The United States Constitution is one of the most used documents in American History, as it is the foundation of American democracy. Within the constitution, the tenth amendment grants, “…The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Thus, Texas also has a Constitution, which outlines important powers within the state, itself. Both of these documents are extremely important to understand together, but to also understand their differences. Some examples of the differences between the Texas State Constitution and the United States Constitution include, the powers of the President and the Governor, the varying Legislative sessions, …show more content…
The Governor of Texas needs to not only be a citizen of the United States, but also reside in Texas for at least five years immediately preceding the election in order to fully understand the policies Texas residents’ are dealing with, the culture of Texas, as well as how Texas’ political decision impacts the rest of the nation. Both the President and the Governor are required to give an address to the legislatures, which cover very similar topics. The President’s State of the Union address “…recommends to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient;” while the Governor of Texas gives the Condition of the State in which, “…he shall recommend to the Legislature such measures as …show more content…
The Supreme Court only oversees certain cases that must follow certain guidelines, and their main role is to interpret the Constitution. The Supreme Court of Texas is the final appellate court in the state of Texas, and all of its jurisdictions are final, unless it is in criminal law matters. As expressed earlier, the Federal Constitution is the foundation of our country and the most used document within politics, the Supreme Court allows an interpretation of the constitution within changing times that apply to the entire nation and is often where much change occurs within policies. To have a “final say” in important cases that affect our entire nation based on a foundational document shouldn’t be a power that is left to individual states. To be a Supreme Court Justice, one must be nominated with advice and consent from the senate by the President of the United States. There are no other qualifications and they serve on the court for the rest of their lives or until they retire. While to serve on the Supreme Court of Texas, one must meet specific qualifications, such as: “…being licensed to practice law in the state, a citizen of the United States and of Texas, is at least 35 years old, and has been a practicing lawyer, or a lawyer and judge of a court of record together at least ten years.” Not only must a Supreme Court Justice of Texas meet the specific
The Texas Constitution is a document that describes the structure and purpose of the government in Texas. It took effect in February 15, 1876 and is amongst the longest state constitutions in the United States. It is the sixth constitution since claiming their independence from Mexico in 1836. Texas joined the United States under the Constitution of 1845 with provisions. Those provisions included allowing Texas to enter the union and begin the first U.S. statehood constitution. In 1861 Texas amended to transfer their statehood to the Confederacy. After the Confederacy was defeated Texas was required to adopt a constitution if they wanted to rejoin the union. The 1866 Constitution Convention emerged with a document but it did not last very long.
The Constitution of the United States and the Texas Constitution share many similarities. They also have important differences due to different attitudes about what the role of government should be. It is important to know the limits of the state’s power as it can help us better understand our role as a Texas citizen.
In my analysis of the Texas Constitution I will assess the three branches of our State Government, the Legislative Branch, Executive Branch and finally the Judicial Branch. Our State Government resembles our National Government in various ways but also in very different ways which we will review in this essay. I will identify a handful of criticisms and problems associated with the provisions in each of these branches of our State Government and identify suggested reforms that many feel are needed.
Rushing to put in place a working system of government, many of the provisions outlined within the 1836 Texas Constitution were adapted from several places such as the United States Constitution, Spanish-Mexican law, English law, and other southern States Constitutions. (Ericson, Joe E.) Provisions adapted from the United States Constitution were reflected through the amount of power given to State officials that closely resembled identical provisions of the Uni...
The constitution establish major governing institutions, assign institution’s power, place explicit and implicit control on power granted. All this gives the political legitimacy. The U.S constitution gives the base model for state constitution for Texas.
A governor’s formal powers include the tenure of the office, power of appointment, power to veto legislation, responsibility for preparing the budget, authority to reorganize the executive branch, and the right to retain professional staff in the governor’s office. These institutional powers give governors the potential to carry out the duties of office as they see fit. However, the formal powers vary considerably from state to state (Bowman, Kearney, 2011). The governor of Texas is in general the most known state official and usually at the center of state government and politics. As such an important part of the Texas government, the governor has many powers, both formal and informal.
The Texas Constitution is a document much like the U.S Constitution; these documents outline basic laws of the local, State, and or Nation government along with specific functions of government. The Texas constitution was originally drafted in 1836, right after being relinquished from under the command and control of the Mexican government also known as the Republic of Texas. It was framed by the Constitutional Convention of 1875 and adopted on 15 Feb 1876. When it came to organizing Texas many factors came into play being as though Texas originally belonged to Mexico. The Texas Constitution is very unique, as it hold much of its untraditional history. Its content contain a large portion of the U.S Constitution as well as fragments from already established Mexican rules and regulations.
