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hi everyone and I hope your semester is
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going well so far as you can see from
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these slides I am not going to be
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covering quite as much as as I have in
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in the previous weeks uh but there's a
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point to this or there's a method to
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this madness basically uh the current
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constitution is very important and we'll
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be looking at this uh for the next
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couple of weeks really uh so today we
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are discussing it in Broad terms and
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then we'll go over some uh criticisms as
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well in the next couple of weeks uh we
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will talk about things such as uh the
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Texas legislature and the
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governorship and uh in particular uh two
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weeks from now or so we'll focus on the
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legislature and Jerry mandering as it
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happens in Texas and I will uh ask you
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to watch a longer video that I uh
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believe is is very important uh so
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things will uh kind of pick up at that
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point there will be a little more uh for
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uh for us to cover uh so I recommend
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that since since these slides are fairly
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short uh this week uh it might be a good
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idea to go over them twice as you
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noticed uh my quizzes uh draw from the
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slides quite a bit um so perhaps the the
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the uh the quiz this week that you'll
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find that one to be uh to be easier
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the association of the Texas
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Constitution of
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1869 the the prior Constitution that is
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with reconstruction virtually guaranteed
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strong Democratic support for new
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document when Democrats gained control
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in 1872 and
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873 their first first priority was to
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draft a new constitution for Texas
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government Coke and the Democratic
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leaders initially proposed that the
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state legis legislature write a new
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constitution however when legislators
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deadlocked over new document the
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governor and Democratic leaders had no
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choice but to call for the election of
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of delegates for a state constitutional
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convention in the fall of
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1875 90 Texans gathered in Austin to
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draft the new constitution for the state
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although a a number of Republicans
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including several African-Americans Serv
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as uh convention delegates most of the
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delegates were white
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Democrats Farmers EXC Confederate
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officers and lawyers were all well
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represented at the Constitutional
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Convention you can see especially
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Farmers interests were very well
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represented and given a great deal of
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weight in the new
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constitution the largest group of
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delegates was the Texas patrons of
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husbandry better known as The Grand
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range this group was uh this was a group
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of farmers and in today's context we
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could call them a special interest group
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or uh or a Lobby indeed retrenchment and
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reform that was the slogan of of the
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Grangers quickly became the watchwords
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of the
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convention this slogan or the Granger
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slogan
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embodied two basic goals the first goal
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was to restrict the size and scope of uh
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state government and then also they
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wanted to control the excess excesses of
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big business most of the delegates at
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this convention wanted to restrain a
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state government that they believed was
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too big and too expensive in order to do
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this the delegates abandoned one
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Constitutional Convention or I'm sorry
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one constitutional tradition while
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reinstalling another on the one hand the
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authors of the new constitution turned
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away from the pattern initially
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established by the Texas Constitution of
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1845 which was a fairly General document
