Texas 2009 - 81st Regular

Texas Senate Bill SJR27 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	81R3954 CBE-D
2	2	By: Ellis S.J.R. No. 27
3	3
4	4
5	5	A JOINT RESOLUTION
6	6	post-ratifying Amendment XXIV to the Constitution of the United
7	7	States prohibiting the denial or abridgment of the right to vote for
8	8	failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
9	9	BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
10	10	SECTION 1. The 87th Congress of the United States, on August
11	11	27, 1962, in the form of Senate Joint Resolution No. 29, proposed to
12	12	the legislatures of the several states an amendment to the
13	13	Constitution of the United States, and by a proclamation dated
14	14	February 4, 1964, published at 29 Federal Register 1715-16 and at 78
15	15	Statutes at Large 1117-18, the Administrator of General Services,
16	16	Bernard L. Boutin--in the presence of native Texan, President
17	17	Lyndon Baines Johnson--declared the amendment to have been ratified
18	18	by the legislatures of 38 of the 50 states, thereby becoming
19	19	Amendment XXIV to the United States Constitution, pursuant to
20	20	Article V thereof, and reading as follows:
21	21	"AMENDMENT XXIV.
22	22	"SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United
23	23	States to vote in any primary or other election for
24	24	President or Vice President, for electors for
25	25	President or Vice President, or for Senator or
26	26	Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or
27	27	abridged by the United States or any State by reason of
28	28	failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
29	29	"SECTION 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce
30	30	this article by appropriate legislation."
31	31	SECTION 2. While the congress was still deliberating on the
32	32	poll tax amendment in August of 1962, President John Fitzgerald
33	33	Kennedy urged the United States House of Representatives to follow
34	34	the lead of the Senate and propose the amendment for the
35	35	consideration of the state legislatures ". . . to finally
36	36	eliminate this outmoded and arbitrary bar to voting. American
37	37	citizens should not have to pay to vote." And in witnessing the
38	38	issuance of Amendment XXIV's certificate of validity 17 months
39	39	later, Kennedy's successor, President Johnson, noted that
40	40	abolishing the tax requirement ". . . reaffirmed the simple but
41	41	unbreakable theme of this Republic. Nothing is so valuable as
42	42	liberty, and nothing is so necessary to liberty as the freedom to
43	43	vote without bans or barriers. . . . A change in our Constitution
44	44	is a serious event. . . . There can now be no one too poor to vote."
45	45	SECTION 3. Although Amendment XXIV has been the law of the
46	46	land since 1964, some 13 years following its effective date, it
47	47	received symbolic post-ratification in 1977 from the General
48	48	Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, as reflected in the
49	49	Congressional Record of March 28, 1977, which printed the full text
50	50	of Virginia's post-ratification; 12 years after that, the amendment
51	51	gained ceremonial post-ratification in 1989 from the General
52	52	Assembly of the State of North Carolina, as reflected in the
53	53	Congressional Record of June 6, 1989, which printed the full text of
54	54	North Carolina's post-ratification; and nearly 13 years after that,
55	55	the amendment acquired its most recent post-ratification in 2002
56	56	from the Legislature of the State of Alabama, as reflected in the
57	57	Congressional Record of September 26, 2002, which printed the full
58	58	text of Alabama's post-ratification.
59	59	SECTION 4. The Legislature of the State of Texas--one of
60	60	only five states still levying a poll tax by 1964--has never
61	61	approved Amendment XXIV to the Constitution of the United States,
62	62	but precedent makes clear the opportunity of Texas to post-ratify
63	63	the amendment in a manner similar to the actions of lawmakers in
64	64	Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia.
65	65	SECTION 5. The Legislature of the State of Texas, as a
66	66	symbolic gesture, hereby post-ratifies Amendment XXIV to the
67	67	Constitution of the United States.
68	68	SECTION 6. Pursuant to Public Law No. 98-497, the Texas
69	69	secretary of state shall notify the archivist of the United States
70	70	of the action of the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas, Regular
71	71	Session, 2009, by forwarding to the archivist an official copy of
72	72	this resolution.
73	73	SECTION 7. The Texas secretary of state shall also forward
74	74	official copies of this resolution to both United States senators
75	75	from Texas, to all United States representatives from Texas, to the
76	76	vice president of the United States in his capacity as presiding
77	77	officer of the United States Senate, and to the speaker of the
78	78	United States House of Representatives, with the request that this
79	79	resolution be printed in full in the Congressional Record.