Constitutionalizing the Codes

The Texas Legislative Council has been proposing, and the Texas Legislature has been routinely approving, codes since 1967. Just last year, in fact, this program to codify all the statutory law of Texas passed the halfway mark, with adoption of the Election Code, the Government Code, and the Civil Practice and Remedies Code. The legislation implementing each of these codes contains an identical proclamation: This Act is enacted pursuant to Article III, Section 43, of the Texas Constitution. Oddly enough, though, the 69th Legislature not only passed these codes; it passed a joint resolution calling for a change in the very same Article III, Section 43. The purpose of this change is to specifically permit the Legislature to pass codes. But wait a minute. Is it really necessary to pass a constitutional amendment to authorize the Texas Legislature to do what it claims already to have done three times in the past session alone