Article I, Section 19 of the Texas Constitution–discussion page

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The due-course clause of the Texas Constitution states that no citizen “shall be deprived of life . . . except by the due course of the law of the land.”57 An unsettled question in this Court is whether the due-course clause protects substantive rights in addition to procedural rights.58 We need not decide this question today. Even if the due-course clause were to encompass substantive rights, the evidence adduced does not support the trial court’s order that the Human Life Protection Act violates the Texas Constitution. If the due-course clause affords fundamental rights as a matter of substantive law and not just procedural protections before the government invades them, the right to life would be found among them. The due-course clause has referred to “life” since statehood.59