By Nixon                                              H.B. No. 1535
       74R5188 GWK-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the criminal jurisdiction of justice courts.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Article 4.11, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-5  amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Art. 4.11.  JURISDICTION OF JUSTICE COURTS.  Justices of the
    1-7  peace shall have original jurisdiction in criminal cases:
    1-8              (1)  punishable by fine only; or
    1-9              (2)  punishable by:
   1-10                    (A)  a fine; and
   1-11                    (B)  as authorized by statute, a sanction not
   1-12  consisting of confinement or imprisonment that is rehabilitative or
   1-13  remedial in nature <where the fine to be imposed by law may not
   1-14  exceed five hundred dollars>.
   1-15        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-16        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.