By: Allen, et al. (Senate Sponsor - Ellis) H.J.R. No. 39
         (In the Senate - Received from the House May 5, 2009;
  May 6, 2009, read first time and referred to Committee on State
  Affairs; May 19, 2009, reported favorably by the following vote:  
  Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 19, 2009, sent to printer.)
 
 
HOUSE 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.
 
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