Courts following U.S. Supreme Court precedent would conclude that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Eighth Amendment protection against excessive fines.
Courts recognize article I, section 13 of the Texas Constitution as a constitutional protection against excessive fines. A court would not enforce an unconstitutionally excessive fine. Depending on the statute, a Texas court would be obligated to follow Texas law that requires it to separate the unconstitutional fine and uphold the portion of the statute that is constitutional, if possible.
A court would likely conclude that a groundwater conservation district does not have the authority to define "agricultural crop" as "food or fiber commodities grown for re.sale of commercial purposes that provide food, clothing, or animal feed" to the extent that it excludes other products that constitute an agricultural crop under section 36.001 of the Water Code.
Under article 102.0121 of the Code of Criminal Procedure,
the commissioners court, not the prosecuting attorney, ultimately
determines the authorized uses of the county pretrial intervention
program fund. The statute authorizes the commissioners court to
use the pretrial intervention fund for an employee's salary, salary
supplement, or a benefit only to the extent the use of the fund is
solely for the administration of the program.
Subsection 229.00I(a)(l) of the Local Government Code prohibits a municipality from regulating the transfer, private ownership, keeping, transportation, licensing, or registration of firearms, air guns, knives, ammunition, or firearm or air gun supplies. Subsection 229.001(b)(3) excepts from this prohibition a municipality's regulation on the use of property or businesses and the location of businesses as long as the regulation does not circumvent the intent of subsection (a)(l).
Assuming that the patent by which the Jackson County Navigation District purchased submerged land from the State does not provide otherwise, the District may require an easement for new and existing aerial utility lines which cross over its boundaries, provided that doing so is consistent with the navigation district's constitutional and statutory purposes.