By Ogden, Rabuck                                       H.B. No. 784
       74R2448 KKA-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to state indemnification of and assistance to school
    1-3  districts and employees sued in connection with voluntary school
    1-4  prayer or a moment of silence.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Subchapter Z, Chapter 21, Education Code, is
    1-7  amended by adding Section 21.940 to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 21.940.  STATE ASSISTANCE AND INDEMNIFICATION IN
    1-9  LAWSUITS ARISING FROM VOLUNTARY NONSECTARIAN PRAYER.  (a)  A school
   1-10  district or district employee that is sued as a result of a policy
   1-11  adopted by the district's board of trustees that authorizes
   1-12  voluntary prayer or a moment of silence in a school or at a
   1-13  school-sponsored event may request from the attorney general:
   1-14              (1)  state assistance in connection with the lawsuit;
   1-15  or
   1-16              (2)  indemnification by the state for actual damages,
   1-17  court costs, and attorney's fees adjudged against the district or
   1-18  its employee.
   1-19        (b)  The attorney general shall determine whether a request
   1-20  for assistance or indemnification made under this section arises
   1-21  from a school district policy adopted and implemented in good
   1-22  faith.  If the attorney general determines that the request does
   1-23  not arise from such a policy, the attorney general shall decline to
   1-24  provide assistance or indemnification.  If the attorney general
    2-1  determines that the request arises from such a policy, the attorney
    2-2  general shall, if requested:
    2-3              (1)  provide resource materials, advice, or other
    2-4  assistance as available to the district or employee;
    2-5              (2)  defend the lawsuit on behalf of the district or
    2-6  employee; or
    2-7              (3)  on behalf of the state, indemnify the district or
    2-8  employee for actual damages, court costs, and attorney's fees
    2-9  adjudged against the district or employee.
   2-10        (c)  If a school district or district employee denied
   2-11  assistance or indemnification under this section by the attorney
   2-12  general prevails in the lawsuit for which assistance or
   2-13  indemnification was requested, the district or employee is entitled
   2-14  to recover litigation costs and attorney's fees from the attorney
   2-15  general.
   2-16        (d)  In this section, "good faith" means a reasonable belief
   2-17  of a member of a board of trustees or a school district employee
   2-18  that a policy, as adopted and implemented, does not expressly
   2-19  violate an opinion or order of a court of competent jurisdiction.
   2-20        SECTION 2.  This Act applies to a cause of action against a
   2-21  school district or employee that is filed on or after the effective
   2-22  date of this Act.
   2-23        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-24  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-25  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-26  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-27  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-1  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-2  passage, and it is so enacted.