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expressed in Broad broad terms and they
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instead brought a very restrictive
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Constitution that was very long and very
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very detailed
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all 50 state constitutions including the
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Texas Constitution have The Misfortune
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of being compared to the US Constitution
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which is very unique in its nature the
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US Constitution is short and flexible
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and it is really about
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4,300 words uh that's the the main
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document and even if you include the 27
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Amendments the entire document is about
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85 500 words this defines the structure
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and the powers of the national
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government and the structure and the
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powers of the federal system and the US
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Constitution is a very impressive
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document because it is truly uh flexible
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and because of this flexibility because
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of the fact that it was never meant to
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be perfect that it was a document
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drafted under uh the pressure of time
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and event uh because it was sort of more
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or less a a makeshift Affair uh this
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led to Great flexibility which allowed
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the US Constitution to be uh resistant
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to various uh various events and really
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if you compare uh the US Constitution
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with some other constitutions uh we are
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doing extraordinarily well uh the United
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States is still and it's probably will
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be for a long time on Constitution
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number one whereas a country like France
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is on their number five so uh the US
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Constitution is truly a very impressive
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document probably because it was never
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meant uh to be to be perfect it was
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meant to be uh flexible and the future
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Generations were to worry about things
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so Perfection was never uh the goal of
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the founding
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fathers state Constitutions are almost
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always longer and more detailed which
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means that they are also less flexible
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uh and they need to be amended more
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frequently the Texas Constitution is at
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93,000 Words which means that it is uh
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almost 10 times as long as the US
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Constitution and in fact it is one of
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the longest state constitutions it also
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as as as we uh discussed uh it also has
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been amended since it wasn't really that
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uh or it isn't really that flexible it's
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been amended more than
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467 times although some other
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constitutions have been amended more
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times uh California for example has a
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constitution that was amended about 518
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times Alabama 87 times and Alabama's
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Constitution is incredibly long it's uh
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uh 365,000 words long uh Texas is in the
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top five um it is long our constitution
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in Texas is long and inflexible and for
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that reason it requires a lot of
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amending
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there are a lot of similarities between
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the Texas and the US constitutions these
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include having a Bill of Rights which
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guarantees individual rights and
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Liberties uh just like the US
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Constitution the Texas Constitution
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entails uh separation of powers checks
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and balances as well as the creation of
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a bomal
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legislature uh the Texas Constitution
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contains 29 sections and uh contains
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most of the guarantees found in the US
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Bill of Rights such as protection of
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free speech free press the rights uh of
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of trial by jury uh safeguards against
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unreasonable search and seizure and
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things of that sort however the Texas
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Bill of Rights does more than merely
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restate the guarantees found in the US
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Constitution the Texas Constitution and
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the Texas Bill of Rights phrases the
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protections positively rather than
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negatively uh the US constit tion States
