Article III, Section 39 of the Texas Constitution ("Time of Taking Effect of Laws")

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As amended November 2, 1999:

No law passed by the Legislature, except the general appropriation act, shall take effect or go into force until ninety days after the adjournment of the session at which it was enacted, unless the Legislature shall, by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each House, otherwise direct; said vote to be taken by yeas and nays, and entered upon the journals.

Editor Comments

As adopted in 1876, this section read: "No laws passed by the Legislature, except the general appropriation act, shall take effect or go into force until ninety days after the adjournment of the session at which it was enacted, unless in case of an emergency which emergency must be expressed in a preamble or in the body of the act, the Legislature shall, by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each House, otherwise direct; said vote to be taken by yeas and nays, and entered upon the journals." It has been amended once.

—Attorney Steve Smith

Recent Decisions

  • BIC Pen Corp. v. Carter, 251 S.W.3d 500, 511 (Tex. 2008) (citations omitted) ("The vote was taken by a recorded vote. The next day, the Legislature adopted Senate Resolution 66, which amended House Bill 2415 by changing its cap on the post-judgment interest rate from the yield on United States Treasury Bills to the prime rate as published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. While the resolution was adopted without objection, the vote was not recorded, and thus under the Constitution did not qualify for expedited effect but rather took effect on September 1, 2003.")

Historic Decisions

  • Caples v. Cole, 102 S.W.2d 173, 176 (Tex. 1937) ("[T]he rule prescribed by the Constitution also applies to amendments and reports of conference committees. . . . If such were the rule, the vote on the original bill would control as to whether it became a law immediately after its final passage, and not the final vote subsequently taken on the amendments placed thereon by the other branch of the Legislature, and the plain provision of the Constitution requiring that it be adopted by a vote of two-thirds of all the members of each house, in order to declare an emergency, could be evaded.")
  • Missouri, K. & T. Ry. Co. v. State, 100 S.W. 766, 768 (Tex. 1907) ("The act under examination did not have the emergency declaration; hence it did not go into effect until the 14th day of July, 1905. But that fact will not affect the question of its validity, for the railroads were not required to take notice of it until it became operative. . . . There is a conflict in the authorities upon this point, but we believe those cited are supported by the better reasoning. The words, 'or go into force,' used in our Constitution, emphasizes the idea that the law is without vitalilty [sic] until the 90 days shall expire.")
  • Halbert v. San Saba Springs Land & Live-Stock Ass'n, 34 S.W. 639, 639 (Tex. 1896) ("The object of the constitutional convention in prescribing a period of time within which no law enacted by the legislature should be operative was to give notice to the people of its passage, that they might obey it when it should become effective, and also to enable them to adjust their affairs to the change made, if any. Price v. Hopkin, 13 Mich. 325. . . . [T]hat is, 90 full days must expire between the adjournment of the legislature and the taking effect of the law. O'Connor v. Towns, 1 Tex. 107.")

Library Resources

Online Resources

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