Texas Constitution:Article I, Section 6 and Texas Constitution:Article I, Section 19: Difference between pages

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{{DISPLAYTITLE:Article I, Section 6 of the Texas Constitution (''<small>"Freedom of Worship"</small>'')}}{{Texas Constitution|text=Adopted February 15, 1876:
[[Category:Featured Article]]<indicator name="featured">[[File:Featured_article_star.svg|25px]]</indicator>{{DISPLAYTITLE:Article I, Section 19 of the Texas Constitution (''<small>"Deprivation of Life, Liberty, Property, etc. by Due Course of Law"</small>'')}}{{Texas Constitution|text=Adopted February 15, 1876:


'''All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences. No man shall be compelled to attend, erect or support any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry against his consent. No human authority ought, in any case whatever, to control or interfere with the rights of conscience in matters of religion, and no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious society or mode of worship. But it shall be the duty of the Legislature to pass such laws as may be necessary to protect equally every religious denomination in the peaceable enjoyment of its own mode of public worship.'''
'''No citizen of this State shall be deprived of life, liberty, property, privileges or immunities, or in any manner disfranchised, except by the due course of the law of the land.'''


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Sections 4 through 7 of Article I, including the recently adopted Section [[Texas Constitution:Article I, Section 6-a|6-a]], concern religion. This section is the most expansive of those sections. Among other things, it guarantees individual religious freedom and prohibits discrimination between religious denominations. Despite its breadth, the section has been the subject of relatively few court decisions. Moreover, since roughly the 1950s, Texas state courts have routinely relied on the federal constitution rather than the state constitution in resolving suits involving the interaction of state government and religion. However, it should be noted that the United States Supreme Court's jurisprudence in this area of law has been heavily criticized.
This section is similar to the due-process clause contained in the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal constitution ("nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law"). Cf. ''Zucht v. King'', 260 U.S. 174, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17474784919803032884#p176 176] (1922) ("Long before this suit was instituted, ''Jacobson v. Massachusetts'', 197 U.S. 11, had settled that it is within the police power of a State to provide for compulsory vaccination. . . . And still others had settled that the municipality may vest in its officials broad discretion in matters affecting the application and enforcement of a health law.").


Due either to the plain language of the provision or to state court decisions interpreting the provision, the substance of the provisions concerning religion contained in the state constitution sometimes differs from the substance of the provisions concerning religion contained in the federal constitution. For example, "opening exercises" in public school classrooms that include the reading of a Bible passage and the recital of the Lord's Prayer do not violate this section. However, such practices violate the federal constitution. See ''Abington School District v. Schempp'', 374 U.S. 203, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2708202356121821143#p225 225] (1963) ("They are religious exercises, required by the States in violation of the command of the First Amendment . . . .").
The fundamental precept declared by this section has its origin in chapter twenty-nine of ''Magna Carta''. See Cooley, ''A Treatise on the Constitutional Limitations which Rest Upon the Legislative Power of the States of the American Union'' [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/Cooley_Constitutional_Limitations_1874_due_course.pdf#page=17 351-53] (1874) (citations omitted) ("In some form of words, it is to be found in each of the State constitutions . . . . Indeed, the language employed is generally nearly identical, except that the phrase 'due process (or course) of law' is sometimes used, sometimes 'the law of the land,' and in some cases both; but the meaning is the same in every case.").


This section is derived from the 1845 Texas Constitution, which provided: "All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences; no man shall be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry against his consent; no human authority ought, in any case whatever, to control or interfere with the rights of conscience in matters of religion; and no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious societies or mode of worship; but it shall be the duty of the Legislature to pass such laws as may be necessary to protect every religious denomination in the peaceable enjoyment of their own mode of public worship."
Note that the Texas Attorney General, in Tex. Att'y Gen. Op. [https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/2020/kp-0308.pdf#page=2 KP-308] (2020), opined that: "While the Texas and federal Constitutions differ in that Texas refers to 'due course' rather than 'due process,' Texas courts regard these terms as without substantive distinction unless and until a party demonstrates otherwise." The foregoing assertion by the Texas Attorney General is correct concerning "procedural" due process. However, as reflected by several of the decisions referenced below, the state's "substantive" due process jurisprudence has sometimes differed from its federal counterpart.