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what uh rights the governments cannot
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take uh away from the US citizens while
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the Texas Constitution declares the
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rights that the state government must
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protect so rather than not infringing on
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your rights the government instead must
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act to ensure your rights the Texas
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Constitution also establishes a
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separation of power systems with checks
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and balances similar to the national
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government
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the Texas state government has three
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branches just like the national
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government does which are an executive
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branch which is headed by the governor a
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Bic Camal legislature including the
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House of Representatives and the Senate
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and a judicial branch including the
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Texas Supreme Court here the checks and
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balances really refer uh to the
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overlapping powers held by different
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branches of government so that public
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officials limit the authority of one
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another the Governor's appointments for
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example must be confirmed by uh 2/3 of
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the Texas Senate legislation must pass
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both the house and the Senate before uh
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it it passes uh the governor can veto
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bills just like the president can uh but
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the legislature can override a veto by
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2/3 of the vote in the house so these
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elements of the Texas Constitution and
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the checks and balances are likely very
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familiar to you because they are similar
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to the checks and balances of the US
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national government well allow me to
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elaborate a bit the convention and Hance
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the Constitution restricted the
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authority of every branch and unit of
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Texas government again this was a
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backlash to the previous Texas
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Constitution which had endowed the Texas
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government with a great deal of power
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people in Texas did not trust the
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government and this explains the long
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Bill of Rights and that the government
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has to give these rights to to Citizens
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at the same time this constitution
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restricted to a large degree every
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branch and unit of the Texas government
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this new constitution weakened the
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office of the governor by reducing
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Governor's salary and reducing the term
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of office uh from four years to two
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years um it also restricted government's
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appointment by creating a plural
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executive uh the power of the executive
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being being divided among several
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officials uh these officials include the
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lieutenant governor attorney general uh
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the state uh controller uh the state
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treasurer and the land commissioner
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executive officials are elected
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independently from the governor so they
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owe they owe no allegiance to the
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governor think about uh the implications
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of of this and the potential gridlock as
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we see at the naal uh level as of as of
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late uh the governor can appoint a
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number of lesser officials but they may
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have little incentive to follow the
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governor's wishes because he or she has
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no power to remove them from uh from
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from office before the end of their
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terms for instance although this is not
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a perfect comparison when the President
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appoints someone to the court to the
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Supreme Court he cannot remove them nor
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can he direct them to do as he wishes
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right similarly the Texas governor can
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appoint a host of a host of officials
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but the governor has no control over
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their actions once they are in office uh
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the Constitution's framers wanted to
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reduce the power of the legislature as
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well they did this by restricting the
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meeting time of the legislature and by
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restricting the scope of its
