Texas Constitution
The Constitution of the State of Texas is
the document that describes the structure
and function of the government of the U.S.
State of Texas. The current constitution took
effect on February 15, 1876. Texas has had
six other constitutions: Coahuila y Tejas, the
1836 Constitution of the Republic of Texas,
and the state constitutions of 1845, 1861,
1866 and 1869.
The 1876 Constitution is one of the
longest state constitutions in the United
States. Amendments have been adopted 456
times; an additional 176 have been passed by
the Legislature then rejected by voters. Most
of the amendments are due to the docu-
ment’s highly restrictive nature – the Texas
Constitution states that the State of Texas
has only those powers explicitly granted to it;
there is no state equivalent of the Necessary
and Proper Clause contained within. Thus,
the Texas Constitution functions as a limiting
document, as constructionists argue the Un-
ited States Constitution was.
Although a somewhat chaotic document, it
is not nearly as long and chaotic as the
Alabama Constitution
(which has been
amended almost 800 times despite having
been adopted 25 years after Texas’ current
constitution) nor the California Constitution
(which, due to provisions allowing amend-
ments via the initiative, is subject to frequent
revision as well).
Articles of the Texas
Constitution
Article 1: "Bill of Rights"
Article One is the Texas Constitution’s bill of
rights. The article originally contained 29
sections; since 1876, five sections been ad-
ded. Most of the article’s provisions concern
specific fundamental limitations on the power
of the state government and certain rights
granted to citizens that cannot be ignored
under any circumstances.
The provisions of the Texas constitution
apply only against the government of Texas.
However, a number of the provisions of the
federal constitution are held to apply both to
the states as well under the Due Process
Clause of the 14th Amendment to the federal
constitution. This means that the Texas
courts m