89R1228 TJB-F
By: Bell of Montgomery H.B. No. 796
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the Texas Sovereignty Act.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. (a) This Act may be cited as the Texas
Sovereignty Act.
(b) The legislature finds that:
(1) The people of the several states forming the
United States of America created the federal government to be their
agent for certain enumerated powers delegated by the states and the
people to the federal government through the United States
Constitution.
(2) The Tenth Amendment to the United States
Constitution confirms the intent and understanding of the people of
the United States that all powers not delegated to the United States
by the Constitution, or prohibited by it to the states, are reserved
to the states respectively, or to the people.
(3) Each power delegated to the federal government by
the United States Constitution is constitutionally limited to that
power as it was understood and exercised at the time it was
delegated. An amendment to the Constitution as ratified by the
states is required to expand or limit a constitutionally delegated
power.
(4) The United States Constitution authorizes the
United States Congress to exercise only those specific powers
enumerated in Section 8, Article I, United States Constitution, and
those other powers as may be delegated to Congress through
amendments to the Constitution as ratified by the states.
(5) Article VI, United States Constitution, makes
supreme the Constitution and federal laws enacted pursuant to the
Constitution, further requiring that public officials at all levels
and in all branches of government support the Constitution.
(6) The power delegated to the United States Congress
to regulate commerce among the several states under Section 8,
Article I, United States Constitution, is limited to federal
regulation of actual commerce between the states and among foreign
nations. Regulation of intrastate commerce is reserved to the
states and to the people of the states. The Commerce Clause of the
Constitution constrains the legislative, executive, and judicial
branches of the federal government.
(7) The power delegated to the United States Congress
to make all necessary and proper federal laws under Section 8,
Article I, United States Constitution, allows Congress to enact
only those laws necessary and proper to execute the
constitutionally delegated powers vested in the federal
government, all other powers being reserved to the states and to the
people of the states.
(8) The power delegated to the United States Congress
to provide for the general welfare of the United States under
Section 8, Article I, United States Constitution, in the General
Welfare Clause constitutionally constrains Congress when
exercising a delegated power to act in a manner that serves the
states and the people of the states well and uniformly.
(9) Sections 1 and 2, Article I, Texas Constitution,
provide that this state and the people of this state retain the
sovereign power to regulate the affairs of Texas, subject only to
the United States Constitution.
(c) The federal government does not have the power to take
any legislative, executive, or judicial action that violates the
United States Constitution.
(d) The contract with the State of Texas has been willfully
violated by the federal government and must be constitutionally
restored.
(e) This Act calls on all officials in federal, state, and
local government, in all branches and at all levels, to honor their
oaths to preserve, protect, and defend the United States
Constitution and its ratified amendments against any federal action
that:
(1) would unconstitutionally undermine, diminish, or
disregard the balance of powers between the sovereign states and
the federal government established by the United States
Constitution and its ratified amendments; or
(2) is outside the scope of the power delegated to the
federal government by the United States Constitution.
SECTION 2. Subtitle Z, Title 3, Government Code, is amended
by adding Chapter 394 to read as follows:
CHAPTER 394. ENFORCEMENT OF UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION
Sec. 394.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
(1) "Committee" means the Joint Legislative Committee
on Constitutional Enforcement.
(2) "Federal action" includes:
(A) a federal law;
(B) a federal agency rule, policy, or standard;
(C) an executive order of the president of the
United States;
(D) an order or decision of a federal court; and
(E) the making or enforcing of a treaty.
(3) "Unconstitutional federal action" means a federal
action enacted, adopted, or implemented without authority
specifically delegated to the federal government by the people and
the states through the United States Constitution.
Sec. 394.002. JOINT LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON
CONSTITUTIONAL ENFORCEMENT. (a) The Joint Legislative Committee
on Constitutional Enforcement is established as a permanent joint
committee of the legislature. The committee is established to
review federal actions that challenge the sovereignty of the state
and of the people for the purpose of determining if the federal
action is unconstitutional.
(b) The committee consists of the following 12 members:
(1) six members of the house of representatives
appointed by the speaker of the house; and
(2) six members of the senate appointed by the
lieutenant governor.
(c) Not more than four house members of the committee may be
members of the same political party. Not more than four senate
members of the committee may be members of the same political party.
(d) Members of the committee serve two-year terms beginning
with the convening of each regular legislative session.
(e) If a vacancy occurs on the committee, the appropriate
appointing officer shall appoint a member of the house or senate, as
appropriate, to serve for the remainder of the unexpired term.
(f) The speaker of the house and the lieutenant governor
shall each designate one member of the committee as a joint chair of
the committee.
(g) The committee shall meet at the call of either joint
chair.
(h) A majority of the members of the committee constitute a
quorum.
Sec. 394.003. COMMITTEE REVIEW OF FEDERAL ACTION. (a) The
committee may review any federal action to determine whether the
action is an unconstitutional federal action.