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policymaking Authority so first they
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Limited the regular meeting of the
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legislature to 140 days which is less
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than half a year uh they also limited
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the Texas legislature to meet every
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other year so it meets 140 days every
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other year this complicates things what
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if um something drastic is going on some
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state of emergency what if there are
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serious budget problems right this
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clearly is uh is uh is is is
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complicating things like I said
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so this constitution reduced not only
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the governor's salary but also the
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salaries of the legislators this
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constitution also required that uh the
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legislature adopt a balanced budget
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unless 80% of the legislature agreed to
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Def deficit spending think about how
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many states are in deficit right this is
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it is very difficult for this to be
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allowed uh by the Texas
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government first furthermore by
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including long detailed sections on
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issues like education uh Finance rail
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World regulations the framers of the
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Constitution really Force legisl
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legislators to propose I'm sorry
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Constitutional Amendments if they wanted
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to make any policy changes in in this uh
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in these areas so this really
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demonstrates the inflexibility of the
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Texas Constitution so once again to
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reiterate the US Constitution is vague
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the US Constitution isn't specific uh
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for for for a reason right the founding
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fathers wanted the documents to be
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flexible and to be relevant for a long
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period of time Texas is very different
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right the Texas Constitution addressed
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very many things and over time reality
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has changed whether we're talking about
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economy or education or whatever other
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issues uh there might be the reality has
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changed and for that reason the
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Constitution needed to to be amended and
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as such it was amended many many
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times finally the framers of the Texas
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Constitution made several Provisions for
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limiting the power of the Judiciary they
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divided the court system into two
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segments which was uh which which
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limited the types of cases individual
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courts would be allowed to hear they
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also actually provided for election of
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of Judges um all state judges like I
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mentioned were elected and they were
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elected for a very brief terms in office
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this reduced judicial discretion and
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really reduced judicial power part of
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the way judicial discretion was reduced
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or decreased was uh was that the Texas
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Constitution was very long and very
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elaborate and so detailed that it didn't
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leave much room for judges to interpret
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the law finally framers of the Texas
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Constitution did not Overlook local
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government in fact they specified the
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forms of local governments and
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restricted local authority to Levy taxes
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to provide services to adopt regulations
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and to go into debt in many instances
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local governments would have to ask the
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state for permission to adopt even minor
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policies
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so changing local political structures
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would frequently involve making
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Constitutional Amendment which uh was
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more or less a a a waste of time um and
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that's partly why we had this many M
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amendments or as many as as we did and
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it is really ironic because Texas
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citizens and the state government did
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not like a lot of control coming from
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the federal government from the US
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government yet the Texas Constitution
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was so long and so elaborate and so
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specific that it limited the power of
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local
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governments and local governments if you