And also note that it is substantively similar to the provisions concerning religion contained in the early state constitutions of Pennsylvania (1790), Tennessee (1796), and Kentucky (1799). For example, the Kentucky Declaration of Rights provided: "That all men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences; that no man shall be compelled to attend, erect, or support any place of worship, or to maintain any ministry against his consent; that no human authority ought, in any case whatever, to control or interfere with the rights of conscience; and that no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious societies or modes of worship."
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* ''Texas Dep't of State Health Servs. v. Crown Distributing LLC'', 647 S.W.3d 648, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=17653902673364512620#p664 664-65] (Tex. 2022) (J. Young, concurring) ("The Court today 'conclude[s] that the due-course clause does not protect the interest that the plaintiffs assert,' ''ante'' at 2, 125 S.Ct. 2195, and I agree. But what ''does'' that clause protect—and how does it do so? We still do not really know, even as we approach . . . . To that end, in Part II, I explain why I believe that our precedents do not go much beyond what has permeated most of our jurisprudence: the unadorned assertion that the Texas due-course clause is essentially the twin (the junior twin, to be sure) of the federal due-process clause.")


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* ''Mosley v. Texas Health & Human Services Comm'n'', 593 S.W.3d 250, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=15370415983701477665#p265 265] (Tex. 2019) ("We measure what process is due under a 'flexible standard' that depends on 'the practical requirements of the circumstances.' ''Id''. This standard includes three factors: (1) the private interest that will be affected by the official action; (2) the risk of an erroneous deprivation of such interest through the procedures used, and the probable value, if any, of additional or substitute procedural safeguards; and (3) the government's interest, including the function involved and the fiscal and administrative burdens that the additional or substitute procedural requirement would entail. ''Id''.")


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* ''Patel v. Texas Dep't of Licensing & Reg.'', 469 S.W.3d 69, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=7017811002225614343#p91 91] (Tex. 2015) (citation omitted) ("[T]he Chief Justice refers to rediscovering and unleashing 'the ''Lochner'' monster' if legislative enactments are measured against a standard other than the rational relationship standard. But as discussed above, Texas courts, including this Court, have expressed and applied various standards for considering as-applied substantive due process claims for over a century. And it is those decisions on which the standards we set out today are based. Surely if those cases represented a 'monster' running amuck in Texas, this Court would have long ago decisively dealt with it.")


* ''Pleasant Glade Assembly of God v. Schubert'', 264 S.W.3d 1, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5305447475925079813#p2 2] (Tex. 2008) ("This appeal concerns the tension between a church's right to protection under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and a church member's right to judicial redress under a claim for intentional tort. U.S. CONST. amend. I; see also TEX. CONST. art. I, § 6. . . . We further conclude the case, as tried, presents an ecclesiastical dispute over religious conduct that would unconstitutionally entangle the court in matters of church doctrine and, accordingly, reverse the court of appeals' judgment and dismiss the case.")
* ''Klumb v. Houston Mun. Emps. Pension Sys.'', 458 S.W.3d 1, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5024006811308680141#p15 15] (Tex. 2015) (citations omitted) ("Before any substantive or procedural due-process rights attach, however, the Petitioners must have a liberty or property interest that is entitled to constitutional protection. A constitutionally protected right must be a vested right, which is <nowiki>'</nowiki>'something more than a mere expectancy based upon an anticipated continuance of an existing law.'<nowiki>'</nowiki> The court of appeals held, and we agree, that the Petitioners' due-course claims are facially invalid because the Petitioners have no vested property right to the pension-plan contributions and future retirement benefits at issue.")


* ''HEB Ministries, Inc. v. Texas Higher Educ. Coordinating Bd.'', 235 S.W.3d 627, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=517806966840097315#p642 642] (Tex. 2007) (footnotes omitted) ("The Establishment Clause prohibits . . . . Correspondingly, article I, section 6 of the Texas Constitution states that 'no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious society'. We have referred to this provision and article I, section 7 as 'Texas' equivalent of the Establishment Clause.' The parties do not argue that there is any difference in the application of these federal and state constitutional provisions to this case, and we will assume for present purposes that they are coextensive.")
* ''Perry v. Del Rio'', 67 S.W.3d 85, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=7715699698971836172#p92 92] (Tex. 2001) (citations omitted) ("The Texas Constitution . . . . We have recognized that our due course of law provision at a minimum requires notice and an opportunity to be heard at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner. And, under certain circumstances, the right to be heard assures a full hearing before a court having jurisdiction over the matter, the right to introduce evidence at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner, and the right to judicial findings based upon that evidence. This right also includes an opportunity to cross-examine witnesses, to produce witnesses, and to be heard on questions of law.")


