Article III, Section 2 of the Texas Constitution ("Membership of Senate and House of Representatives")

As amended November 2, 1999:

The Senate shall consist of thirty-one members. The House of Representatives shall consist of 150 members.

Editor Comments

In 1965, an amendment increasing the Senate to thirty-nine members was defeated with 61% voting against it.

The section has been amended once. The 1999 modification was part of a "constitutional cleanup amendment."

None.

Ferguson v. Wilcox, 28 S.W.2d 526, 534 (Tex. 1930) ("[T]he Senate in the trial and conviction of relator acted as a court, and not as a part of the Legislature. Those powers were given to it expressly by the Constitution. Its judgment of removal and disqualification was the judgment of a court. Constitution, art. 15, §§ 3 and 4; Ferguson v. Maddox, supra; Kilbourn v. Thompson, 103 U.S. 168 []; Beall v. Beall, 8 Ga. 210, 228. By the plain provisions of article 2, § 1, no other department could exercise any power properly attached to it, and no other power, without an express provision of the Constitution authorizing it, could render its judgment of disqualification nugatory.")

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)

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)