Legislation proposing a statewide security card that would allow attorneys to skip security lines at courthouses across Texas is one step closer to passage after the House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee voted Thursday to pass it.

House Bill 1359 by Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, would create a way for an attorney to apply with the State Bar of Texas for an identification card, with the lawyer's photo on it, for use in any of Texas' 254 counties. The Texas Bar would create a committee to accept applications and vet applicants, which would include a criminal history check to be repeated annually for card  holders. Each applicant would pay a fee to cover the Texas Bar's costs in issuing the cards, and part of that fee would go back to the lawyer's home county to be spent on court security.

Some attorneys wrote on Twitter that they oppose the bill, but others have supported the measure on the closed Facebook Texas Lawyers Group, according to Andrew Tolchin, of the Tolchin Law Firm in Angleton. He said that 900 attorneys in the group took a poll about the bill and 96 percent of them were in favor of it.