Thelaw ofTexas is derived from theConstitution of Texas and consists of several levels, including constitutional, statutory, regulatory law, as well as case law and local laws and regulations. As a state of theUnited States of America, the State of Texas is subject to theLaw of the United States, which also addresses that the powers not delegated by theU.S. Constitution to the federal government arereserved to the States or to the people.
TheConstitution of Texas is the foremost source of state law. Legislation is enacted by theTexas Legislature, published in theGeneral and Special Laws, and codified in theTexas Statutes. State agencies publish regulations (sometimes called administrative law) in theTexas Register, which are in turn codified in theTexas Administrative Code. The Texas legal system is based oncommon law, which is interpreted by case law through the decisions of the Supreme Court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Courts of Appeals, which are published in theTexas Cases andSouth Western Reporter. Counties and municipal governments may also promulgatelocal ordinances.
TheConstitution of Texas is the foundation of thegovernment of Texas and vests the legislative power of the state in theTexas Legislature. The Texas Constitution is subject only to thesovereignty of the people of Texas as well as theConstitution of the United States, althoughthis is disputed.
Article I of the Constitution of Texas contains the following provisions related to limitations on legislative power:
Article II of the Constitution of Texas mandates the separation of powers in to three distinct department, the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial.
Article III of the Constitution of Texas is specifically dedicated to the Legislative Department.
Pursuant to the state constitution, theTexas Legislature has enacted various laws, known as "chapter laws" or generically as "slip laws". These are published in the officialGeneral and Special Laws of the State of Texas as "session laws".[1][2] Most of these statutes arecodified.[3]
The Texas Constitution requires the Texas Legislature to revise, digest, and publish the laws of the state; however, it has never done so regularly.[4] In 1925 the Texas Legislature reorganized the statutes into three major divisions: theRevised Civil Statutes,Penal Code, andCode of Criminal Procedure.[2][5] In 1963, the Texas legislature began a major revision of the 1925 Texas statutory classification scheme, and as of 1989 over half of the statutory law had been arranged under the recodification process.[2]
Thede facto codifications areVernon's Texas Statutes Annotated andVernon's Texas Codes Annotated, commonly known asVernon's.[4][6] The unannotated constitution, codes, and statutes can also be accessed online through a website of theTexas Legislative Council.[6]Gammel'sLaws of Texas contains relevant legislation from 1822-1897.[7]
Most, but not all, Texas statutes have been codified in the following codes:
The body of regulations promulgated bystate agencies is referred to as administrative law. TheTexas Administrative Code contains the compiled and indexed regulations of Texas state agencies and is published yearly by theSecretary of State.[8] TheTexas Register contains proposed rules, notices, executive orders, and other information of general use to the public and is published weekly by the Secretary of State.[9] Both are also available online through the Secretary of State's website.[10][11]
The Texas legal system is based oncommon law, which is interpreted bycase law through thedecisions of theTexas Supreme Court, theTexas Court of Criminal Appeals, and theTexas Courts of Appeals. There is no longer an officially publishedreporter.West's Texas Cases (a Texas-specific version of theSouth Western Reporter) includes reported opinions of the Supreme Court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Courts of Appeals.[12][13] TheTexas Reports includes Supreme Court opinions until July 1962, and theTexas Criminal Reports includes Court of Criminal Appeals opinions until November 1962.[13] Appellate opinions from 1997–2002 onwards are generally available online.[14][15]
There is no systematic reporting of decisions of trial courts.[12] Online availability of case filings at the trial court level varies drastically: some district courts and county courts at law allow online access to download case filings, either for free or for a fee, either to registered users (sometimes restricted by attorney status) or to all users, whereas other trial courts only allow online access to the clerk's register of actions or the case docket, or no online access at all. For example, the Harris County District Clerk's website requires users to register for free in order to download case filings.[16] The Harris County Clerk similarly requires registration in order to download case filings, though the search function is available to unregistered users.[17] In Dallas County, the District Clerk and County Clerk's records are available from a single online portal which allows for most non-sensitive case filings to be downloaded without registration.[18] Filings from all 254 Texas counties can be searched by registered users for free through the statewide re:SearchTX portal, though a payment of $.10 (ten cents) per page is required for downloads.[19]
Municipal governments may promulgate local ordinances, rules, and police regulations, and are usually codified in a "code of ordinances".[20]Counties in Texas have limited regulatory (ordinance) authority.[20] Some codes are printed by private publishers, and some are available online, but the most common method of discovering local ordinances is by physically traveling to theseat of government and asking around.[21]
Criminal courts in Texas have automatic jurisdiction over all persons over 17 years of age.[22] As of 2017[update] there was advocacy to raise the age to 18.[23][24] TheTexas House of Representatives passed such a bill in 2017 that would be effective 2021.[25] In August 2017 there were thirty-three prisoners in adult prisons and/or state jails who were below the age of 18.[26]
In Texas theminimum age at which a child may be adjudicated as delinquent is 10.[27]
Capital murder convictions have two options: life imprisonment without parole and death. Prior to 2005 life with parole and death were the two options, but that year theTexas Legislature modified the statute.[28] Maurice Chammah , author ofLet the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty, stated that governments of smaller counties supported the move as death penalty cases had increasing costs.[29]
In order to better protect court documents, we now require you to have a registered login with our site. All public case information is still available to everyone, once they login, and can be viewed FREE of charge.
The Harris County Clerk's Office provides online access to certain public documents. However, in order to protect those documents, a registered login with our site is required. This is in accordance with local, state and federal practices, as well as general Web security protocols that help ensure documents are properly accessed and help guard against identity theft and fraud. Public documents are available online to all registered users, and can be viewed FREE of charge.
Court decisions freely available to the public online, in a consistent format, digitized from the collection of theHarvard Law Library
