Article III, Section 28 of the Texas Constitution ("Time for Apportionment; Apportionment by Legislative Redistricting Board")

As amended November 6, 2001:

The Legislature shall, at its first regular session after the publication of each United States decennial census, apportion the State into Senatorial and Representative Districts, agreeable to the provisions of Sections 25 and 26 of this article. In the event the Legislature shall at any such first regular session following the publication of a United States decennial census, fail to make such apportionment, same shall be done by the Legislative Redistricting Board of Texas, which is hereby created, and shall be composed of five (5) members, as follows: the Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Attorney General, the Comptroller of Public Accounts and the Commissioner of the General Land Office, a majority of whom shall constitute a quorum. Said Board shall assemble in the City of Austin within ninety (90) days after the final adjournment of such regular session. The Board shall, within sixty (60) days after assembling, apportion the State into Senatorial and Representative Districts, or into Senatorial or Representative Districts, as the failure of action of such Legislature may make necessary. Such apportionment shall be in writing and signed by three (3) or more of the members of the Board duly acknowledged as the act and deed of such Board, and, when so executed and filed with the Secretary of State, shall have force and effect of law. Such apportionment shall become effective at the next succeeding statewide general election. The Supreme Court of Texas shall have jurisdiction to compel such Board to perform its duties in accordance with the provisions of this section by writ of mandamus or other extraordinary writs conformable to the usages of law. The Legislature shall provide necessary funds for clerical and technical aid and for other expenses incidental to the work of the Board, and the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall be entitled to receive per diem and travel expense during the Board's session in the same manner and amount as they would receive while attending a special session of the Legislature.

Editor Comments

This section has been amended twice. The 1948 modification created the Legislative Redistricting Board. The 2001 modification was part of a "constitutional cleanup amendment."

—Attorney Steve Smith

Recent Decisions

• Abbott v. Mexican Am. Legis. Caucus, 647 S.W.3d 681, 701 (Tex. 2022) (citations omitted) ("The provision's interpretive commentary explains that although the Constitution had required reapportionment after each decennial census since 1876, no mechanism existed to enforce that obligation, and at the time of the 1948 amendment there had been no reapportionment since 1921. Section 28 was thus amended to (1) create the Legislative Redistricting Board (LRB) to accomplish that task if the Legislature failed to do so and (2) give this Court jurisdiction to compel the LRB to fulfill its duties if necessary.")

Historic Decisions

• Terrazas v. Ramirez, 829 S.W.2d 712, 717 (Tex. 1991) ("The responsibility for apportioning the State into legislative districts belongs primarily to the Legislature. Tex. Const. art. III, § 28. . . . The Legislature, as well as the judiciary, must comply with the United States Constitution and the Texas Constitution. Yet a court's duty to consider a party's constitutional challenge to a statute, never to be taken lightly, and the deference owed a coordinate branch of government, are rarely more sensitive or serious matters than when the statute attacked involves the highly politically charged subject of apportionment.")

• Mauzy v. Legislative Redistricting Board, 471 S.W.2d 570, 574 (Tex. 1971) ("An apportionment which is invalid, for whatever reason, is no apportionment; and the Board's duty to proceed with apportioning the state into representative districts accrued when the regular session adjourned on May 31, 1971 without having enacted a valid apportionment statute. Inasmuch as we have held that the Board must apportion, we do not have before us and may not decide whether a special session of the Legislature could apportion if the power did not reside in the Board or if the Board's own scheme were declared invalid.")

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)