Texas Government Chapter 3.5(TX Constitution/Federal System)

now we'll cover the texas constitution in the american federal system uh first a definition of constitution

probably heard the term a lot uh it's a body of fundamental principles or

established precedence by which a state or other organization is to be governed

so basically it's a set of rules and and maybe more importantly for

government limitations uh it outlines the structure of the government you know how it looks what

the different parts of it are it defines the powers of the government

it basically states what it can do what powers does it have

and it enumerates the limits on the government and for a a

democracy that tends to believe in limited government these are very

important because it uh these limits oftentimes protect

the uh the freedoms and the liberties of this of the citizens uh now when it when they talk about

structure they usually mean the branches of government and of course uh if you

basic knowledge of the us constitution in the texas constitution uh

should inform us that there are generally three branches of government

in most modern democratic systems uh legislative branch which is um

they make the laws uh the executive branch which executes the laws or carryouts little carry

carries out the laws and the judicial branch which defines the law and

determines uh guilt or innocent under the under the law now in texas the legislature is

bicameral that's exactly like the u.s legislature it has two bodies or two chambers it's a bicameral means

uh it has a house of representatives and a state senate

the executive branch is plural and it's called plural because it what

plural means when did when defining the executive branch is that it means that the members of the

executive branch of the state of texas the state executive branch

most all of them are elected separately okay so the governor's elected the uh

um and most all other positions which we'll get to later are elected with the exception of the secretary of state

now in the national government the executive is elected the president is elected

but um he or she appoints the other members of the executive

branch that's what makes it different from the texas executive

the national executive the president has much more power to determine who works

around him and who works for him than does the governor of texas because the president

gets to basically pick and choose and appoint those other people within the executive

branch whereas the governor has no power to do that the other

members of the executive branch are elected and potentially could even be of different political parties

now the judicial branch is bifurcated that means at the top it's

it's separated there are two these were supreme courts because one of

them is called supreme courts but there are two higher courts and we will get to that

when we talk specifically in the chapter about the judicial system and then

a bill of rights listed citizen protections against the power of the government

the the u.s constitution has a bill of rights and as does the texas

constitution

now texas has had a lot of constitutions or maybe not texas but texas has

lived and existed under numerous constitutions eight to be exact

uh the federal constitution of the united mexican states that was a federal system where

there were two separate types of powers of national government in the state government we'll talk about those later

we have the constitution of coquilla which while the united states texas was part

of mexico it was a constitution that basically dealt with that's the state

uh uh as it existed then under the federal government of mexico and then in 1836

when texas uh declared its independence and when its independence from mexico

uh they created a constitution that was the republic of texas constitution they we lived under that the texans

lived under that for about nine years until 1845 when texas became part of the united states

was annexed into the united states and then you have the texas state constitution

and then 1861 the confederate texas state constitution was established when

texas seceded from the union and joined the confederacy during the civil war uh

and then immediately after the civil war uh you have the uh post-civil war

constitution of 1866 which dictated the terms of the

re-entry of texas into the union then the reconstruction constitution of 1869

which was what much more inclined towards

the reconstruction attitudes of the union or of the north get

requiring protections of the rights of the newly freed slaves and then

1876 after reconstruction ended the current texas constitution

now the federal constitution of the united mexican states uh it was established following a revolution

and it was patterned after the u.s constitution and the spanish constitution of 1812.

uh like typical constitutions it had three branches the legislative executive and

judicial branches and uh catholicism as was fairly

common back then in any uh in many uh states with that with a large

catholic population uh catholicism was the state religion and it was also

supported by the public treasury meaning that um the government and tax dollars

funded the catholic church uh constitution of coagula it

the state of coahuila and former spanish province of texas are combined to form a state constitution

key provisions here once again catholicism is the state religion and the importation of new slaves is

banned of course is under this constitution that many many people are

flown into texas americans immigrate into texas with slaves

ignoring the slave ban also ignoring the provision of

catholicism after the revolution of the texas revolution the republic of texas is

established with its new constitution in 1836 it was drafted at the capitol at the

time capital of texas washington on the brazos on march 1st 1836

now this constitution is very similar to the texas constitution it's brief which is a good thing for our constitution

it's very general meaning not specific and that's also a good thing it's it has a separation of powers into

three branches the legislative executive and judicial a bill of rights and bicameral legislature

so that's all of those things are very similar to the us constitution

one thing it does do that the u.s constitution does not address is it explicitly makes slavery legal

