Action Alert:

Special Session II — Eminent Domain Legislation/Constitutional Amendments Filed

July 21, 2005

Representative Frank Corte has filed House Joint Resolution 11 and Senator Kyle Janek has filed Senate Joint Resolution 5 to provide lasting protections for Texans through an amendment to the Texas Constitution. We believe that since Texans lost constitutional protections with the Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo and we want those protections reestablished in the Texas Constitution. As a result, we are urging lawmakers to ensure that in Texas our hardworking families and small business owners will not have their property seized and given to another citizen for private use under the guise of economic development.

Senator Janek and Representatives Beverly Woolley and Corte are also pursuing a solution through SB 7, HB 16 and HB 12 respectively. We support SB 7 by Senator Janek and appreciate the Senate State Affairs committee for passing it out and on to the full Senate earlier today. We also support and applaud the efforts of Representatives Woolley and Corte to fix this issue in statute, but we believe the most effective long-term approach to protecting Texans remains as an amendment to the State Constitution.

PROTex sent the following letter to all Senators in support of efforts to protect Texans from the Kelo decision: Letter to Senator Robert Duncan