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Texas Constitution:Article III, Section 56 (view source)
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This important section generally prohibits the enactment of "local" laws and "special" laws. In addition, Article XII, Section [[Texas Constitution:Article XII, Section 1|1]] mandates that "[n]o private corporation shall be created except by general laws." Cf. ''Harwood v. Wentworth'', 162 U.S. 547, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9629641612988174310#p563 563-64] (1896) ("We are of the opinion that the territorial act is not a local or special law . . . . The act is general in its operation; it applies to all counties in the Territory; it prescribes a rule for the stated compensation of certain public officers; no officer of the classes named is exempted from its operation; and there is such a relation between the salaries fixed for each class of counties, and the equalized assessed valuation of property in them, respectively, as to show that the act is not local and special in any just sense, but is general in its application to the whole Territory and designed to establish a system for compensating county officers that is not intrinsically unjust, nor capable of being applied for purposes merely local or special."). | This important section generally prohibits the enactment of "local" laws and "special" laws. In addition, Article XII, Section [[Texas Constitution:Article XII, Section 1|1]] mandates that "[n]o private corporation shall be created except by general laws." Cf. ''Harwood v. Wentworth'', 162 U.S. 547, [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9629641612988174310#p563 563-64] (1896) ("We are of the opinion that the territorial act is not a local or special law . . . . The act is general in its operation; it applies to all counties in the Territory; it prescribes a rule for the stated compensation of certain public officers; no officer of the classes named is exempted from its operation; and there is such a relation between the salaries fixed for each class of counties, and the equalized assessed valuation of property in them, respectively, as to show that the act is not local and special in any just sense, but is general in its application to the whole Territory and designed to establish a system for compensating county officers that is not intrinsically unjust, nor capable of being applied for purposes merely local or special."). | ||
What constitutes such a law, like | What constitutes such a law, like the jurisprudence regarding this type of restriction, is rather indefinite. Cf. Charles Binney, ''Restrictions Upon Local and Special Legislation in State Constitutions'' [https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/lXQ1AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA25 25-26] (1894) ("(1) A general law is one which applies to and operates uniformly upon all members of any class of persons, places or things, requiring legislation peculiar to itself in the matter covered by the law. (2) A special law is one which relates either to particular persons, places or things, or to persons, places or things which, though not particularized, are separated, by any method of selection, from the whole class to which the law might, but for such limitation, be applicable. (3) A local law is one whose operation is confined within territorial limits other than those of the whole State or any properly constituted class of localities therein."); ''Henderson v. Koenig'', 168 Mo. 356, [https://texaslegalguide.com/images/Mo_356.pdf#page=17 372] (1902) ("The act in question is ''local'' as to the city of St. Louis, and ''special'' as to the incumbent of the office of judge of probate."). | ||
For more than one hundred years, three-fourths of state constitutions have contained provisions restricting the enactment of local and special laws. Some of the provisions are relatively simple and some, referred to as laundry list provisions, are rather lengthy. Such restrictions serve a variety of purposes, including: (1) preventing the Legislature from usurping local control over public policy matters generally delegated to units of local government (i.e., stopping the Legislature from meddling in local matters); and (2) reserving more time for the Legislature to study, debate and address public policy matters important to the whole state. | For more than one hundred years, three-fourths of state constitutions have contained provisions restricting the enactment of local and special laws. Some of the provisions are relatively simple and some, referred to as laundry list provisions, are rather lengthy. Such restrictions serve a variety of purposes, including: (1) preventing the Legislature from usurping local control over public policy matters generally delegated to units of local government (i.e., stopping the Legislature from meddling in local matters); and (2) reserving more time for the Legislature to study, debate and address public policy matters important to the whole state. | ||