Article XVI, Section 20 of the Texas Constitution

As amended September 13, 2003:

(a) The Legislature shall have the power to enact a Mixed Beverage Law regulating the sale of mixed alcoholic beverages on a local option election basis. The Legislature shall also have the power to regulate the manufacture, sale, possession and transportation of intoxicating liquors, including the power to establish a State Monopoly on the sale of distilled liquors. Should the Legislature enact any enabling laws in anticipation of this amendment, no such law shall be void by reason of its anticipatory nature.

(b) The Legislature shall enact a law or laws whereby the qualified voters of any county, justice's precinct or incorporated town or city, may, by a majority vote of those voting, determine from time to time whether the sale of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes shall be prohibited or legalized within the prescribed limits; and such laws shall contain provisions for voting on the sale of intoxicating liquors of various types and various alcoholic content.

(c) In all counties, justice's precincts or incorporated towns or cities wherein the sale of intoxicating liquors had been prohibited by local option elections held under the laws of the State of Texas and in force at the time of the taking effect of Section 20, Article XVI of the Constitution of Texas, it shall continue to be unlawful to manufacture, sell, barter or exchange in any such county, justice's precinct or incorporated town or city, any spirituous, vinous or malt liquors or medicated bitters capable of producing intoxication or any other intoxicants whatsoever, for beverage purposes, unless and until a majority of the qualified voters in such county or political subdivision thereof voting in an election held for such purpose shall determine such to be lawful; provided that this subsection shall not prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages containing not more than 3.2 per cent alcohol by weight in cities, counties or political subdivisions thereof in which the qualified voters have voted to legalize such sale under the provisions of Chapter 116, Acts of the Regular Session of the 43rd Legislature.

(d) The legislature may enact laws and direct the Alcoholic Beverage Commission or its successor to set policies for all wineries in this state, regardless of whether the winery is located in an area in which the sale of wine has or has not been authorized by local option election, for the manufacturing of wine, including the on-premises selling of wine to the ultimate consumer for consumption on or off the winery premises, the buying of wine from or the selling of wine to any other person authorized under general law to purchase and sell wine in this state, and the dispensing of wine without charge, for tasting purposes, for consumption on the winery premises, and for any purpose to promote the wine industry in this state.

Editor Comments

As adopted in 1876, this section read: "The Legislature shall, at its first session, enact a law whereby the qualified voters of any county, justice's precinct, town or city, by a majority vote, from time to time, may determine whether the sale of intoxicating liquors shall be prohibited within the prescribed limits."

It has been amended six times. The most recent amendment permitted the Legislature to authorize wineries to manufacture, sell, purchase, and dispense wine in any area of the state.

—Attorney Steve Smith

Recent Decisions

None.

Historic Decisions

• Ex parte Brown, 42 S.W. 554, 557 (Tex.Crim.App. 1897) ("This illustration will serve to show the futility of legislation to hamper or prevent the use or ownership of one's property for a purpose that is not inhibited by the constitutional provision on the subject. . . . The people, in saying that a sale of intoxicating liquors might be prohibited, deny to the legislature the power to otherwise interfere with its use; and the cold storage act was an attempted interference with the use of intoxicating liquors in local option territory, not authorized or warranted by the constitution, and we accordingly hold it illegal and void, and it is therefore ordered that the relator be discharged.")

• State v. Swisher, 17 Tex. 441, 449 (1856) ("The attorney general has suggested that an act may be unconstitutional in part and free from that objection as to other parts; that so much of the act as refers to the votes for their ratification may be void and the balance valid. This is certainly true if the act was divisible; if it acted upon different objects. . . . Its whole object and action is upon restraining the sale of liquors in less quantities than one quart, and it must all fall together. The act being unconstitutional, and the existing laws on the subject of retailing spirituous liquors not being repealed, Swisher was subject to an indictment for retailing without license.")

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)