Texas Constitution:Article I, Section 7

Adopted February 15, 1876:

No money shall be appropriated, or drawn from the Treasury for the benefit of any sect, or religious society, theological or religious seminary; nor shall property belonging to the State be appropriated for any such purposes.

Editor Comments

Sections 4 through 7 of Article I, including the recently adopted Section 6-a, concern religion.

This section partially overlaps with Article VII, Section 5, which prohibits use of the permanent or available school fund to support sectarian schools.

The Texas Supreme Court has never addressed this section, which prohibits using any state money or property "for the benefit of" a religious group.

Note that its unique text, which first appeared in a Texas constitution in 1876, is textually similar to Section 5 of the 1835 Michigan Constitution.

The Texas Attorney General, in Tex. Att'y Gen. Op. H-66 (1973), opined at length on the constitutionality of the Tuition Equalization Grant Program.

And recently, in Tex. Att'y Gen. Op. KP-439 (2023), he opined that this section generally violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

—Attorney Steve Smith

Recent Decisions

None.

Historic Decisions

None.

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)