A strong right to own private property is at the root of a free society.  House Bill 4 enacts protections for landowners to safeguard against eminent domain abuse by government.  The bill also gives greater recourse for landowners who face eminent domain proceedings.

The right to hold private property is a well-documented principle of the Founding Fathers.  William Blackstone, whose Commentaries on the Laws of England shaped much of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, wrote that "the law of the land... postpone[s] even public necessity to the sacred and inviolable rights of private property."Thomas Jefferson stated: "all power is inherent in the people... they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of
religion, freedom of property, and freedom of press." Thomas Paine, in Rights of Man, cites property, along with liberty, security, and resistance of oppression, as chief among inherent individual rights."

Justice Joseph Story (on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1812 to 1845), notes that duty in Commentaries on the Constitution (1833): "personal security and private property rest entirely upon the wisdom, the stability, and the integrity of the courts of justice."

Check the status of the bill at the Texas Legislature Online website.