Article VII, Section 12 of the Texas Constitution

Adopted February 15, 1876:

The land herein set apart to the University fund shall be sold under such regulations, at such times, and on such terms, as may be provided by law; and the Legislature shall provide for the prompt collection, at maturity, of all debts due on account of University lands, heretofore sold, or that may hereafter be sold, and shall in neither event have the power to grant relief to the purchasers.

Editor Comments

Notwithstanding this section's apparent directive that "[t]he land herein set apart . . . be sold," the Permanent University Fund currently holds more than two million acres of land.

—Attorney Steve Smith

Recent Decisions

None.

Historic Decisions

• Theisen v. Robison, 8 S.W.2d 646, 650 (Tex. 1928) ("Nothing is plainer to us than that, the Constitution having imposed the duty on the Legislature to sell University lands to the best advantage of the University's permanent fund, there was no lack of legislative power to sell the lands containing minerals in the way customarily used to avoid sacrifice of the value of the minerals. Since at the date of the adoption of the Constitution and for prior centuries minerals were usually converted into money by sales working a severance of the mineral estate . . . for stipulated royalties, the Legislature was plainly empowered to consummate in that manner separate sales of the minerals in the University lands.")

Library Resources

• 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)

Online Resources

• 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)