Article III, Section 6 of the Texas Constitution ("Qualifications of Senators")
As amended November 2, 1999:
No person shall be a Senator, unless he be a citizen of the United States, and, at the time of his election a qualified voter of this State, and shall have been a resident of this State five years next preceding his election, and the last year thereof a resident of the district for which he shall be chosen, and shall have attained the age of twenty-six years.
Editor Comments
This section has been amended once. The 1999 modification was part of a "constitutional cleanup amendment."
Recent Decisions
None.
Historic Decisions
- Luna v. Blanton, 478 S.W.2d 76, 78-79 (Tex. 1972) ("It is settled, of course, that where the Constitution prescribes the qualifications for holding a particular office, it is beyond the power of the Legislature to change or add to these qualifications unless the Constitution gives that power. . . . The Legislature declared in plain terms that the requirements set out in the forepart of Article 1.05 'shall not apply to any office' for which the Constitution of Texas prescribes qualifications in conflict therewith. Article III, Section 6, of the Constitution prescribes the qualifications for the office of senator, and the qualifications there set out differ from and are in conflict with those found in Article 1.05.")
Library Resources
- Vernon's Annotated Constitution of the State of Texas (multi-volume and up-to-date resource available at all law and many municipal libraries)
- The Texas State Constitution: A Reference Guide (one-volume resource available at most law and some municipal libraries)
- The Constitution of the State of Texas: An Annotated and Comparative Analysis (two-volume resource available at most law and some municipal libraries)
Online Resources
- Constitution of the State of Texas (1876) (resource published online and maintained by the University of Texas School of Law)
- Amendments to the Texas Constitution Since 1876 (resource published online and regularly updated by the Legislative Council)
- Reports Analyzing Proposed Amendments (resource published online and regularly updated by the Legislative Reference Library)