By:  Alvarado                                          H.B. No. 440
       73R1993 RJA-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to assignment of certain former district judges as
    1-3  visiting judges.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 74.054(a), Government Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        (a)  Except as provided by Subsections (b), <and> (c), and
    1-8  (d), the following judges may be assigned as provided by this
    1-9  chapter by the presiding judge of the administrative region in
   1-10  which the assigned judge resides:
   1-11              (1)  a regular district, constitutional county, or
   1-12  statutory county court judge in this state;
   1-13              (2)  a district or appellate judge who is a retiree
   1-14  under Subtitle D or E of Title 8, who has consented to be subject
   1-15  to assignment, and who is on the list maintained by the presiding
   1-16  judge under this chapter;
   1-17              (3)  a former district or appellate judge or retired or
   1-18  former statutory county court judge who certifies to the presiding
   1-19  judge a willingness to serve and who is on the list maintained by
   1-20  the presiding judge as required by this chapter;
   1-21              (4)  a retiree or a former judge whose last judicial
   1-22  office before retirement was justice or judge of the supreme court,
   1-23  the court of criminal appeals, or a court of appeals and who has
   1-24  been assigned by the chief justice to the administrative judicial
    2-1  region in which the retiree or former judge resides for
    2-2  reassignment by the presiding judge of that region to a district or
    2-3  statutory county court in the region; and
    2-4              (5)  an active court of appeals justice who has had
    2-5  trial court experience.
    2-6        SECTION 2.  Section 74.054, Government Code, is amended by
    2-7  adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
    2-8        (d)  A former district judge may not be assigned as a
    2-9  visiting judge if the former district judge has been defeated for
   2-10  reelection as a district judge.
   2-11        SECTION 3.  This Act applies to assignments of former
   2-12  district judges under Chapter 74, Government Code, made on or after
   2-13  the effective date of this Act.  An assignment made before the
   2-14  effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect at the
   2-15  time of the assignment, and that law is continued in effect for
   2-16  that purpose.
   2-17        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-18  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-19  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-20  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-21  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-22  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-23  passage, and it is so enacted.