Article III, Section 20 of the Texas Constitution ("Eligibility of Persons Entrusted with Public Money")
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Adopted February 15, 1876:
No person who at any time may have been a collector of taxes, or who may have been otherwise entrusted with public money, shall be eligible to the Legislature, or to any office of profit or trust under the State government, until he shall have obtained a discharge for the amount of such collections, or for all public moneys with which he may have been entrusted.
Editor Comments
None.
Recent Decisions
None.
Historic Decisions
- Orndorff v. State, 108 S.W.2d 206, 212 (Tex.Civ.App.–El Paso 1937, ref'd) ("In any event, we think that neither a discharge in bankruptcy, were it intended to affect such a claim, nor the barring of the judgment through the operation of the statutes of limitations, would satisfy the requirement of section 20 of article 3 of the Constitution. That provision disqualifies the candidate until he 'shall have obtained a discharge' . . . . These statutes do not mitigate the effect of the prohibition of the State against the holding of office by one in default. This denial of privilege is outside the province of congressional action and prohibitive of contrary State legislative action.")
Library Resources
- Vernon's Annotated Constitution of the State of Texas (this multi-volume and up-to-date resource is available at all law libraries and many municipal libraries)
- The Texas State Constitution: A Reference Guide (this one-volume resource is available at most law libraries and some municipal libraries)
- The Constitution of the State of Texas: An Annotated and Comparative Analysis (this two-volume resource is available at most law libraries and some municipal libraries)
Online Resources
- Constitution of the State of Texas (1876) (this resource is published and maintained by the University of Texas School of Law)
- Amendments to the Texas Constitution Since 1876 (this resource is published and regularly updated by the Legislative Council)
- Reports Analyzing Proposed Amendments (this resource is published and regularly updated by the Legislative Reference Library)