BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Research Center H.B. 1331
80R3819 KFF-D By: Flores, Lucio III (Ellis)
AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT
Currently, the Texas Board of Law Examiners posts the results of candidates who take the Texas bar examination on its website using the full name of the applicant along with the individual's test identification number. This process fails to ensure the privacy of the candidates and provides no option for an individual to opt-out of having their results posted. States such as Florida, Utah, and West Virginia have addressed bar examination privacy issues by listing bar examination results using only the candidate's test number, rather than the candidate's name.
H.B. 1331 prohibits the display, in any manner accessible to the public, of the names of the examinees who passed or did not pass the Texas bar examination. Instead, the measure authorizes the use of unique identifiers assigned to the test takers to be posted.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter B, Chapter 82, Government Code, by adding Section 82.0295, as follows:
Sec. 82.0295. DISPLAY OF BAR EXAMINATION RESULTS. Prohibits the Board of Law Examiners (board) from posting or otherwise displaying at any location or in any manner that is accessible to the public, including on the board's Internet website, the names of the examinees who passed or did not pass the Texas bar examination. Provides that this section does not prohibit the board from posting or otherwise displaying the results of the examination in a manner that uses only unique identifiers assigned to examinees that conceal the examinees' identities from the public.
SECTION 2. Makes application of this Act prospective.
SECTION 3. Effective date: upon passage or September 1, 2007.