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I was visiting a personal friend today in Austin who happens to work for the Constables office. This particular Precinct serves the Travis County Court house but is in a separate building. My understanding of the law was you can not carry in any building used by the court. Would that department be considered as "used by the court" therefore making its building off limits? I left my weapon in my vehicle before the visit but now I'm questioning my decision.

The actual verbiage is '(3) on the premises of any government court or offices
utilized by the court, unless pursuant to written regulations or
written authorization of the court;'

I don't believe that the Constables office is actually used by the court, but the court uses the Constables to serve as bailiffs and serve papers. So, I would say unless it is actually part of the court system (clerk, Judges office, etc.) then it would not be.

However, I could be wrong.

I don't have a legal background so I just can't translate that paragraph without a big ?? at the end. My understanding was like yours Keith but without being 100% sure, I did not want to break the law. I guess in a situation like that it is best to do like I did and leave it secured in the vehicle.

yogihat wrote:I was visiting a personal friend today in Austin who happens to work for the Constables office.

Like others have said, probably OK. But, if you were in an area that is not normally available to the public (i.e. jail / booking / investigator's offices) , you might have run into a problem there.

Yeah, I do know they are a law enforcement agency, so my argument for defense would be that I assumed they were like any other police station and only the secured area would be off-limits.

Similarly:
If a Court "uses" a carpet cleaning company ... I can't envision that meaning the carpet cleaning company's offices are "utilized by the Court"
Private Process Servers would be like Private carpet cleaning companies.
Constables are not a part of the court, but are a law enforcement entity which provides services to Court System in serving Papers in some Counties .. and in some other Counties the Sheriff's Dept provides Bailiffs and service of process.

And that is my layman's opinion, given freely, without much thought put into it, and worth what you paid for it

I find it funny how they handle courts. When I worked for a furniture company, we put furniture in, including in the judges private chambers. They let me through the metal detector with a bag full of razor blades, long screwdrivers, hammers etc...just because I had a work order. Heck, one of my fellow employees was a former state felon. Never batted an eye. But when I've gone through a state background check for a chl, I can't carry.

I understand why courtrooms are off limits, and in fact it's one of the few places Id keep off limits if I were in charge.

It's just funny who gets by with a weapon and who doesn't.

... have found this source helpful... seems as though constables serve the court but are independent of the court...

http://www.county.org/resources/legal/p ... TXLaws.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Keith B wrote:The actual verbiage is '(3) on the premises of any government court or offices
utilized by the court, unless pursuant to written regulations or
written authorization of the court;'

I don't believe that the Constables office is actually used by the court, but the court uses the Constables to serve as bailiffs and serve papers. So, I would say unless it is actually part of the court system (clerk, Judges office, etc.) then it would not be.

However, I could be wrong.

Only slightly tangential to the OP is the question, given the wording, does the law actually make an entire building where offices of a court reside off limits?

Discuss.

Well the constable office where I live also has the JP court located in the same small building (strip mall actually). So I cannot carry there although I have no reason to go there.

stash wrote:Well the constable office where I live also has the JP court located in the same small building (strip mall actually). So I cannot carry there although I have no reason to go there.

Any stores in the strip mall?

As a matter of fact there are about 5 or 6 stores/business in the mall.