By Gallego                                             H.B. No. 600
         76R2427 MLS-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to restricting the assignment of certain visiting judges.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Sections 74.054(b) and (c), Government Code, are
 1-5     amended to read as follows:
 1-6           (b)  A regular, retired, or former district court judge may
 1-7     not be assigned to an appellate court. A regular, retired, or
 1-8     former  statutory county court judge may not be assigned to an
 1-9     appellate or district court [hear a matter pending in a district
1-10     court outside the  county of the judge's residence].
1-11           (c)  A regular, retired, or former constitutional county
1-12     court judge may only be assigned to sit for another constitutional
1-13     county court judge and must be a licensed attorney in this state.
1-14           SECTION 2.  Section 74.055, Government Code, is amended by
1-15     adding Subsection (f) to read as follows:
1-16           (f)  A former  district, constitutional county, or statutory
1-17     county court judge may  not  be  assigned  as  a  visiting  judge
1-18     in a county if the former judge has been defeated for reelection as
1-19     a judge in that county.
1-20            SECTION 3.  Section 75.002(a), Government Code, is amended
1-21     to read as follows:
1-22           (a)  A retiree who makes an election under Section 75.001 is,
1-23     with the retiree's consent to each assignment, subject to
1-24     assignment:
 2-1                 (1)  by the chief justice of the supreme court to sit
 2-2     on any court of the state of the same or lesser dignity as that on
 2-3     which the person sat before retirement;
 2-4                 (2)  by the presiding judge of the court of criminal
 2-5     appeals to sit as a commissioner of that court; and
 2-6                 (3)  if the retiree's last judicial office before
 2-7     retirement was judge of a district or statutory county court, by
 2-8     the presiding judge of an administrative judicial region to sit on
 2-9     a court in that administrative region of the same or lesser dignity
2-10     as that on which the person sat before retirement [district or
2-11     statutory county court in that administrative region] or, on
2-12     request of the presiding judge of another administrative  judicial
2-13     region, to a court of the same or lesser dignity in that
2-14     administrative region.
2-15           SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
2-16     applies only to an assignment of a judge under Chapter 74 or 75,
2-17     Government Code, made on or after the effective date of this Act.
2-18     An assignment made before the effective date of this Act is
2-19     governed by the law in effect at the time the assignment was made,
2-20     and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
2-21           SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-25     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.