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really think about that are closer and
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more personal to the citizens and rather
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than granting more power to local
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governments the constitution of Texas
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actually limited what the local
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governments could
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do
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e
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e e
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there are three main criticism of the of
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the text
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Constitution first and foremost the
00:19:01
Constitution is outdated the current
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constitution was written at a different
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time place and a different reality from
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the one that we live in today had it
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been written like the US Constitution
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that was short and
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flexible the interpretation of it could
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change over time had it uh left all the
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details of governing to the legislator
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to the legislature and govern in
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officials it would have been fine
00:19:31
however that wasn't the case precisely
00:19:35
because of the fact that is so detailed
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it is outdated the time in which our
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state constitution was written was the
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time of cowboys and Agriculture and it
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was simply a very different time in
00:19:50
history the population of the state was
00:19:52
very different totally different it was
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actually the size of the population at
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that time was about 1.5 million people
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whereas today we are about uh 25 million
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or so think about the scope of of that
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change demographically also there's been
00:20:12
some changes as well uh the makeup of
00:20:15
the state in in other words is very
00:20:18
different today back in in those days uh
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Hispanics and African-Americans were the
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two largest
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minorities uh but today we know that
00:20:28
that uh the uh the the African-American
00:20:32
population has decreased while the Asian
00:20:35
population has been under rise most
00:20:38
importantly it was primarily farmers who
00:20:41
wrote the Constitution whereas few of us
00:20:45
are farming today the economic makeup of
00:20:48
the state has changed so
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dramatically uh as well this is no
00:20:54
longer an agrarian society as we talked
00:20:59
talked about this a couple of weeks ago
00:21:01
uh the Texas economy is quite diverse it
00:21:04
uh it is involved or it it has to do uh
00:21:08
with uh sectors such as computers and
00:21:11
research and biotechnology Finance
00:21:14
telecommunications energy and many
00:21:17
more right but the Texas Constitution
00:21:20
was written to address a very very
00:21:22
different reality and for that reason it
00:21:25
is outdated the Constitution is also too
00:21:29
detailed too specific too long and too
00:21:33
inflexible critics of this Constitution
00:21:36
say that Texas must resort to an
00:21:38
amendment process too often because the
00:21:40
just mentioned because the Constitution
00:21:42
is like I said inflexible and too
00:21:45
specific um and on top of that it is
00:21:48
poorly written for example there is one
00:21:51
sentence in the Constitution that
00:21:53
Rambles on for wait for this 765
00:21:58
words that is like a page it's like a
00:22:02
child writes that way and uh please
00:22:05
don't submit any papers that have
00:22:07
sentences sentences nowhere near uh that
00:22:11
length uh in fact this is not an anomaly
00:22:14
several sentences approach 300 words or
00:22:17
so uh really if you think about that it
00:22:21
is really hard for anyone to figure out
00:22:24
what uh the the uh the the people who
00:22:27
wrote those sentences uh wanted to to
00:22:31
convey uh more so the content of the
00:22:34
Constitution is ambiguous it's unclear
00:22:37
and is overlapping and sometimes you
00:22:39
have two different articles of the
00:22:41
Constitution talking about the same
00:22:43
thing in a different way for example
00:22:46
Provisions dealing with local government
00:22:49
are scattered through articles 3 5 8 9
00:22:53
11 and
00:22:55
16 this poor organization LED to
00:22:58
restrictive explanations of its
00:23:00
provisions and poor public understanding
00:23:03
of its contents because it's really
00:23:05
confusing and uh it is often uncertain
00:23:09
what the intentions of the writers were
00:23:12
so if you write a poorly organized
00:23:15
illogical poorly written uh document the
00:23:18
people who read it won't have uh a clue
00:23:21
as to what you're trying to say will
00:23:23
have a difficult time understanding it
00:23:26
uh and although though there are state
00:23:29
constitutions that contain fewer than
00:23:31
10,000 words in general few are as
00:23:34
restrictive as and as convoluted as the
00:23:38
Texas
00:23:39
Constitution the need for frequent
00:23:41
amendments means that citizens are
00:23:44
called up to pass judgment on all
00:23:46
proposed
00:23:47
amendments sure there are some who say
00:23:50
that or there are some who defend the
00:23:53
Texas Constitution as giving uh voters a
00:23:56
say or giving voters an opportunity to
00:23:59
express themselves or the argument is
00:24:02
that this uh this reaffirms popular
00:24:05
sovereignty as the framers of the Texas
00:24:08
Constitution had intended voters however
00:24:11
expressed little interest in the
00:24:13
amendment elections and very little
00:24:15
interest in having a say in general uh
00:24:20
systematically way too often
00:24:22
voters are faced with trivial and
00:24:25
confusing and Technical amendments and
00:24:28
they just don't care in fact only 10% or
00:24:32
so of the population votes on
00:24:34
constitutional amendments in Texas and
00:24:37
even when you have an exciting issue
00:24:39
like let's say uh same-sex marriage uh
00:24:42
13 to 15% will vote uh so regardless
00:24:46
this is very very low and on the whole
00:24:49
the
00:24:50
turnout is low and averaged about
00:24:54
88.5% since
00:24:56
1980 finally there are too many limits
00:24:59
on government power of course you don't
00:25:02
want the government to turn into a
00:25:04
tyranny but you do want it to function
00:25:08
this is probably the most telling
00:25:10
criticism because Texas Constitution is
00:25:14
so restrictive it limits power to an
00:25:17
extent that it hinders formulation
00:25:19
adoption and implementation of sound
00:25:23
public policy and if you think about
00:25:25
that implementation and Adoption of of
