| |
| |
|
|
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, and reading 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 follow |
|
|
the lead of the Senate and 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, Kennedy's successor, 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 |
|
|
gained 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 acquired 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 Texas 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, as a |
|
|
symbolic gesture, hereby post-ratifies Amendment XXIV to the |
|
|
Constitution of the United States. |
|
|
SECTION 6. Pursuant to Public Law No. 98-497, the Texas |
|
|
secretary of state shall notify the archivist of the United States |
|
|
of the action of the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas, Regular |
|
|
Session, 2009, 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 this |
|
|
resolution be printed in full in the Congressional Record. |