Article XVI, Section 23 of the Texas Constitution

As amended November 6, 2001:

The Legislature may pass laws for the regulation of live stock and the protection of stock raisers in the stock raising portion of the State, and exempt from the operation of such laws other portions, sections, or counties; and shall have power to pass general and special laws for the inspection of cattle, stock and hides and for the regulation of brands; provided, that any local law thus passed shall be submitted to the qualified voters of the section to be affected thereby, and approved by them, before it shall go into effect.

Editor Comments

This section provides an exception to Article III, Section 56.

—Attorney Steve Smith

Recent Decisions

• Pruski v. Garcia, 594 S.W.3d 322, 323-24 (Tex. 2020) ("The 1876 Constitution specifically authorized the Legislature to deviate from the free-range rule by passing laws regulating fences and livestock. TEX. CONST. art. XVI, §§ 22, 23. This case involves the interaction of two such legislative deviations from the background rule. Both are currently found in Chapter 143 of the Agriculture Code. Under section 143.102, owners of certain . . . . The question presented is whether, when a driver on a state highway collides with an escaped bull in a county with a stock law, the standard of tort liability for the bull's owner comes from section 143.102 or from section 143.074. The difference can matter a great deal.")

Historic Decisions

• Armstrong v. Traylor, 30 S.W. 440, 441-42 (Tex. 1895) (footnote omitted) ("To the fourth question we reply that section 23 of article 16 of the constitution authorized the legislature to pass a law regulating live stock, making it applicable to the entire state, or it might have exempted any county or counties from the operation of such law. The legislature might also have enacted a law regulating live stock in any given county or . . . . The power to pass a general law upon this subject is given by the first part of the section, but the authority to pass a local law is conferred by the provision of the section which prescribes the condition that it shall not go into effect except upon the vote of the freeholders of that section.")

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)