Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion ( 1939 )

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OFTEXAS
AUSTIN
May 5, 1989
Honorable Lee Freenell
Oouuty Attorney
3Ypahur County
Oilmel?,Tsxas
Dear Slrr
f your letter or April
of this Department
the authority,
e boundaries of
the Texas Coastltutlon pro-
qegulatlng the ma~gement of publio
aohools, the building & repding or
sohool houses, and the raising of money for
such purposes;
*And in all other oases where a general
law can be made applloablo,~no+l~o,``or
speoial law shall be enaotedl
Honorable Lee Presnell, Kay 5, 1939, Page 2
Prior to 1927, Section 3, Article 7 of the State
Constitution contained the following language:
"And the legislature may also provide
for the formation of school districts by
general or special law without the local -
notice required In other cases of speolal
legislation."
This seotion of the Constitution was re-adopted
e$Zeotive January 20, 1927, and the above provlslong was
ohanged to read as follows:
"And the legislature may also provide
for the funmatfon of eohool districts by
general laws.*
After this ~onstltutloual provisions was changed the -
14% Legislature in 1933 passed a speoial aot, provl~dingfor
$he fOrmat&ionof a oouuty-wide oozmon sohool dlstrlot in Kln-
.ney County on a majority vote of the qualified voters of said
oouuty, abolishing existing sohool distriots and providing
ior the op.erationof said dlstriot. In Fritter v. West (T.C.A.
1933) 65 S.W. (2) 414, this speolal sot was held 'unoonstltu-
.$:oual, the Court stating:
*It is clear that, by eliminating from
the Constitution the provision that school
districts oould be formed by speoial law, It
was Intended that such distrlot be oreated
by general laws.
rrFurt.hennore,
the oonstitution now pro-
vides a speoirio manuer in which sohool dla-
trlcts may be formed, that ls,.by general
law. This would exclude the formation of
school districts in any other ~aaMer than
that expressly provided -ior in the oonatitu-
tion.T* * *v
'5. B. Ho. 542, being a speoial law
and repugnantto seotion.~.Artiale 7 and
geotion 56 of Article 3,&f our State
Const$tutlon, i'unoonstituional and
void."
In Brownfield v. Tongate, ( :?C.A. 1937) 109 S.W. (2)
352, the 44th Legislature bad passed T%lll
a validating the
action of the Connty Board of Sohool Trustees in Terry County
Honorable Lee Presnell, I&y 5, 1939, Page 3
In detachinr:thirteen sections fro= theRed Onion Common
Sahool District and atteching it to the Union Independent
School District in Terry County under and by virtue of
Mticle 27421 or Article 2742m. In holding such act to
be unconstitutional the court stated:
"Since under its provision this act ap-
plies to Dimmitt and Terry Counties only and
oould never have atfeoted any othera, we oon-
elude Senate Bill No. 19 was a looal law. The
Legislature$8 peraltted to provide for the
formation of sohool dlstrlote by general laws
only, aonstltotionArtiole 7 Seation 9, and
not by epeoial laws, henod we are of the opin-
inn that the 'legislaturewas without authority
to validate the order of the Sohool Board of
~.
We are of the opinion that when Article 5 Seation
56, and Artlole 7 Seation Sof the Texas Constitutionare
oo~strukd together, the Legislature ia without authority to
ohsnge the boundariesof a common aohool disttiiotby epeoial
or looal law.
Very truly your8
By (signed) %eoll C. C&u&k
Ceoil C. Gammaok
'Assistant
Wl'ORX?EYGENRRALOFTEXAS