitution which attempted to simplify the document and streamline state government. The bill died in committee, but the bill’s authors remained convinced of the need for reform. Voters, Ratliff said at the time, know “that any document that you have to amend 20 times every other year is broke. It's sort of a Texas tragedy, actually, that we can't seem to come to grips with the fact that we need a new basic document going into the next century and the next millennium.”At least Texas’ Constitution isn’t the most unwieldy: Alabama's Constitution, which has been amended 827 times, is more than 340,000 words long. That’s three times as long as the longest constitution of a soverign nation, India's. And California’s Constitution, which allows constitutional amendments to be introduced to the ballot by petition, has contributed significantly to the state’s budgetary woes and was the subject of a special report in The Economist earlier this year. Barring a constitutional convention, though, Texas voters should get used to watching more obscure amendments sail through the approval process, whether its 2003’s Proposition 21, which allowed “a current or retired faculty member of a public college or university to receive compensation for service on the governing body of a water district," or Proposition 5, from 2001, which permitted “cities to donate used firefighting equipment to foreign countries.” Bottom line: The way the Texas document is written makes it, perhaps paradoxically, both fairly easy to amend and highly restrictive in the powers it grants, making frequent and often highly specific changes necessary. Got a question for Texplainer? Email us at .
Texas Tribune donors or members may be quoted or mentioned in our stories, or may be the subject of them. For a complete list of contributors, click here. Glillian Rosa-Orama Dr. Karen Waugh GOVT 2306 20 July 2015 The Texas Constitution has evolved in many ways throughout history. Before the current constitution there were five predecessors. There were many factors that effected each of the five constitutions. After very long governance by Spain and Mexico and a small war with Mexico, the Texans finally won their independence. The first constitution had become official in September of 1836. This first constitution was called the Republic Of Texas Constitution. After struggling for about nine years to become apart of the Union, Texas’s second constitution was created. The Second constitution was called the Statehood Constitution and was thought to be one of the best constitutions of time. The Jacksonian Democracy greatly influenced the Statehood Constitution. The idea of the Jacksonian Democracy was to increase the people’s participation in the government. This Constitution lasted about 16 years until Texas joined the Confederate Sates of America in 1861. This third constitution was called the Civil War Constitution. The main goal was to modify the …show more content…Constitution. Both of the constitutions contain the separations of powers, which consist of the legislative, judicial, and executive branch. They also have restrictions on which government actions cannot be done due to being unequal. Both constitutions have the, “Separation of church and state, due process for the criminally accused, and freedom of speech and of the press,”(Newell, Prindle, and Riddlesperger 47-48). The U.S. constitution allows the government officials to have more say in their work than the State constitution. In both the state and national level there are many things that the some branches of the government can do that others cannot, that is why some people say, ”Powers are not truly separated, but overlapping and shared,” (Newell, Prindle, and Riddlesperger
In keeping with Texas' dramatic history, the Texas Constitution has gone through several different versions. Below is a brief timeline of the various Constitutions and their importance in the overall constitutional history of Texas. Each entry includes links to the text of that version and to its Handbook of Texas article. 1836: Texas Declaration of Independence & Constitution of the Republic of Texas This was the first governing document of the Republic of Texas after it won independence from Mexico. It was a very short document based heavily on the U.S. Constitution. It was never amended and was in effect for only a few years before Texas joined the United States. Handbook of Texas article on the 1836 Constitution 1845: First State Constitution Upon joining the United States, Texas redrafted its Constitution completely. It became longer and more detailed, although it was still nowhere near the length it would eventually become. This Constitution is notable mainly for creating Texas' free public school system and school funding system. Handbook of Texas article on the 1845 Constitution 1861: Confederate Constitution When Texas seceded from the Union, it adopted this Constitution. The changes from the 1845 Constitution were minimal and consisted mainly of revising terminology to reflect Texas' membership in the Confederacy. Handbook of Texas article on the 1861 Constitution 1866: Post-War Constitution This temporary constitution was adopted immediately after the end of the Civil War when Texas was under the jurisdiction of the federal government. This Constitution was not intended to be the final governing document of the State; it was a placeholder meant to quickly get rid of the Confederate constitution and implement the requirements of Reconstruction. As such, its main effects were to abolish slavery and grant civil rights to African-Americans. It also for the first time gave the governor the power to exercise a line-item veto over budget provisions. Handbook of Texas article on the 1866 Constitution 1869: Reconstruction Constitution This Constitution is notable for never actually being completed or adopted by the Legislature. After the Constitutional Convention failed to agree on a final draft, the