By Hudson                                             H.B. No. 2273
       74R7012 CAG-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating  to the removal of statues or other public works of art
    1-3  erected on certain county property depicting the subjugation or
    1-4  enslavement of a minority group.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Chapter 291, Local Government Code, is amended by
    1-7  adding Section 291.009 to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 291.009.  PROHIBITION ON CERTAIN WORKS OF ART.  (a)  A
    1-9  county shall remove a piece of art from, and may not display a
   1-10  piece of art on, the county's property if:
   1-11              (1)  the art is or would be located in, or within 2,000
   1-12  feet of, the county courthouse; and
   1-13              (2)  the art depicts:
   1-14                    (A)  the enslavement, subjugation, forceful
   1-15  controlling, or requiring the submission of a minority group or a
   1-16  member of the minority group; and
   1-17                    (B)  a person who is not a member of a minority
   1-18  group as touching, standing on, causing harm to, or otherwise
   1-19  controlling a minority group or a member of the minority group.
   1-20        (b)  The county shall place the piece of art in storage away
   1-21  from public view or dispose of the art in any other way considered
   1-22  appropriate by the commissioners court of the county.
   1-23        (c)  In this section:
   1-24              (1)  "Art" means a statue.
    2-1              (2)  "Minority" has the meaning assigned the term by
    2-2  Section 381.004.
    2-3        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-8  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-9  passage, and it is so enacted.