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* ''State v. Corpus Christi People's Baptist Church'', 683 S.W.2d 692, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9335125298661201719#p696 696-97] (Tex. 1984) ("[T]he State has a compelling interest of the highest order in protecting the children in child-care facilities from physical and mental harm. . . . We have considered all of People's Baptist's remaining arguments: that state licensing and regulation of these homes would violate the Ninth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution; 42 U.S.C. 1983; article I, sections 3a, 6 and 19; article II, section 1; and article III, section 1 of the Texas Constitution. We conclude that the State's regulatory scheme does not violate these provisions.")
* ''University of Texas Medical School at Houston v. Than'', 901 S.W.2d 926, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=15343094571363495286#p929 929] (Tex. 1995) (citations omitted) ("While the Texas Constitution is textually different in that it refers to 'due course' rather than 'due process,' we regard these terms as without meaningful distinction. As a result, in matters of procedural due process, we have traditionally followed contemporary federal due process interpretations of procedural due process issues. Although not bound by federal due process jurisprudence in this case, we consider federal interpretations of procedural due process to be persuasive authority in applying our due course of law guarantee.")
 
* ''In re J.W.T.'', 872 S.W.2d 189, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16303537001961127537#p221 221] (Tex. 1994) (J. Cornyn, dissenting) ("An appellate court's identification in its opinion of an established . . . . In this case, however, under the guise of an independent state constitutional interpretation, the court 1) disregards contrary precedent by the United States Supreme Court; 2) eschews our traditional constitutional analysis and creates a new constitutional right nowhere found in the text of the Texas Constitution or its history; 3) revives substantive due process in a particularly arbitrary new form; and 4) fails to identify and consider any of the substantial countervailing state interests reflected in these statutes.")
 
* ''Itz v. Penick'', 493 S.W.2d 506, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=653538298795690003#p509 509] (Tex. 1973) ("A much more enlightened view of the necessity for immunization of students attending elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education in order to lessen the spread of communicable diseases has been adopted by the legislatures and approved by the courts of Texas and a majority of the other states during the past half century. All of appellants' points of error have been heretofore assigned in challenging the constitutionality of compulsory immunization statutes, city ordinances or school district regulations and overruled in one or more of the following Texas cases: . . . .")
 
* ''Texas Power & Light Co. v. City of Garland'', 431 S.W.2d 511, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9341782243928193175#p527 527] (Tex. 1968) (C.J. Calvert, dissenting) ("Pervading the majority opinion dealing with these sections is a basic philosophy that when a municipality puts in a public utility of its own, with a private utility franchise then outstanding or thereafter granted, the two enterprises must be permitted to enter into a dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest competition for customers, with the prize of survival going to the one with the greater resources and ability to absorb losses for a longer period of time. In my opinion, the philosophy is unsound. It was condemned long ago by the United States Court of Appeals, [].")
 
* ''Board of Firemen's Relief and Retirement Fund Trustees of Texarkana v. Hamilton'', 386 S.W.2d 754, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=10592628077712497873#p755 755] (Tex. 1965) ("[S]he contends that since her claim for compensation as provided by statute involves a property right and that even though the statute made no provision for an appeal, that under the due process clauses of both the State and United States Constitutions she is entitled to an inherent right of appeal. . . . What the Constitution guarantees her is a judicial review of an order of an administrative agency affecting her property rights. Such a review must be sought in a court of competent jurisdiction, not to some other administrative agency.")
 
* ''State v. Richards'', 301 S.W.2d 597, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1473384419797643914#p602 602] (Tex. 1957) ("The line where the police power of the state encounters the barrier of substantive due process is not susceptible of exact definition. As a general rule the power is commensurate with, but does not exceed, the duty to provide for the real needs of the people in their health, safety, comfort and convenience as consistently as may be with private property rights. The guarantee of due process does not deprive . . . . A large discretion is necessarily vested in the Legislature to determine not only what the interests of the public require, but what measures are necessary for the protection of such interests.")
 
