By:  Cook                                             H.B. No. 2019
       73R5557 RJA-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the organization and administration of certain courts
    1-3  in this state and to the election of judges of those courts.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 24, Government Code, is
    1-6  amended by adding Sections 24.022 and 24.023 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 24.022.  ELECTION FROM PLACES.  (a)  The judges of the
    1-8  district courts in Bexar, Dallas, Ector, Harris, Jefferson,
    1-9  Lubbock, Midland, and Tarrant counties shall be elected by places
   1-10  within the district as provided by law.
   1-11        (b)  The legislature shall draw the boundaries of the places
   1-12  within each district, designate the number of each place within the
   1-13  district, and designate the sequence in which each place in the
   1-14  district will appear on a ballot to be filled by election by place.
   1-15  Each point within the district shall be within the area of one
   1-16  place.  If a district court is added to a county subject to this
   1-17  section, the judge shall be elected from the entire county until
   1-18  the first general election following the next redistricting of the
   1-19  district into places.
   1-20        (c)  To be eligible to serve as district judge in a county
   1-21  subject to this section the person at the time of election or
   1-22  appointment must reside within the boundary of the district and
   1-23  may, but need not, be a resident of the area of the place for which
   1-24  the office is filled.
    2-1        (d)  Places within a district shall be filled by  election by
    2-2  place in ascending numerical order from the smallest numbered to
    2-3  the largest numbered place.
    2-4        Sec. 24.023.  SPECIALTY COURT.  (a)  The legislature may not
    2-5  restrict a district court's exercise of its constitutional
    2-6  jurisdiction by designating the court a specialty court or by
    2-7  requiring that a particular court give preference or priority to
    2-8  certain cases.
    2-9        (b)  Local rules of administration adopted under Subchapter
   2-10  D, Chapter 74, may not require that certain cases be filed in
   2-11  particular district courts.
   2-12        SECTION 2.  Section 26.302(a), Government Code, is repealed.
   2-13        SECTION 3.  Sections 26.112, 26.119, 26.134, 26.151, 26.167,
   2-14  26.173, 26.187, 26.209, 26.227, 26.235, 26.238, 26.258, 26.260,
   2-15  26.267, 26.272, 26.275, 26.294, 26.298, 26.303, 26.309, 26.315, and
   2-16  26.330, Government Code, are repealed.
   2-17        SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect January 1, 1994.
   2-18        SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-19  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.