By:  Carriker                                          S.B. No. 169
       73R3148 JSA-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to venue for redistricting suits.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 15, Civil Practice and
    1-5  Remedies Code, is amended by adding Section 15.018 to read as
    1-6  follows:
    1-7        Sec. 15.018.  STATE REDISTRICTING SUITS.  An action
    1-8  challenging the validity of all or part of a redistricting measure
    1-9  for the Texas Senate, Texas House of Representatives, United States
   1-10  House of Representatives, or any state board, commission, or court
   1-11  with statewide jurisdiction, or an action relating to the process
   1-12  by which one of those redistricting measures is formulated or
   1-13  adopted, shall be brought in Travis County.
   1-14        SECTION 2.  An action pending on the effective date of this
   1-15  Act that, if brought after the effective date would be required to
   1-16  be brought in Travis County under Section 15.018, Civil Practice
   1-17  and Remedies Code, as added by this Act, shall be transferred to a
   1-18  court of competent jurisdiction in Travis County immediately after
   1-19  this Act takes effect unless the trial on the merits in that action
   1-20  has commenced before this Act takes effect.
   1-21        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-22  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-23  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-24  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-2  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-3  passage, and it is so enacted.