Including the Mexican constitution of 1824, it is the eight constitution in the Texas history. Despite it was written in particular circumstances (breaches of the constitution of 1869), it remains the foundation of state government. The intention of the framers was to prevent abuse due to an excessive power given to the government. Thereby, the current constitution was strengthened by putting all the powers in the hand of the Texans. For instance, the Bill of Rights represents the first article of the constitution. It is lengthier and more detailed than the U.S. Bill of Rights. Texas’ Constitution separates power in tree branches like the U.S. Constitution. However, to prevent an arbitrary and dictatorial governor, corresponding state level cabinet positions are designated by the people through elections. Also, in contrast of many others states where the judges are appointed by the governor, judges in Texas are elected by the
The current governer of Texas is Greg Abbott. Greg Abbott is the 48th governor of the state Texas. As a governer he has served the state as a conservative leader who fights to preserve Texas values. Governor Abbott’s wants to make stronger Texas for tomorrow. He mainly focuses on creating more jobs and economic opportunity, elevating schools and education system, building the transportation infrastructure as needed to keep the economy growing and securing the Texas border in the face of federal inaction.
Judicial reforms in Texas have called for implementation strategies since late 1970’s. Before then Texas was a nonpartisan in terms of judicial election with the democratic being the only party that was winning seats in the region. Later in the early 1980’s, the spirit of bipartisan began when the governor under the Republican Party was overwhelmingly elected and later supported bipartisanship in judiciary (Champagne 68)
This “two house” structure is composed of the Texas Senate and Texas House of Representatives, with a total of 181 state legislators total. The Senate is presided by the President of the Senate, the Lieutenant Governor. He is elected statewide independently of the Governor. Even thought he is a member of the Executive Branch, he contains a lot of power and influence in the Legislature. In addition to serving as the Chairman of the Legislative Budget Board and the Legislative Council, he has the authority to assign bills to specific committees, casts a vote in the case of a tie on the Senate floor, and serves as a member on the Legislative Redistricting Board. Other than the Lt. Governor there are 31 Senators in the Senate. Each is elected from their own district in staggered elections, for a 4-year term with no term limit. The requirements to be a Texas Senator are being a US citizen, a resident of TX for 5 years and your district for 1, be registered to vote for 5 years, and be at least 26 years old. The House of Representatives is presided by the Speaker of the House. He is elected by his fellow house members from a house district. His job is to keep order on the House floor during debates by recognizing the various members who speak and ruling on questions. He must also sign all bills passed by the Legislature, all while having all the powers of a regular Representative of the House. Like the Lt. Governor of the Senate, he also serves on the Legislative Council, Legislative Redistricting Board and Legislative Budget Board. The requirements to be a Member of the House are to be a US citizen, a registered voter, a resident of TX for 2 years and of your district for 1, and at least 21 years old. The Governor of Texas, while apart of the Executive Branch, does have select Legislative powers. Only he can call the Legislature into Special Sessions, and he decided the purpose for these sessions. Committees
Like the president, the Texas governor has restrictions on his powers, only more so for the governor. The president must rely on the agreement and unity of various systems such as Congress, while the governor is part of a divided executive team including, but not limited to the lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller of public accounts, and commissioner of the General Land Office. Texas government is closer to what the Framers intended for government with its less efficient and diversified system of checks and balances on the executive. Continuing, this stemmed from the Founders fear of authority, a by product of their experience of government in England. In summary, they were
Texas and Federal Constitutions contain the principles needed for a representative democratic government and both arose from different historical situations; for instance, the U.S. Constitution was made to replace the Articles of Confederation, a weak decentralized form of national government with no president or taxes, which made the government not powerful enough to start a war. The U.S. Constitution was made to improve these weaknesses by proposing a degree of centralization which increased government power. On the other hand, Texas Constitution was made to reverse or avoid the ideas of the U.S. Constitution. On one part, the U.S. Constitution wanted to empower government action whereas the Texas Constitution wanted to weaken government action. The Texas Constitution is more geared toward protecting people’s rights whereas the U.S. Constitution protects the nation’s interest. The Texas Constitution has been amended more than 300 times whereas the US Constitution includes the Bill of Rights and the subsequent
“Unlike the president of the United States and the forty-four governors of other states, the governor of Texas does not have a formal appointive cabinet to carry out policy on the governmental bureaucracy and shares the executive function with other elected officials” (Gibson & Robinson, 2013, p.186). Our Texas Governor must be a resident of Texas five years prior to the election date and must be at least 30 years of age. “The Texas Governor’s office is often referred to as weak because of the revision of the Texas Constitution, many of the duties of the Governor changed and hence made the Governor’s office weak” (Texas Politics, 2012). The way it was set up was for the legislature specifically, people like the Lieutenant Governor and the speaker of the house, who control the Senate and House in the legislature. “It allowed them to have a little bit more control in terms of setting what bills can get passed and what bills can make it to the governor’s desk” (Staff, K,
As elections closely approach in the state of Texas, a significant amount of attention is placed on the candidates who are running for the position of Texas Governor. However, it is likely that the majority of voters overestimate the power that the governor truly holds in the executive branch. Texans tend to largely focus on the Governor’s office and ignore the others because the Texas Governor is the most recognizable state official. In other words, the Texas Governor holds the position of being a symbolic leader that utilizes their limited power to influence policies and politics.