Article V, Section 26 of the Texas Constitution ("Appeal by State in Criminal Cases")

As amended November 3, 1987:

The State is entitled to appeal in criminal cases, as authorized by general law.

Editor Comments

As adopted in 1876, this section read: "The State shall have no right of appeal in criminal cases." It has been amended once.

General law enacted under this section must be read together with Article I, Section 14, the state's double jeopardy provision.

Saldano v. State, 70 S.W.3d 873, 883 (Tex.Crim.App. 2002) ("The language and the history of the constitutional and statutory provisions that create and regulate the attorney general, the district attorneys, and the county attorneys are clear. They expressly give district attorneys and county attorneys general authority to represent the State in appeals of criminal cases. They express no authority for the attorney general to represent the State in criminal cases without the request of a district or county attorney. The tradition of the attorney general's representation of the State on certiorari proceedings in criminal cases cannot provide authority that the law does not.")

Faulder v. State, 612 S.W.2d 512, 514-15 (Tex.Crim.App. 1980) ("As such, it is addressed to the derivation, characteristics, and internal relations of that system, and does not speak to the relation of that system or a part of that system to entities beyond, such as the federal judiciary. In this context, we construe the outer limits of the prohibition of Section 26 to be a restriction on the permissible operations within the Texas judicial system. This holding . . . is sufficient to support our conclusion that no violation of that provision would occur by respondent filing application for writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court to review our decision in appellant-relator's case.")

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)