The Texas Legislature is the state legislature of the US state of Texas. It is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The state legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin. It is a powerful arm of the Texas government not only because of its power of the purse to control and direct the activities of state government and the strong constitutional connections between it and the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, but also due to Texas’s plural executive.

The Legislature is the constitutional successor of the Congress of the Republic of Texas since Texas’s 1845 entrance into the Union. The Legislature held its first regular session from February 16 to May 13, 1846.

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The structure of the judiciary of Texas is laid out in Article 5 of the Constitution of Texas and is further defined by statute, in particular the Texas Government Code and Texas Probate Code. The structure is complex, featuring many layers of courts, numerous instances of overlapping jurisdiction (in terms of territory), several differences between counties, as well as an unusual bifurcated appellate system at the top level found in only one other state: Oklahoma. Municipal Courts are the most active courts, with County Courts and District Courts handling most other cases and often sharing the same courthouse.

Administration is the responsibility of the Supreme Court of Texas, which is aided by the Texas Office of Court Administration, Texas Judicial Council and the State Bar of Texas, which it oversees. The State Bar of Texas (SBOT)[1] is a mandatory bar, rather than merely a voluntary association of lawyers (such as the ABA or local bar associations). In order to practice law in Texas courts, an attorney must be licensed, stay abreast of legal developments through continuing legal education (CLE) courses, and pay dues. The public can obtain basic information on all Texas attorneys, including their bar number, license status, and disciplinary record, from the Bar’s website.

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The government of Texas operates under the Constitution of Texas and consists of a unitary democratic state government operating under a presidential system that uses the Dillon Rule, as well as governments at the county and municipal levels.

Austin is the capital of Texas. The State Capitol resembles the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., but is faced in Texas pink granite and is topped by a statue of the “Goddess of Liberty” holding aloft a five-point Texas star. The capitol is also notable for purposely being built seven feet taller than the U.S. national capitol.

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