Re: Mail Back License?
Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 4:08 pm
Much grasping of straws here.
The Texas Administrative Code is for all practical purposes "The Law." It was authorized in 1977 by the Texas Legislature via the Administrative Code Act. Its statutory home ("The Law") is in the Government Code statutes. State agencies are authorized to create rules to support their missions as along as the rules do not conflict with the Constitution or the statutes, and the agencies follow the correct procedure that among other things allows public comment and requires the rule to be "indexed" by the Secretary of State. (Interestingly, even acts of the legislature are not "The Law" until the statute is indexed properly by the SOS).
Ergo, it is irrelevent that the CHL statutes are silent on what to do with your original license when you receive a duplicate or one with a changed address. The TAC says it is to be destroyed. That is "the Law."
Now I doubt that the DPS spends much time enforcing this with raids on houses to search the top drawer of your dresser where all the old pocket knives, movie stubs, coins, paper clips, and watches with broken bands are. But the TAC rules are not trivial either. The same section of the TAC that specifies what to do with your old license also specifies the proficiency test (i.e. the course of fire) and what information is required for the application. Don't follow the rules there = no license.
The Texas Administrative Code is for all practical purposes "The Law." It was authorized in 1977 by the Texas Legislature via the Administrative Code Act. Its statutory home ("The Law") is in the Government Code statutes. State agencies are authorized to create rules to support their missions as along as the rules do not conflict with the Constitution or the statutes, and the agencies follow the correct procedure that among other things allows public comment and requires the rule to be "indexed" by the Secretary of State. (Interestingly, even acts of the legislature are not "The Law" until the statute is indexed properly by the SOS).
Ergo, it is irrelevent that the CHL statutes are silent on what to do with your original license when you receive a duplicate or one with a changed address. The TAC says it is to be destroyed. That is "the Law."
Now I doubt that the DPS spends much time enforcing this with raids on houses to search the top drawer of your dresser where all the old pocket knives, movie stubs, coins, paper clips, and watches with broken bands are. But the TAC rules are not trivial either. The same section of the TAC that specifies what to do with your old license also specifies the proficiency test (i.e. the course of fire) and what information is required for the application. Don't follow the rules there = no license.
