Texas Constitution:Article III, Section 56: Difference between revisions

This important section generally prohibits the enactment of so-called "local" laws or "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."

What constitutes a local or special law, like much of the jurisprudence regarding this type of legislative restriction, is sometimes unclear. Cf. Charles Binney, ''Restrictions Upon Local and Special Legislation in State Constitutions'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=lXQ1AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA25#v=onepage&q&f=false 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.").

Roughly two-thirds of state constitutions contain one or more provisions addressing the subject. Some of the provisions are relatively short and some are rather lengthy.

Such provisions serve a variety of purposes. Two are: (1) preventing the Legislature from usurping local government control of public policy matters that are principally of local importance; and (2) providing more time for the Legislature to address public policy matters of statewide importance.

An [https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6731/m1/237/ amendment] to the Texas Constitution of 1869 was the first broad prohibition on local and special laws to appear in a Texas constitution. The provision, that was ratified by the Legislature and therefore became effective in January 1874, read: "The legislature shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases: that is to say, [1] for locating or changing county seats, regulating county or town affairs, [2] regulating the practice in courts of justice, [3] regulating the duties and jurisdiction of justices of the peace and constables, [4] providing for changes of venue in civil and criminal causes, [5] incorporating cities and towns, or changing or amending the charter of any city or village, [6] providing for the management of common schools, [7] regulating the rates of interest on money, [8] remitting fines, penalties, or forfeitures, [9] changing the law of descent. In all other cases when a general law can be made applicable, no special law shall be enacted; or in any case when a general law can be made applicable, no special law shall be enacted. The legislature shall enact general laws providing for the cases before enumerated in this section, and for all other cases which, in its judgment, may be provided by general laws."

However, rather than extending or otherwise modifying the January 1874 provision, this section instead closely tracked the "long-form" provision (Art. IV, Sec. [https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=mo_constitutions_race&#page=33 53]) contained in the recently-drafted Missouri Constitution of 1875, which read in part: "The General Assembly shall not pass any local or special law: [1] Authorizing the creation, extension or impairing of liens; [2] Regulating the affairs of counties, cities, townships, wards or school districts; [3] Changing the names of persons or places; . . . In all other cases, where a general law can be made applicable, no local or special law shall be enacted; and whether a general law could have been made applicable in any case, is hereby declared a judicial question, and as such shall be judicially determined without regard to any legislative assertion on that subject. Nor shall the General Assembly indirectly enact such special or local law by the partial repeal of a general law; but laws repealing local or special acts may be passed."

This section has been amended once. The 2001 modification was part of a "constitutional cleanup amendment." It made several stylistic changes and transferred the substance of Sections [[Texas Constitution:Article XVI, Section 22|22]] and [[Texas Constitution:Article XVI, Section 43|43]] of Article XVI.

The primary types of local and/or special laws authorized by other parts of the constitution are laws: (1) creating or affecting a conservation and reclamation district (Section 59, Article XVI); (2) creating or affecting a hospital district (Sections 4 through 11, Article IX); (3) relating to the preservation of game and fish (Section 56(b)(1), Article III); (4) dealing with the courts system (Sections 1, 7, 8, and 21, Article V); (5) creating or affecting a road utility district or various water-related districts and similar special-purpose districts (Section 52, Article III); (6) granting aid or a release from the payment of taxes in cases of public calamity (Section 51, Article III; Section 10, Article VIII); (7) creating or relating to the operation of airport authorities (Section 12, Article IX); (8) providing for the consolidation of governmental offices and functions of political subdivisions comprising or located in a county (Section 64, Article III); (9) relating to fence laws (Section 56(b)(2), Article III); (10) relating to stock laws (Section 23, Article XVI); or (11) providing for local road maintenance (Section 9(e), Article VIII). Cf. Section 23 of Article XVI (" ... .")