* ''Ex parte Sizemore'', 8 S.W.2d 134, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/008_SW2_134.pdf#page=2 135-36] (Tex.Crim.App. 1928) ("Section 19 of our Bill of Rights . . . . Provisions similar to those quoted in our state Constitution have been a part of Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence since there was wrung from the unwilling hands of King John at Runnymede in 1215 the Magna Charta, which itself provides that a freeman shall not be passed upon or condemned but 'by the lawful judgment of his peers and the law of the land.' 'Law of the land' has the same legal meaning as 'due process of law,' and one of its accepted meanings is that quoted above. In re Jilz, 3 Mo. App. 243; 3 Words and Phrases, First Series, pp. 2227-2232.")
 
* ''Stockwell v. State'', 221 S.W. 932, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/221_SW_932.pdf#page=4 935] (Tex. 1920) ("Viewing the powers given the Commissioner by this statute and his attempted exercise of them here, the inquiry naturally arises as to what are the rights of the defendant if the Commissioner was mistaken in his judgment that citrus canker was . . . . Under the contest made by his pleading, before the property of the defendant could be summarily destroyed, he was entitled to a judicial hearing and decision as to whether it ought to be destroyed. As applied to such a case, nothing less would amount to due process of law, without which the Bill of Rights declares no citizen shall be deprived of his property.")
 
* ''City of New Braunfels v. Waldschmidt'', 207 S.W. 303, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/207_SW_303.pdf#page=2 304-05] (Tex. 1918) ("The contention that this ordinance is inconsistent with the liberty guaranteed by the federal and state Constitutions has been too completely repelled by the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 22, 25 Sup.Ct. 358, 49 L.Ed. 643, 3 Ann.Cas. 765, to justify further discussion. . . . However, if defendants in error, or any of them, had a right with respect to the children's school attendance, which could properly be considered a property right, the same was held subject to a valid exercise of the police power of the state.")
 
* ''Griner v. Thomas'', 104 S.W. 1058, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/104_SW_1058.pdf#page=3 1060] (Tex. 1907) ("To the contention that suspension without notice is a deprivation of property without due process, the answer is that such property right in an office as the holder has is qualified by all pre-existing valid laws which provide for its suspension or termination, and hence the application of remedies so provided for does not unduly deprive him of any property. Trigg v. State, 49 Tex. 669. Whether the suspension of the relator's functions took effect at once upon the making of the order, or, as contended by him, only when he received notice of it, is a question which cannot affect this proceeding to vacate the order.")


* ''Ex parte Luehr'', 266 S.W.2d 375, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=10688224872471884201#p376 376] (Tex.Crim.App. 1954) ("The [City of Cuero] ordinance in question reads as follows: '. . . .' Appellant is a missionary evangelist preaching from house to house by soliciting and taking orders for subscriptions to the magazine The Watchtower, under the directions of the Victoria Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, as his way of worship. Under many authorities the above ordinance when properly construed and applied does not cover such preaching activities, and if it does so the ordinance is in conflict with the Constitutions of the United States and of This [sic] State.")
* ''Armstrong v. Traylor'', 30 S.W. 440, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/030_SW_440.pdf#page=2 441] (Tex. 1895) ("Under the provisions of these articles, the interested party is authorized to determine the question of a trespass having been committed by the stock. It is not provided that this question shall be inquired into by any other person or officer. . . . There is no hearing, no inquiry, and no trial before judgment; no officer to sell the property, nor process under which sale is to be made; nothing that bears the faintest resemblance to a judicial proceeding. Such a law affords no security to the owner of the stock. It is not due process of law, and the property is not sold 'by the due course of the law of the land.'")


* ''City of New Braunfels v. Waldschmidt'', 207 S.W. 303, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/Vol_207_SWR_303.pdf#page=3 305] (Tex. 1918) ("The ordinance [requiring students attending school to be vaccinated against the smallpox virus] does not in any way undertake to control or interfere with any rights of conscience in matters of religion. As pointed out in Chief Justice Waite's opinion in Reynolds v. United States . . . . No more does section 6 of the Bill of Rights in our state Constitution relieve one from obedience to reasonable health regulations, enacted under the police power of the state, because such regulations happen not to conform to one's religious belief.")
* ''Union Cent. Life Ins. Co. v. Chowning'', 26 S.W. 982, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/026_SW_982.pdf#page=3 984] (Tex. 1894) ("Mr. Cooley, in his work on Constitutional Limitations, adopts, as the best definition, that given by Mr. Webster in the Dartmouth College Case, of the term 'due course of the law of the land,' which is: 'By the 'law of the land' is most clearly intended the general law; a law which hears before it condemns; which proceeds upon inquiry, and renders judgment only after trial.' A law which is enacted by the legislature in the exercise of its constitutional powers, and which affords a hearing before it condemns, and renders judgment after trial, is not in violation of this provision of the constitution.")


