73R1526 JMM-D
          By Willis                                              H.B. No. 317
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to a poll on judicial candidates conducted by a bar
    1-3  association.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter H, Chapter 81, Government Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Section 81.114 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 81.114.  JUDICIAL CANDIDATES POLL.  (a)  An attorney may
    1-8  not participate in a poll conducted by the state bar or a local or
    1-9  county bar association on the qualifications of judicial candidates
   1-10  unless the attorney certifies that the attorney has had
   1-11  professional interaction with a candidate evaluated by the attorney
   1-12  in the poll.
   1-13        (b)  The state bar shall adopt a certification form under
   1-14  this section that must be completed by an attorney who participates
   1-15  in a judicial candidates poll conducted by the state bar or a local
   1-16  or county bar association.  The form shall accompany a ballot
   1-17  prepared as a part of the poll and must be returned with the ballot
   1-18  in order for the contents of the ballot to be included in the poll
   1-19  results.  The form must identify the attorney who completes the
   1-20  ballot but must protect the identity of a candidate evaluated on
   1-21  the ballot as well as the contents of the evaluation.
   1-22        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   1-23  applies only to a judicial candidates poll conducted by a bar
   1-24  association on or after that date.
    2-1        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-2  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-3  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
    2-4  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-5  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.