00:25:28
sound public policy is the reason we
00:25:30
have government in the first place the
00:25:34
legislature is periodically forced to
00:25:36
deal with serious budget shortfalls that
00:25:39
necessitate spending cuts or tax
00:25:42
increases or sometimes both and remember
00:25:45
this is because we cannot go into
00:25:47
deficit in this state without a huge
00:25:49
vote in
00:25:50
favor critics of the government also
00:25:53
state that it is loaded with Provisions
00:25:56
uh the Constitution is loaded with
00:25:58
Provisions that hinder the operation of
00:26:01
efficient government for example the
00:26:03
government the governor has insufficient
00:26:05
power often it is said that the governor
00:26:09
man manages uh state bureaucracy but yet
00:26:13
uh the government doesn't have uh the
00:26:15
power to do so
00:26:17
effectively uh the legislature also
00:26:20
meets uh too briefly and to infrequently
00:26:24
right they meet only for 140 years every
00:26:27
other year and this is too brief of a
00:26:30
period of time and too infrequent uh
00:26:34
time to manage and resolve uh the state
00:26:37
policy problems and Texas is a large
00:26:40
state with a large population so you
00:26:42
would think that the legislature should
00:26:45
uh should meet uh more often the
00:26:48
election of Judges also makes uh for a
00:26:51
Judiciary that's heavily dependent on uh
00:26:54
special interest groups for things like
00:26:57
campaign
00:26:59
contributions um well and that's
00:27:01
something you'll never want the goal of
00:27:03
the Judiciary is to have or to be an
00:27:06
impartial branch of the government
00:27:09
critics believe these issues will not be
00:27:12
resolved until the Constitution is
00:27:14
revised or just completely Rewritten
00:27:53
let me ask you this question do you
00:27:55
think that Texas is well served by a
00:27:58
19th century constitution written for a
00:28:01
rural agricultural racist society that
00:28:05
at at that time was still reeling from
00:28:08
military defeat social dislocation and
00:28:11
economic turmoil or do you believe that
00:28:14
Texas Constitution is
00:28:17
outdated do you think it should stay the
00:28:19
way it is or at most be amended on
00:28:22
regular
00:28:23
basis many people say that after more
00:28:26
than 130 years and
00:28:29
467 amendments the Texas Constitution of
00:28:34
1876 simply has to go Advocates of
00:28:38
constitutional reform promise a shorter
00:28:41
clearer and more effective
00:28:44
Constitution reforms most frequently
00:28:47
mentioned are consolidating executive
00:28:50
Authority moving to annual legislative
00:28:53
sessions rather than meeting every other
00:28:55
year rationalizing the Judiciary and
00:28:58
modernizing County
00:29:00
government but despite the fact that on
00:29:04
regular basis the Texas Constitution has
00:29:06
been criticized there have been repeated
00:29:10
and almost continuous calls for revision
00:29:12
since the the very Inception of of the
00:29:16
Constitution Texans had or have had a
00:29:19
fear of big government and for that
00:29:21
reason major attempts uh at reform
00:29:25
failed and those attempts uh took place
00:29:29
most recently in uh 1990 and before that
00:29:32
in uh
00:29:35
1974 and at this point really no one is
00:29:38
talking about changing the Texas
00:29:41
Constitution so what happened in the
00:29:43
1970s well in the early 70s uh Texans
00:29:47
appeared to be ready for a
00:29:49
constitutional reform the Watergate
00:29:52
Affair in Washington DC and the uh
00:29:55
Sharpstone uh scandal in Austin produced
00:29:58
a wave of Reform sentiment I hope you
00:30:01
are familiar with the Watergate incident
00:30:03
and the subsequent cover up by the Nixon
00:30:06
Administration uh for those of you who
00:30:08
do not know about the Sharpstone Scandal
00:30:12
it occurred in
00:30:15
1972 uh and a Houston Finance Year Frank
00:30:18
sharp and a number of other uh prominent
00:30:22
Texas politicians were accused of
00:30:24
trading political favors for financial G
00:30:28
which is of course something that you're
00:30:30
not supposed to do in the wake of these
00:30:32
incidents there was a great incentive to
00:30:35
reform the Texas the Texas Constitution
00:30:38
in 1972 voters approved a constitutional
00:30:42
amendment creating a constitutional
00:30:45
revision commission to produce
00:30:48
recommendations for submission to a
00:30:51
constitutional convention the convention
00:30:54
was to be composed of members of the
00:30:56
House and Senate uh meeting as one
00:30:59
body house Speaker price Daniel Jr son
00:31:03
the son of former governor and Senator
00:31:05
price Daniel presided over the
00:31:07
Constitutional
00:31:09
Convention the convention labored from
00:31:12
January to July of 1974 and produced a
00:31:15
new constitution the result was a Sleek
00:31:19
nice new document of just
00:31:22
17,500 words it called for major major
00:31:26
institutional reforms including an
00:31:28
annual meeting of the
00:31:30
legislature appointment of state judges
00:31:33
but also other issues especially a uh a
00:31:36
a a right to work provision this right
00:31:40
to work and other Provisions were
00:31:42
opposed by organized labor a gambling
00:31:45
provision was opposed by conservatives
00:31:48
and a school funding provision was
00:31:49
opposed by rural interests and that
00:31:52
basically doomed the revision of Texas
00:31:56
Constitution the proposed revision fell
00:31:59
short by a measly three votes thereby
00:32:02
keeping it from ever coming before
00:32:05
before the
00:32:06
voters The
00:32:08
1975 regular session of the Texas
00:32:11
legislature repackaged major elements of
00:32:14
the Constitutional convention's work
00:32:16
into eight separate amendments and
00:32:18
submitted them to voters for approval
00:32:22
among these proposal proposals was uh
00:32:25
the streamlining of the executive and
00:32:28
judicial institutions also changing to
00:32:31
annual legis legislative sessions rather
00:32:34
than biannual sessions modernizing
00:32:37
County governments and a and tax
00:32:40
reform however conservative Democratic
00:32:43
governor DOL Brisco opposed the reforms
00:32:46
claiming that they would lead to a state
00:32:49
income tax and basically uh for that
00:32:54
reason uh those uh amendments uh did not
00:32:58
pass they they
00:33:00
failed finally in the late '90s uh
00:33:03
constitutional revision was once again
00:33:06
on the table this time two respected
00:33:08
members of the legislature raised this
00:33:11
issue they proposed once again another
00:33:15
sleek and attractive document a new
00:33:17
constitution was only about 19,000 words
00:33:21
the idea was that it would provide a
00:33:23
more more general statement of
00:33:26
fundamental law rather than the very
00:33:28
extensive and tedious document which is
00:33:31
currently in place the proposed
00:33:34
Constitution would once again strengthen
00:33:36
the powers of the governor
00:33:39
reorganize the executive branch in order
00:33:41
to make it more effective it would uh it
00:33:45
called for replacing the election of
00:33:47
Judges with a merit selection process
00:33:50
and also it wanted to reorganize the
00:33:52
judicial branch of government so all of
00:33:55
those things were uh were were were
00:33:58
great ideas but the proposed legislation
00:34:01
did not receive enough support in
00:34:04
committee and uh consequenc he was never
00:34:06
even considered on the floor by the full
00:34:09
membership of either chamber uh really
00:34:13
the reason was that no one wanted to
00:34:15
address any controversial
00:34:18
issues so the uh the the thing to
00:34:22
remember is at this point uh nobody
00:34:25
really is talking about uh changing uh
00:34:28
the Constitution um possibly because of
00:34:32
these two
00:34:56
failures for