slavery is not mentioned in the u.s constitution but that was one of the sticking points of the texans

with regard to their dissatisfaction with the mexican government was the fact that

slavery was made illegal and many many new immigrants and older immigrants brought slaves or uh

imported more slaves into texas and so there's no no longer any barriers under the republic of texas constitution

also it explicitly denies citizenship for africans descendants of africans and

native americans so the uh the constitution is basically uh written for uh

white men because uh women of course while they're citizens they had very

little power at all so

it was very limited who could be considered or who had the rights of citizenship

now the state constitution of 1845 when the u.s was annexed into the united states also had a bicameral legislature

being a little more specific the house of representatives served two-year terms and the senate served

four-year terms to be a member of the house representatives you must be 21 years old

in the senate you must be 30 years old austin was made state capital in 1850

biennial sessions were dictated in the constitution which means every other year

so uh the state legislature would meet only every other year

and ministers of the gospel quote unquote were ineligible meaning uh if you held a position of in

authority and i believe in church as a religion you were ineligible

now the governor uh served a two-year term must be 30 years old a texas citizen for

three years prior to the election he appoints the secretary of state the

attorney general the supreme district court judges with senate confirmation that's so as we

talked about the the plural executive uh um currently

in the in the state constitution which we'll get to in a little bit uh under under the uh original state constitution

of 1845 it was not necessarily a completely plural executive the

governor had some significant appointment powers now the judiciary was made up of the

supreme court district courts inferior courts established by the legislature so that's very similar to the u.s supreme

court so as the need for courts as the population grows

the legislature has the power to create more courts as needed so they didn't have to

change the constitution in order to establish new courts

and it's considered the best state constitution of the time it was because it was so similar to the

us constitution and the fact that uh it was uh relatively brief relatively general

and did not wasn't too specific now the united uh in the united states

uh entered the civil war after the secession of the south uh texas was part of that

uh they succeeded in 1861 um and basically not a whole lot of changes just some uh some wording uh the

you uh cons under the united states was changed to the confederate states of america instead of uh it was a state in the

united states of america also freeing of slaves was made illegal

okay so it was absolutely prohibited to actually free slaves even

if you wanted to and there are a few other major changes the constitution of 1866 under

presidential reconstruction it was similar to the 1861 constitution

but with plans for internal improvements uh funding schools uh segregated schools

but funding schools nonetheless which was a huge step forward a huge progress for texas at that time

uh university endowments were uh were uh addressed in um in the constitution

ensuring that uh universities were funded uh and they made it more difficult to

amend it uh three-fourth of each house of uh the legislature the house

representatives in the senate then with the approval of the governor to amend or change or add to the constitution

and then the constitution of 1869 congressional reconstruction or uh

radical reconstruction if you will it was much more geared towards

uh providing uh liberties to the um the newly freed slaves and protecting their

rights and and allowing them to uh take part uh almost as full citizens

of course it was done and enforced under military rule uh during this period of reconstruction

the united states had divided the south uh what was the former confederacy into military districts in order to ins and

rule with the u.s military in order to ensure that the rights of african

americans and the newly freed slaves were protected

its preface reflects a condemnation of secession slavery is outlawed

annual alleged annual legislative sessions meaning the legislature will meet more often instead of every two

years it'll meet once a year also this government is more centralized

meaning more of the power of the government is is is consolidated or

centralized in in at the top uh there was a common school system that

was established broader civil rights for all including the newly freed slaves

and the uh in general and an increased power for the government

so this was a fairly significant change it basically provides the constitution of 1869

provides much more power to the uh the state government

and there will be a backlash to this once reconstruction is over

now the current constitution the one that exists today and texas is guided by today

was established in 1876 and it was drafted after the

the reconstruction uh constitution and after reconstruction

ended now of course reconstruction was uh the uh was the uh the driving force behind uh

reconstruction was where the republican part was the republican party of the party of abraham lincoln

of course the uh the democrats were the dominant party in texas prior to the civil war and they and after the civil

war and after reconstruction once they were able to take back power uh they uh ensured that uh many

significant changes would occur in the constitution so it was drafted after the democrats recant control of

the state legislature the goal is to greatly restrict governmental power remember that 1869

constitution greatly expanded governmental power so this was a backlash or or reaction to

that reconstruction constitution of 1869 changed back to biennial sessions

meaning uh every other year a plural executive meaning that the

governor has less power to pick who else works within government in the executive

