Read chapter 2: "The Texas Constitution" provided down below.

Familiarize yourself with the following concepts and answer the questions below.

The Role of a State Constitution

State constitutions, the legal structure of a government, which establishes its power and authority as well as the limits on that power, perform a number of important functions. In Texas, the state constitution shares features of the U.S. Constitution such as the separation of powers, checks and balances, mechanisms to prevent tyranny, and the concentration of power in any one branch of government, as well as a commitment to a system of federalism, the division of government into a central government and a series of regional governments.

Two major difference between the U.S. and Texas constitutions are the supremacy clause and the necessary and proper clause of the U.S. Constitution.

The Texas Constitutions: 1836–1876

Texas has operated under seven constitutions. The constitutional regime operating in Texas today is the product of a long course of political and legal development in the state.

• The Texas Founding
  • The Texas Founding encompassed a number of phases of constitutional government. These phases stretched from 1836 when Texas declared itself an independent republic to 1876 when reconstruction after the Civil War came to an end and a new (Texas's current) state constitution was put into place.
• The Constitution of the Republic of Texas, 1836
  • The Constitution of 1836 gave structure and legal force behind Texas's decision to declare independence from Mexico, and called for annexation by the United States.
• The Texas State Constitution of 1845
  • The Constitution of 1845 followed Texas's annexation by the United States and formed a state government modeled in many ways on the U.S. federal government.
• The Constitution of 1861: Texas Joins the Confederacy
  • Texas voters approved secession from the Union on February 23, 1861. The secession convention reconvened to enact a new constitution to guide the state as it entered the Confederacy. This constitution was similar to the Constitution of 1845 except that references to the United States of America were replaced with references to the Confederate States of America.
• The Constitution of 1866: Texas Rejoins the Union
  • Defeat in the Civil War led to the institution of another state constitution in 1866. Voters ratified the Constitution of 1866 in June in a relatively close referendum.
• The Reconstruction Constitution of 1869
  • Believing that efforts to reintegrate Texas into the Union had failed, the government of Texas was ordered to be reformed by the military. A number of features of the Constitution of 1869 stand out.14 The U.S. Constitution was declared to be the supreme law of the land. Slavery was forbidden, and African Americans were given the right to vote.
• The Constitution of 1876
  • The final phase of Texas's Founding takes place with the passage of the Constitution of 1876. This document is still the basis for Texas government today. Even in its earliest stages, the Texas Constitution of 1876 was a lengthy, rigid, and detailed document, and purposely so.

The Constitution of Texas Today

The constitution of Texas is significantly longer than the U.S. Constitution. In addition to its severe limits on executive power, the Texas Constitution also addresses a number of specific policy problems directly in the text, turning what might appear to be matters of public policy into issues of constitutional authority.

• Article 1: The Bill of Rights
  • The Texas Constitution puts its Bill of Rights up front as Article 1, well before any discussion of the legislature, the executive, or the courts.
• Article 2: The Powers of Government
  • Article 2 divides the power of government in Texas into three distinct branches: the legislative, the executive, and the judicial.
• Article 3: Legislative Department
  • Article 3 of the Texas Constitution vests legislative power in two houses: a Senate of 31 members and a House of Representatives of no more than 150 members. Article 3 moves well beyond the U.S. Constitution, putting limits on what the legislature can do.
• Article 4: Executive Department
  • Article 4 of the Texas Constitution states that the executive branch shall consist of six distinct offices.
• Article 5: Judicial Department
  • Article 5 of the Texas Constitution is a detailed outlining of the various courts that operate in the state.
• Article 6: Suffrage
  • Article 6 contains a short but detailed discussion about who may vote in Texas.
• Article 7: Education
  • State universities are the subject of over half of Article 7, where detailed discussions of the funding and operations of particular state institutions are put directly into the text.
• Article 8: Taxation and Revenue
  • Article 8 is a highly detailed account of several important policy issues built directly into the text of the constitution.
• Articles 9 and 11: Local Government
  • These articles provide highly detailed discussions of the creation, organization, and operation of counties and municipal corporations.
• Articles 10, 12, 13, and 14
  • These heavily revised articles deal with a series of specific topics.
• Article 15: Impeachment
  • Article 15 details impeachment under the Texas Constitution, the formal charge by the House of Representatives that leads to trial in the Senate and possible removal of a state official.
• Article 16: General Provisions
  • Article 16 is one of the lengthiest in the Texas Constitution; it is literally a catchall article tackling a variety of issues.
• Article 17: Amending the Constitution
  • Like the U.S. Constitution, the Texas Constitution explicitly delineates how it can be amended.

Recent Attempts to Rewrite the Texas Constitution

• Sharpstown and the Failed Constitutional Reforms of 1974
  • A drive to rewrite the Texas Constitution grew out of a major stock fraud that broke in the early 1970s. Each proposal, however, was turned down by the electorate in a special election on November 4, 1975.
• Recent Amendments
  • In the 2015 constitutional amendment elections, voters were asked to consider nine proposed amendments. All the amendments passed, although only approximately 11.34 percent of registered voters bothered to vote.

1. What aspects of the political context necessitated a sixth constitution?
2. Do you think the guiding principles for the 1876 Constitution effectively address today's political concerns? If so, how? If not, why not?
3. Do you think that the Texas Constitution should be changed? Why or why not? How would you change it? Would you make a new one, or would you amend the old one?