Texas 2009 - 81st Regular

Texas House Bill HJR39 Compare Versions

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1	1	H.J.R. No. 39
2	2
3	3
4	4	A JOINT RESOLUTION
5	5	post-ratifying Amendment XXIV to the Constitution of the United
6	6	States prohibiting the denial or abridgment of the right to vote for
7	7	failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
8	8	BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
9	9	SECTION 1. The 87th Congress of the United States, on August
10	10	27, 1962, in the form of Senate Joint Resolution No. 29, proposed to
11	11	the legislatures of the several states an amendment to the
12	12	Constitution of the United States, and by a proclamation dated
13	13	February 4, 1964, published at 29 Federal Register 1715-16 and at 78
14	14	Statutes at Large 1117-18, the Administrator of General Services,
15	15	Bernard L. Boutin--in the presence of native Texan, President
16	16	Lyndon Baines Johnson--declared the amendment to have been ratified
17	17	by the legislatures of 38 of the 50 states, thereby becoming
18	18	Amendment XXIV to the United States Constitution, pursuant to
19	19	Article V thereof, and reading as follows:
20	20	"AMENDMENT XXIV.
21	21	"SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United
22	22	States to vote in any primary or other election for
23	23	President or Vice President, for electors for
24	24	President or Vice President, or for Senator or
25	25	Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or
26	26	abridged by the United States or any State by reason of
27	27	failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
28	28	"SECTION 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce
29	29	this article by appropriate legislation."
30	30	SECTION 2. While the congress was still deliberating on the
31	31	poll tax amendment in August of 1962, President John Fitzgerald
32	32	Kennedy urged the United States House of Representatives to follow
33	33	the lead of the Senate and propose the amendment for the
34	34	consideration of the state legislatures ". . . to finally
35	35	eliminate this outmoded and arbitrary bar to voting. American
36	36	citizens should not have to pay to vote." And in witnessing the
37	37	issuance of Amendment XXIV's certificate of validity 17 months
38	38	later, Kennedy's successor, President Johnson, noted that
39	39	abolishing the tax requirement ". . . reaffirmed the simple but
40	40	unbreakable theme of this Republic. Nothing is so valuable as
41	41	liberty, and nothing is so necessary to liberty as the freedom to
42	42	vote without bans or barriers. . . . A change in our Constitution
43	43	is a serious event. . . . There can now be no one too poor to vote."
44	44	SECTION 3. Although Amendment XXIV has been the law of the
45	45	land since 1964, some 13 years following its effective date, it
46	46	received symbolic post-ratification in 1977 from the General
47	47	Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, as reflected in the
48	48	Congressional Record of March 28, 1977, which printed the full text
49	49	of Virginia's post-ratification; 12 years after that, the amendment
50	50	gained ceremonial post-ratification in 1989 from the General
51	51	Assembly of the State of North Carolina, as reflected in the
52	52	Congressional Record of June 6, 1989, which printed the full text of
53	53	North Carolina's post-ratification; and nearly 13 years after that,
54	54	the amendment acquired its most recent post-ratification in 2002
55	55	from the Legislature of the State of Alabama, as reflected in the
56	56	Congressional Record of September 26, 2002, which printed the full
57	57	text of Alabama's post-ratification.
58	58	SECTION 4. The Legislature of the State of Texas--one of
59	59	only five states still levying a poll tax by 1964--has never
60	60	approved Amendment XXIV to the Constitution of the United States,
61	61	but precedent makes clear the opportunity of Texas to post-ratify
62	62	the amendment in a manner similar to the actions of lawmakers in
63	63	Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia.
64	64	SECTION 5. The Legislature of the State of Texas, as a
65	65	symbolic gesture, hereby post-ratifies Amendment XXIV to the
66	66	Constitution of the United States.
67	67	SECTION 6. Pursuant to Public Law No. 98-497, the Texas
68	68	secretary of state shall notify the archivist of the United States
69	69	of the action of the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas, Regular
70	70	Session, 2009, by forwarding to the archivist an official copy of
71	71	this resolution.
72	72	SECTION 7. The Texas secretary of state shall also forward
73	73	official copies of this resolution to both United States senators
74	74	from Texas, to all United States representatives from Texas, to the
75	75	vice president of the United States in his capacity as presiding
76	76	officer of the United States Senate, and to the speaker of the
77	77	United States House of Representatives, with the request that this
78	78	resolution be printed in full in the Congressional Record.
79	79	______________________________ ______________________________
80	80	President of the Senate Speaker of the House
81	81	I certify that H.J.R. No. 39 was passed by the House on May 4,
82	82	2009, by the following vote: Yeas 142, Nays 0, 1 present, not
83	83	voting.
84	84	______________________________
85	85	Chief Clerk of the House
86	86	I certify that H.J.R. No. 39 was passed by the Senate on May
87	87	22, 2009, by the following vote: Yeas 30, Nays 0.
88	88	______________________________
89	89	Secretary of the Senate
90	90	RECEIVED: _____________________
91	91	Date
92	92	_____________________
93	93	Secretary of State