branch most all members of the executive branch will be elected separately according to this new constitution

mandated a balanced budget so the government did not have power to overextend itself and borrow money

state judges are popularly elected that limits the power of the governor or the legislature to

choose the judges and you need popular elections to ratify constitutional amendments therefore

taking it out of the hands of the uh well you know they can they must be voted on the constitutional amendment

is put forth for voters so that takes power away from the government once again

so once again much less power in the hands of the government

the constitution is also very long and very specific the complete opposite of

the 1845 state constitution which was short and very general not specific and

it's because most constitutions that are short in general there that they can change the interpret

we can people can change the interpretation of them as times change and that's a good thing

because change is constant but a very specific constitution is a problem because you

can't just you know it can't evolve uh organically like

with the changing of uh society or changing of the economy

or anything it has every time any small change happens in your uh

society or in the population or if you want to change the government you have to actually change the constitution

instead of letting the legislature do its job and uh

and changing with the times at uh 86 000 almost not 87 000 word it's the second

longest state constitution in the u.s behind alabama in comparison the u.s constitution which

governs the entire nation has less than 5 000 words there are

515 current amendments meaning additions to

the state constitution of texas whereas the u.s constitution which has been

around you know about 100 years longer only has 27

amendments because it the u.s constitution is general and non-specific

congress can through its law making process

can change with the times whereas in texas the constitution must be changed

or amended to change with the times in the texas constitution there is no necessary and proper clause which is

the clause in the u.s constitution that gives the u.s congress the most power

it basically states that congress may make any law that is necessary and proper

for carrying out the enumerated powers so it really opens up their ability to

uh make really any law that they feel is necessary to help carry out the enumerated powers

of the constitution of the u.s constitution but texas doesn't have that so

any small change must be changed in the constitution and there are a total of 17 articles in

the uh in the texas constitution

now when we talk about our our system of government you've heard the term we live in we have a federal

system and what that means is that you know in a federal system

the national government and the state government share power okay there are certain things that the

national government does delegated powers to them there are certain things the state does

uh powers that are reserved to them and there are also concurrent powers powers that both the state

and the national government can do now that little chart there you can see the

power of the national government they're the only ones that can

levy tariffs and taxes on trade they can they're they can only regulate

interstate commerce they're the only ones that can coin money uh that has an army and a navy can

declare a war established post office and establish their national courts the states can

establish their own state courts the state powers they have the power to tax their citizens control public

education punish criminals protect public health and safety conduct elections and establish local

governments and make marriage laws although on a few of those such as the marriage laws

and some election laws as well as public education the national government

has infringed on that in recent decades and then there's concurrent powers that both may do maintain law and order

of course those are the national what you might call the police force fbi and then you have your state

and local police levy taxes you have a state taxes such as property

taxes or sales tax and then you have of course the national federal income tax

which is a national tax both can borrow money although texas chooses

not to allow its state to borrow money take land for public use which is called

imminent domain and provide for the public welfare so as you can see there are there's separate powers or

different powers that each have plus a concurrent or shared powers now

in the u.s constitution article 6 does state though that if there is any conflict between uh

state and national law national law is always supreme

so national supremacy under the law is is spelled out in the u.s

constitution also privileges and immunities clause or the committee clause basically what that

means is no state can deny citizens of other states the privileges and immunities

uh that are guaranteed to them in the u.s constitution so you can't just because i moved to uh

or i'm traveling in another state they cannot treat me as a foreign citizen and

deny me my rights uh and and treating fair treatment under the law

uh so each state must respect the other citizens uh

of other states with regard to um how they uh

how they allow them to uh live in their state

now we talked about that federal system and of course you know not all systems

of government in the world are federal where they have shared power and as you can see in the middle there

under the federal system the people have the final authority they

quote unquote created the uh the states and the national government

of course uh the u.s constitution the first words are we the people

and that and you know in order to uh and then they go on to establish

the constitution uh by we the people now the the other two types of the other types of systems

are a unitary system where you still have national state governments but the national government

is supreme and it has all the power and it creates the state governments it

dicta it can dictate everything to the state governments the state governments under a unitary system have no real

independent power to do anything without the national government approval

and on the other end of that is a confederation which is what the south created

during the civil war and also it was the first government the articles confederation it was the

first government of the united states where the state governments have all the power and the state

governments uh create the national government and dictate to the national government what

