1-1  By:  Brown                                             S.B. No. 576
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed February 15, 1995; February 16, 1995,
    1-3  read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
    1-4  March 15, 1995, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
    1-5  Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; March 15, 1995,
    1-6  sent to printer.)
    1-7  COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 576                    By:  Brown
    1-8                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-9                                AN ACT
   1-10  relating to the criminal jurisdiction of justice courts and
   1-11  municipal courts.
   1-12        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-13        SECTION 1.  Article 4.11, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
   1-14  amended to read as follows:
   1-15        Art. 4.11.  JURISDICTION OF JUSTICE COURTS AND MUNICIPAL
   1-16  COURTS.  (a)  Justices of the peace and municipal court judges
   1-17  shall have original jurisdiction in criminal cases:
   1-18              (1)  punishable by fine only; or
   1-19              (2)  punishable by:
   1-20                    (A)  a fine; and
   1-21                    (B)  as authorized by statute, a sanction not
   1-22  consisting of confinement or imprisonment that is rehabilitative or
   1-23  remedial in nature <where the fine to be imposed by law may not
   1-24  exceed five hundred dollars>.
   1-25        (b)  The fact that a conviction in a justice court or
   1-26  municipal court has as a consequence the imposition of a penalty or
   1-27  sanction by an agency or entity other than the court, such as a
   1-28  denial, suspension, or revocation of a privilege, does not affect
   1-29  the original jurisdiction of the justice court.
   1-30        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect immediately.
   1-31        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-32  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-33  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-34  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-35  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
   1-36                               * * * * *