federal military forces occupying Texas took over and pieced together a Constitution from the various proposed articles. This is the version that was ratified by the public. This Constitution is notable for more explicitly abolishing slavery and guaranteeing civil rights to all citizens, in compliance with the Reconstruction Acts passed by Congress. However, it also included several provisions that greatly upset many Texans and paved the way for the next Constitution. Most notably, it stripped voting rights from former Confederate officers and vested immense power in government officials, especially the governor. Handbook of Texas article on the 1869 Constitution 1876: Current Constitution In reaction to the perceived abuses of the 1869 Constitution, the 1876 Constitution established the pattern of a long, restrictive document intended to act as a check on state government power. It substantially restricted the governor's powers and went into great detail on many relatively minor issues. This excessive detail was intended to prevent state officials from taking advantage of vague language in order to usurp local governance. It also created the state's unusual double supreme court system. This Constitution, in greatly amended form, is still in effect today. Handbook of Texas article on the 1876 Constitution 1974: Proposed Constitution In 1974, a Constitutional Convention was held in order to modernize and streamline the 1876 Constitution, which was viewed as cumbersome and outdated. However, the proposed revision failed by only 3 votes and was never submitted to the voters. The Legislature attempted to incorporate some proposals via constitutional amendments the next year, but all eight proposed amendments were defeated. Although the process did not result in a new constitution, it did leave a lasting legacy in the form of a trove of valuable research materials for constitutional scholars and historians. Handbook of Texas article on the 1974 Constitutional Convention Page 2
Texas' statutes have a long, complicated publication history. This might not seem like something the modern researcher should worry about, but when you come across a situation where you need to know a law's history, it's crucial to understand where you can find that information. This timeline will take users through a brief history of the various versions of the statutes. It also includes links to each item online, if available. Pre-1879: Private Publishers During the early days of Texas, no official version of the statutes was available, so private companies stepped up with digests and unofficial compilations. Paschal's Digest, 1866-1878 Gammell's Laws of Texas, 1822-1897 Sayles' Early Laws of Texas, 1731-1879 Sayles' Revised Civil Statutes, 1888-1922 1854-1879: First Publication In 1854, the Texas Legislature officially approved a project to codify the state's laws in print. The project drew heavily from Paschal's Digest. In 1856, the Penal Code & the Code of Criminal Procedure were officially codified. These are often cited as the Old Code, or "O.C.". In 1879, the Civil Statutes were officially codified. There were no topical codes, just an alphabetical listing of statutes with little internal organization. There were no case notes or annotations other than some basic history for some, but not all, laws. 1895, 1911 & 1925: Recompilations New versions of the statutes were published in 1895 and 1911, recompiling the existing statutes and incorporating the laws passed since the previous recompilation. The organization and annotations remained the same. The 1925 recompilation was the final version published by the state. That same year, Vernon's Revised Texas Statutes began publication, and the Legislature soon gave them approval to publish their statutes as the official version. From then on, the statutes were published by private publishers with the permission of the state. 1925-1960s Vernon's Revised Texas Statutes continued its publication throughout this period. Full recompilations were printed in 1936 and 1948, supplemented every two years with non-cumulative volumes. However, the constant expansion of the statutes and the 1925 revision's numbering scheme made it hard to add sections, resulting in an increasingly cumbersome and obtuse publication. While the statutes were arranged alphabetically by subject - a definite improvement over the official codes' largely random arrangement - they were still hard to use due to the organizational structure and the need to check multiple volumes for updating. By the end of the 1960s, there was general agreement in the legal community that a change was needed. 1963: Code Revision In 1963, the Legislature created the Office of the Code Revisor, a legislative agency charged with reviewing all of the existing statutes, dividing them into topical codes, and publishing these revisions as bills. The bills were then approved by the Legislature and published as Vernon's Texas Codes Annotated. The Code Revisor was also given a mandate to clean up the statutes' numbering and organizational system, including leaving adequate room for expansion, as well as revise the statutory language to remove and update outdated terminology. The revision was to be nonsubstantive, meaning that any changes could not affect the meaning or application of the statute. This was a massive project - over 50 years later, it is still going on, although it is largely complete and is now focusing on minor revisions. 1960s-present The revised codes are published as Vernon's Texas Codes Annotated (also known as the "black statutes" because of the color of their binding). The not-yet-codified statutes are still published as Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes, but only a few volumes are left, which are being phased out as the recodification project is completed. Online versions of the codes up through 1984 can be viewed online here. |
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