By:  Danburg                                          H.B. No. 1566
       73R3543 MWV-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the disqualification of judges and justices of the
    1-3  peace.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 21.005, Government Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 21.005.  Disqualification.  (a)  A judge or a justice of
    1-8  the peace may not sit in a case if either of the parties is related
    1-9  to him by affinity or consanguinity within the third degree, as
   1-10  determined under Article 5996h, Revised Statutes.
   1-11        (b)  A judge or a justice of the peace may not sit in a case
   1-12  if the conduct of the judge or justice during or before the
   1-13  proceeding would cause a reasonable person to believe that the
   1-14  judge or justice held any animosity toward any party to the case.
   1-15  For purposes of this subsection, a party includes the defendant and
   1-16  a victim in a criminal case and any litigant in a civil case.
   1-17        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993, and
   1-18  applies only to cases filed on or after that date.  A case filed
   1-19  before September 1, 1993, is governed by the law as it existed when
   1-20  the case was filed, and that law is continued in effect for that
   1-21  purpose.
   1-22        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-1  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-2  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.