(b) When reviewing a federal action, the committee shall
consider the plain reading and reasoning of the text of the United
States Constitution and the understood definitions at the time of
the framing and construction of the Constitution by our forefathers
before making a final declaration of constitutionality, as
demonstrated by:
(1) the ratifying debates in the several states;
(2) the understanding of the leading participants at
the constitutional convention;
(3) the understanding of the doctrine in question by
the constitutions of the several states in existence at the time the
United States Constitution was adopted;
(4) the understanding of the United States
Constitution by the first United States Congress;
(5) the opinions of the first chief justice of the
United States Supreme Court;
(6) the background understanding of the doctrine in
question under the English Constitution of the time; and
(7) the statements of support for natural law and
natural rights by the framers and the philosophers admired by the
framers.
(c) Not later than the 180th day after the date the
committee holds its first public hearing to review a specific
federal action, the committee shall vote to determine whether the
action is an unconstitutional federal action.
(d) The committee may determine that a federal action is an
unconstitutional federal action by majority vote.
Sec. 394.004. LEGISLATIVE DETERMINATION. (a) If the
committee determines that a federal action is an unconstitutional
federal action, the committee shall report the determination to the
house of representatives and to the senate during:
(1) the current session of the legislature if the
legislature is convened when the committee makes the determination;
or
(2) the next regular or special session of the
legislature if the legislature is not convened when the committee
makes the determination.
(b) Each house of the legislature shall vote on whether the
federal action is an unconstitutional federal action. If a
majority of the members of each house determine that the federal
action is an unconstitutional federal action, the determination
shall be sent to the governor for approval or disapproval as
provided by Section 14, Article IV, Texas Constitution, regarding
bills.
(c) A federal action is declared by the state to be an
unconstitutional federal action on the day:
(1) the governor approves the vote of the legislature
making the determination; or
(2) the determination would become law if presented to
the governor as a bill and not objected to by the governor.
(d) The secretary of state shall forward official copies of
the declaration to the president of the United States, to the
speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the
Senate of the Congress of the United States, and to all members of
the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that the
declaration of unconstitutional federal action be entered in the
Congressional Record.
Sec. 394.005. OTHER DETERMINATIONS OF UNCONSTITUTIONAL
FEDERAL ACTS. (a) This chapter does not limit or alter the
authority of the governor, the attorney general, a statewide
elected official, a state or federal court, a judge or justice, a
state or local appointed or elected official, or the governing body
of a political subdivision of this state to issue a verbal or
written opinion determining a federal action to be
unconstitutional.
(b) An opinion issued under Subsection (a) may be referred
to the committee for review under this chapter.
Sec. 394.006. EFFECT OF DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL FEDERAL
ACTION. (a) A federal action declared to be an unconstitutional
federal action under Section 394.004 has no legal effect in this
state and may not be recognized by this state or a political
subdivision of this state as having legal effect.
(b) The state and a political subdivision of the state may
not spend public money or resources or incur public debt to
implement or enforce a federal action declared to be an
unconstitutional federal action.
(c) A person authorized to enforce the laws of this state
may enforce those laws, including Section 39.03, Penal Code,
against a person who attempts to implement or enforce a federal
action declared to be an unconstitutional federal action.
(d) This chapter does not prohibit a public officer who has
taken an oath to defend the United States Constitution from
interposing to stop acts of the federal government which, in the
officer's best understanding and judgment, violate the United
States Constitution.
(e) Texas officials in federal, state, and local government
shall honor their oaths to preserve, protect, and defend the United
States Constitution and shall act to constitutionally defend this
state and the people of this state.
Sec. 394.007. AUTHORITY OF ATTORNEY GENERAL. The attorney
general may defend the state to prevent the implementation and
enforcement of a federal action declared to be an unconstitutional
federal action.
SECTION 3. Chapter 37, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, is
amended by adding Section 37.0056 to read as follows:
Sec. 37.0056. DECLARATIONS RELATING TO UNCONSTITUTIONAL
ACTS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. (a) In this section, "federal
action" and "unconstitutional federal action" have the meanings
assigned by Section 394.001, Government Code.
(b) Any court in this state has original jurisdiction of a
proceeding seeking a declaratory judgment that a federal action
effective in this state is an unconstitutional federal action.
(c) A person is entitled to declaratory relief if the court
determines that a federal action is an unconstitutional federal
action.
(d) In determining whether to grant declaratory relief to a
person under this section, a court:
(1) may not rely solely on the decisions of other
courts interpreting the United States Constitution; and
(2) must rely on the plain meaning of the text of the
United States Constitution and any applicable constitutional
doctrine as understood by the framers of the constitution.
(e) Section 37.008 does not apply to relief sought under
this section.
SECTION 4. (a) Not later than the 30th day following the
effective date of this Act:
(1) the speaker of the house of representatives and
the lieutenant governor shall appoint the initial members of the
Joint Legislative Committee on Constitutional Enforcement
established under Section 394.002, Government Code, as added by
this Act; and
(2) the secretary of state shall forward official
copies of this Act to the president of the United States, to the
speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the
Senate of the Congress of the United States, and to all members of
the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that this Act be
officially entered in the Congressional Record.
(b) Not later than the 45th day following the effective date
of this Act, the speaker of the house of representatives and the
lieutenant governor shall forward official copies of this Act to
the presiding officers of the legislatures of the several states.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2025.