79R3952 CCK-D

By:  Allen of Harris                                            H.J.R. No. 84 



A JOINT RESOLUTION

post-ratifying Amendment XXIV to the Constitution of the United 
States prohibiting the denial or abridgment of the right to vote for 
failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
	BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                       
	SECTION 1.  The 87th Congress of the United States on August 
27, 1962, in the form of Senate Joint Resolution No. 29, proposed to 
the legislatures of the several states an amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States, and by a proclamation dated 
February 4, 1964, published at 29 Federal Register 1715-16 and at 78 
Statutes at Large 1117-18, the Administrator of General Services, 
Bernard L. Boutin--in the presence of native Texan, President 
Lyndon Baines Johnson--declared the amendment to have been ratified 
by the legislatures of 38 of the 50 states, thereby becoming 
Amendment XXIV to the United States Constitution pursuant to 
Article V thereof, as follows:

"AMENDMENT XXIV.
	"SECTION 1.  The right of citizens of the United 
States to vote in any primary or other election for 
President or Vice President, for electors for 
President or Vice President, or for Senator or 
Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or 
abridged by the United States or any State by reason of 
failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
	"SECTION 2.  The Congress shall have power to enforce 
this article by appropriate legislation."
	SECTION 2.  While the congress was still deliberating on the 
poll tax amendment in August of 1962, President John Fitzgerald 
Kennedy urged the United States House of Representatives to propose 
the amendment for the consideration of the state legislatures 
". . . to finally eliminate this outmoded and arbitrary bar to 
voting.  American citizens should not have to pay to vote."  And in 
witnessing the issuance of Amendment XXIV's certificate of validity 
17 months later, President Johnson noted that abolishing the tax 
requirement ". . . reaffirmed the simple but unbreakable theme of 
this Republic.  Nothing is so valuable as liberty, and nothing is so 
necessary to liberty as the freedom to vote without bans or 
barriers.  ****A change in our Constitution is a serious event.****  
There can now be no one too poor to vote."
	SECTION 3.  Although Amendment XXIV has been the law of the 
land since 1964, some 13 years following its effective date, it 
received symbolic post-ratification in 1977 from the General 
Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, as reflected in the 
Congressional Record of March 28, 1977, which printed the full text 
of Virginia's post-ratification; 12 years after that, the amendment 
received ceremonial post-ratification in 1989 from the General 
Assembly of the State of North Carolina, as reflected in the 
Congressional Record of June 6, 1989, which printed the full text of 
North Carolina's post-ratification; and nearly 13 years after that, 
the amendment received its most recent post-ratification in 2002 
from the Legislature of the State of Alabama, as reflected in the 
Congressional Record of September 26, 2002, which printed the full 
text of Alabama's post-ratification.
	SECTION 4.  The Legislature of the State of Texas--one of 
only five states still levying a poll tax by 1964--has never 
approved Amendment XXIV to the Constitution of the United States, 
but precedent makes clear the opportunity of this state to 
post-ratify the amendment in a manner similar to the actions of 
lawmakers in Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia.
	SECTION 5.  The Legislature of the State of Texas hereby 
post-ratifies Amendment XXIV to the Constitution of the United 
States.
	SECTION 6.  The Texas secretary of state shall notify the 
archivist of the United States of the action of the 79th Legislature 
of the State of Texas, Regular Session, 2005, by forwarding to the 
archivist an official copy of this resolution.
	SECTION 7.  The Texas secretary of state shall also forward 
official copies of this resolution to both United States senators 
from Texas, to all United States representatives from Texas, to the 
vice president of the United States in his capacity as presiding 
officer of the United States Senate, and to the speaker of the 
United States House of Representatives with the request that it be 
printed in full in the Congressional Record.


Post-ratifying Amendment XXIV to the Constitution of the United 
States prohibiting the denial or abridgment of the right to vote for 
failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.