Article III, Section 36 of the Texas Constitution ("Revival or Amendment by Reference Prohibited")
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Adopted February 15, 1876:
No law shall be revived or amended by reference to its title; but in such case the act revived, or the section or sections amended, shall be re-enacted and published at length.
Editor Comments
None.
Recent Decisions
None.
Historic Decisions
- Popham v. Patterson, 51 S.W.2d 680, 684 (Tex. 1932) ("Appellee contends that the act of 1930 is void because in violation of section 36, article 3 . . . . It is true that the act of 1930 does have effect to change article 2688 in part; the change being to fix the term of office of county school superintendents at four instead of two years, but the mere fact that a later act amends a former act by implication does not render the later act repugnant to the above constitutional provision. Cooley's Constitutional Limitation (8th Ed.) vol. 8, p. 315; Southerland on Statutory Construction (2d Ed.) vol. 1, p. 446.")
- Henderson v. City of Galveston, 114 S.W. 108, 112 (Tex. 1908) ("But when the Legislature in enacting new legislation adopts the mode of amending existing laws, the Constitution speaks and prescribes a rule that must be followed. That was the mode expressly adopted here, and the amendment was attempted by 'adding to' the existing section. . . . But no authority cited, and none that we know of, has held that a section of a statute may be amended by adding words to it, without re-enacting the entire section as amended, and such a holding would be condemned by the plain words of the Constitution.")
- Snyder v. Compton, 28 S.W. 1061, 1062 (Tex. 1894) ("The practice [prohibited was] amending a statute by reference to its title, and by providing that it should be amended by adding to or striking out certain words, or by omitting certain language, and inserting in lieu thereof certain other words. It was not intended to prohibit the passage of a law which declared fully its provisions, without direct reference to any other act, although its effect should be to enlarge or restrict the operation of some other statutes. Similar provisions in other constitutions have been construed not to apply to implied amendments.")
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)