Have you ever delved into a Texas statute only to discover that it was recently amended and the former version is what you need? That happened to me recently while researching a fee-shifting provision that was modified effective September 1, 2023.
To locate the superseded text, my first stop was the “Statutes by Date” tool at the Texas Constitution and Statutes site, statutes.capitol.texas.gov. Because the site archives text back to January 1, 2004, I was able to simply select the date I needed and pull the section exactly as it read pre-amendment, complete with a handy date stamp.
For anything from 2004 forward, the Statutes by Date tool is the fastest route: pick the code, punch in the date, hit enter, and the site delivers the superseded language in a clean, printable format. But if your target predates the site’s coverage (think early 2000s or the pre-codification days), you’ll need to pivot to other resources.
The Legislative Reference Library’s Legislative Archive System hosts searchable PDFs of the General & Special Laws of Texas, letting you read each session law exactly as it passed—including underline and strikeout markings to focus on the changes.
On the rare occasion when I’m chasing language from the mid-’80s back to Reconstruction-era digests, the Texas State Law Library’s Historical Texas Statutes collection is the way to go. Their high-resolution, bookmarked PDFs cover every official revision plus supplements. If a Vernon’s pocket part or annotation isn’t online, the librarians are very knowledgeable and quick to help.
Bottom line: For statutes amended after January 1, 2004, start with the Statutes by Date site; it’s often a one-click solution, as my example shows. For older material, combine the LRL’s session-law PDFs with the State Law Library’s historical codes and Vernon’s volumes. Once you’re comfortable hopping between those sources, pulling a superseded Texas statute becomes a five-minute task instead of a scavenger hunt.