* ''Church v. Bullock'', 109 S.W. 115, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/Vol_109_SWR_115.pdf#page=3 117-18] (Tex. 1908) ("Did the exercises which the evidence shows the teachers engaged in convert the schoolroom into a 'place of worship,' within the intent and meaning of [this section]? . . . An annual appropriation is made for a chaplain for the penitentiary; in fact, Christianity is so interwoven with the web and woof of the state government that to sustain the contention that the Constitution prohibits reading the Bible, offering prayers, or singing songs of a religious character in any public building of the government would produce a condition bordering upon moral anarchy.")
* ''Mellinger v. City of Houston'', 3 S.W. 249, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/003_SW_249.pdf#page=5 253] (Tex. 1887) ("[I]t must be held that the people intended, by [Article I, Section 19], in so far as it is identical with the fourteenth amendment, to place thereby just such restrictions on the powers of the legislature as the highest court in the nation has declared is the true construction of like language made a part of the constitution of the United States for the purpose of placing a limitation on the power of the legislatures of the several states. As construed, that section of the constitution only forbids the making of laws retroactive in effect, whereby title to property which had vested under former laws would be divested.")


* ''Gabel v. City of Houston'', 29 Tex. 335, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/29_Tex._335.pdf#page=13 347] (1867) ("It does not enjoin upon any person the duty of conforming his conduct to the rites of his church; but it does prevent him from following a tippling occupation in the city on Sunday, by which crowds of persons may be congregated at a public house, and, under the influence of intoxication, may commit riots and breaches of the peace, to the great annoyance . . . . That there is nothing in the constitution of the United States or of this state to prevent the legislature from forbidding the pursuit of worldly business upon Sunday, has been decided in a number of states.")
* ''Manning v. San Antonio Club'', 63 Tex. 166, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/063_Tex_166.pdf#page=6 171] (1884) ("Appellant does not pretend that, in his expulsion, the board of directors violated in any way the by-laws of the club. But he insists that . . . . These guaranties were mainly intended to protect the citizen against oppression by the government; but they do not protect him against himself or against his own agreements. When, therefore, persons enter into organizations for purposes of social intercourse or pleasure or amusement, and lay down rules for their government, these must form the measure of their rights in the premises, and it is vain to appeal to the Bill of Rights against their own agreements.")


* ''Blair v. Odin'', 3 Tex. 288, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/3_Tex._288.pdf#page=13 300] (1848) ("But the revolution, and the constitution formed by the people as the fundamental system of the new government, materially affected these pretensions of the church, and with justice and humanity resolved, that, as man is an accountable being, he should be permitted to worship his maker according to the dictates of his own conscience. The third article of the Declaration of Rights is, that '. . . .' This declaration reduced the Roman Catholic church from the high privilege of being the only national church, to a level and an equality with every other denomination of religion.")
* ''Janes v. Reynolds' Adm'rs'', 2 Tex. 250, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/002_Tex_250.pdf#page=2 252] (1847) ("They are now, in their most usual acceptation, regarded as general public laws . . . . Whatever may be the meaning of the terms 'laws of the land,' or 'due course of the law of the land,' they have never been held to enjoin in all cases a trial by jury as a requisite indispensable to the validity of a judgment. That a party should have notice and an opportunity of being heard in his defense, and the right of trying disputed facts by a jury, are cardinal principles of the common law; but there are many exceptions in which one or two of these privileges were never enjoined, or may be regarded as renounced by the defendant.")


|seo_title=Article I, Section 6 of the Texas Constitution ("Freedom of Worship")
|seo_title=Featured Article: Article I, Section 19 of the Texas Constitution ("Deprivation of Life, Liberty, Property, etc. by Due Course of Law")
|seo_keywords=Article 1 Section 6, freedom of religion, school prayer
|seo_keywords=Article 1 Section 19, procedural due process, substantive due process
|seo_description=All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences.
|seo_description=No citizen of this State shall be deprived of life, liberty, property . . . except by the due course of the law of the land.
|seo_image_alt=Texas Bill of Rights
|seo_image_alt=Texas Bill of Rights


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[[Category:Texas Bill of Rights]]
[[Category:Texas Bill of Rights]]
[[Category:Criminal Procedure]]
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