I just did a quick search through the Government Code, Code of Criminal Procedure, and Penal Code and cannot find a definition of the word court, despite the first two codes mentioned establishing them and giving them powers.austin-tatious wrote:So, does any one have a Penal Code definition of "government court"? It's not in the 2007 Texas Concealed Handgun Laws pamphlet.
From that, I would go with the Code Construction rule that says use the common meaning. In Texas, there are two common meanings for court that i think would count. The first is the trial court, meaning the judge and the authority of the court - not just the judge and not the building itself. The second common meaning for us is our body of county commissioners. We call them a court and recognize the executive as the county judge.
So, if it is not used for meetings of the county commissioners, trials, or administrative duties immediately necessary to those functions (like the judges chambers or jury waiting rooms), I would guess that the rule did not apply. If there are no more trials in this courthouse, I would go for it. Of course, I may have missed something and I could be wrong and you could end up arrested over this if you listen to me.