powers it has and what rights it has and what it can do so

under the unitary system a national government can alter or abolish the state government

under confederation the state governments can alter or abolish the national government but under a federal system since they're

independent of each other neither the state governments can alter or abolish the national government

nor can the national government alter or abolish the state government

now dealing with local government cities and counties the u.s constitution is silent on local

government and by being silent it basically is understood that it passes on the

power to uh or in jurisdiction over

local governments to the states so it's understood that states will have power over local governments it's a unitary

system within the state generally most cities can make their own laws as long as they do not conflict

with state law in texas texas has three types of local government

there's cities counties and special districts

now while the national government is silent in the constitution on it and it is uh has no real power to establish

uh local governments national policy can have a great impact on state and local governments

uh you know by dictating uh funding to local governments or or taking away

funding or passing laws that may possibly can impact local

governments and state governments officials of each level of government must be responsive to their constituents

when we say each level city county state and national

elected city officials focus on what's best for their city because those are the people who voted for them so a city council

member is not necessarily concerned what's happening on the national level at least in their job

as a city councilman they're concerned with the issues for the city what's best

for the city the same with uh a county commissioner they're concerned with what's best for

the county they don't care about what's going on there you know with their county they don't care what's going on in another part of texas necessarily or

in another state and of course state officials tend to be concerned

only with what's best for texas and not necessarily what maybe the national government is doing

state elected officials focus on what's best for texas national elected officials must focus focus on both the

national interests and the state interests because uh they represent both

while you know a member of the house of representatives in the u.s congress

or a member of the u.s senate while they are elected from the state of texas and from a

district in texas as far as the house representatives they still also work because they're in

the us congress must work in the best interest also of the uh the nation so they have to find more of

a balance uh local and strictly state officials they don't really necessarily have to find

that balance they can work for only the interests of the local

government or the state government or the the citizens of their district or the

citizens of the state now this creates continuous conflict and debate uh different priorities different

you know ideas of what's best and that is absolutely actually a very good thing

for robust government to have debates to have conflict that you must compromise

to work out uh so uh even though you know what is in the best interest of one level may not

be in the best interest of the other levels that's where compromise comes in and that's always good in a democracy

now the relationship between the national and state government in the united states has changed over time

as the nation has gotten larger more populated more complex

that relationship between the national and state governments has changed in the beginning was a pretty simple economy and pretty

simple society everything was fairly small in scale and so you could have a clear line

between state government and national government and what those who did what

and uh what the line was between um the two this was dual federalism uh from about

1789 to 1945. dual federalism was whether you know there was some

crossover occasionally but for the most part the states had their lane and did the things they did and the national

government had their lane and did the things they did that tended to change around the um

after the great depression and the implementation of the new deal

then we entered an era of cooperative federalism where the two [Music]

because of the rapidly changing and growing society the two had to work together they had to

cooperate the national government would provide help the state governments would

oftentimes needed help with as as the the country was growing so fast and the economy was growing so fast

state power couldn't keep up with things like the regulation of some of these

fast-growing corporations so uh and also the funding to uh for

projects like interstate highways and other things that were coming uh so

you start to see a cooperation between the two uh things the states needed uh the

government the national government might fund them so they would cooperate and then that lasted until about 1969

and then we entered era and these are very general eras of new federalism where it was really hard to delineate

these days where the state government ends in the national government begins

because now the national government is so powerful and so influential in the all of the

states basically because of the funding that the national government provides the national government provides

billions and billions and billions of dollars to the states to to help them run programs

and when the national government gives you money to run programs

they can dictate how those programs are run and how they are implemented and

that greatly blurs the uh blurs the uh the line betw between you

know is this the state government doing it or is it the national government doing it

even though on paper it might say you know it's the state government doing with national government money but the

national government is very influential and very involved in how

many of these programs are implemented

and here's just a great chart that shows separation of powers and checks and checks and balances

within the um national government the national government this is not

state government checks and balances this is national government uh and

the main way you know that is if you look at the executive branch at the bottom left and the judicial branch at

the bottom right and you see that uh the executive branch appoints judges

and then of course the senate approves those judges but the fact that we know because

we talked about it earlier we'll talk about a little more later that texas elects

their judges the almost all of the judges in texas are elected therefore that that this

should tell us right there that um if you see anything that says judges are appointed

it's not rep it's not describing texas but also this just is a good example of

how separation and powers and checks and balances works each branch of government in the united

states government has uh oversight and influence on the other branches