South Carolina Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in South Carolina, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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Could Holly Springs Fire District keep its deficit-related property-tax millage in 2009 without a new vote?
The AG said the district could not carry a 2008 exception to the millage cap automatically into 2009. To exceed the general cap again, the commission had to establish a qualifying exception for 2009…
Could South Carolina’s Savannah River commission control comments or DHEC water-quality certification?
The AG said the commission could speak for South Carolina on the harbor project but could not require others to route comments through it. It also said DHEC alone decided whether to issue the…
Could one person serve on South Carolina’s Indigent Defense Commission and Charleston County Aviation Authority?
The AG said the combination did not violate South Carolina’s dual-office-holding rule. It thought Indigent Defense Commission membership likely was a public office, but the aviation authority’s…
Could Dorchester County charge road impact fees to school construction and exempt selected developers?
The AG said school districts, churches, and nonprofits were generally subject to the Development Impact Fee Act. Dorchester County could not create its own exemptions for them or small businesses;…
Did a South Carolina parent still have to support a 17-year-old who moved out?
The AG said parents generally had to support an unmarried minor until 18, but a court could find the duty ended if the child was married, self-supporting, emancipated, or within the incorrigibility…
Could Holly Hill’s police chief also serve on its airport commission?
The AG said the proposed separate appointment would violate South Carolina’s dual-office rule because both posts counted as public offices. It qualified the answer: if the airport seat was actually…
Could a Clearwater Water and Sewer District employee run for commissioner and keep her paid job if elected?
The AG said the district secretary could run for commissioner. If elected, however, she could not simultaneously serve as secretary and commissioner because the board supervised the paid position,…
Could South Carolina require an existing sex offender registrant to register every ninety days after a 2010 law change?
The AG said a registrant who fell within the federal Tier III category could be required to register every ninety days even if the prior schedule was twice a year. It concluded that applying the new…
Did a South Carolina coroner owe compensation if evidence rules delayed returning a decedent’s belongings?
The AG said no when the Preservation of Evidence Act required the belongings to be retained longer. It read the specific evidence-preservation duty as prevailing over the general instruction to…
Could a South Carolina coroner disregard a court order to release a specimen over evidence-preservation concerns?
The AG said no. A court order to release a decedent’s biological specimen for paternity testing had to be obeyed unless reversed, modified, or vacated through proper judicial proceedings. The…
Could school officials face child endangerment or reporting duties for sending children to an unsafe private facility?
The AG said the administrator who owned the facility could conceivably face a child-endangerment issue depending on the facts, while other school administrators did not appear to fit that offense’s…
Could a South Carolina town submit a boating ordinance to DNR for special local vessel rules?
The AG agreed a municipality could enact an ordinance about vessel operation on its waters and send it to DNR with reasons special rules were needed. DNR could then confirm by letter that the…
What recording fee applied to a South Carolina certificate of trust that did not affect real estate?
The AG said Horry County used the correct appointment-related fee if the certificate or memorandum only identified trustees and their powers and had nothing to do with real estate. Its answer was…
How did South Carolina’s 2010 assault reform change juvenile-code references to aggravated assault?
The AG predicted that old juvenile-code references to assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature should be read as assault and battery with intent to kill under the 2010 Act. It said the…
Could Cayce Public Safety charge lawyers for responding to court discovery requests?
The AG said no: Cayce’s department could not apply its public-records fee schedule to discovery requests. It said the responding party bore reasonable discovery costs, although the department could…
Could a Fort Lawn council member vote to fund roof repairs for a nonprofit whose board they served on?
The AG said the council member had a conflict in the described roof-funding vote because the nonprofit had an economic interest. It said the member should disclose the conflict in writing, have it…
When did Elgin have to file its liquor-permit referendum ordinance for a February town election?
The AG said the specific alcohol-permit referendum law controlled: Elgin had to submit the ordinance to its election commission at least sixty days before its February 2011 general election. The…
Could South Carolina share unemployment data with its workforce data warehouse under federal confidentiality rules?
The AG said the proposed state-law amendment alone would not meet federal concerns. It advised making state authority subject to federal Labor Department confidentiality regulations and said the…
Could automated political survey calls ask South Carolina voters to press phone keys?
The AG said automated polling calls could be made if they only gathered a snapshot of voter opinion and did not advocate a particular candidate. It distinguished such surveys from prohibited…
Could South Carolina’s law-enforcement training council create a separate officer-certification hearing panel?
The AG said the council could not create an agency-level contested-case panel separate from itself for officer-certification decisions under the authority reviewed. It said a regulation alone would…
Could a South Carolina coroner authorize cremation or organ donation when a death was tied to a crime covered by the evidence preservation law?
The Attorney General concluded that a coroner should not authorize cremation of a body linked to an offense covered by the Preservation of Evidence Act. Organ or tissue donation could proceed only…
Did South Carolina DNR have to use the Administrative Procedures Act to make special boating rules for local waters?
The Attorney General concluded that special boating rules limited to a political subdivision’s waters did not require Administrative Procedures Act promulgation because they lacked general statewide…
Could neighbors who shared a private-road easement stop a school bus from using the road to pick up a student?
The Attorney General concluded that the neighbors’ easement rights did not make them owners entitled to bar the bus. It predicted that a court would view twice-daily school bus travel to serve a…
Could the Richland County sheriff manage Columbia’s police department without holding a second public office?
The Attorney General concluded that the sheriff could manage the city police department under the proposed contract without violating South Carolina’s dual-office prohibition, provided he held no…
Could South Carolina State University trustees rescind a presidential selection and erase the meeting minutes?
The Attorney General concluded that the board could rescind its prior presidential-selection action, subject to its bylaws, but could not destroy or distort minutes recording what it had done. The…
Could a nonresident South Carolina child enroll in a school district by owning real estate there without a release from the home district?
The Attorney General concluded that a child who met the district-property, academic, conduct, and payment conditions did not need a release from the home district and could not be refused by the…
Could the South Carolina Ethics Commission decide that a campaign-finance provision was unconstitutional?
The Attorney General concluded that the Ethics Commission could interpret the Ethics Act but could not rule on a provision’s constitutionality. Only a court could make that determination.
Could one person serve on both Gaffney’s zoning appeals board and the Cherokee County school board?
The Attorney General concluded that simultaneous service on those two boards violated South Carolina’s constitutional prohibition on holding two public offices. It treated each board seat as an…
Could South Carolina’s Workers’ Compensation Commission charge a filing fee for hearings, settlements, and motions?
The Attorney General concluded that the fiscal 2010–11 appropriations proviso authorized a $25 filing fee for each requested hearing, settlement, or motion, with a waiver for an indigent individual.…
Could a South Carolina associate probate judge hold that office in two counties at once?
The Attorney General concluded that an associate probate judge could hold that office only in the judge’s home county because the statute required county voter qualification. The judge could still…
Could a South Carolina state representative also work as a public school football coach and athletic director?
The Attorney General concluded that the coaching and athletic-director jobs were employment rather than public offices, so holding them alongside a House seat did not violate the dual-office rule.…
Could South Carolina’s nursing board require already-licensed nurses to undergo fingerprint-based criminal background checks?
The Attorney General concluded that the Board of Nursing had implied authority to require current licensees to complete state and federal fingerprint-based checks. The opinion left who should pay…
Could South Carolina employment-agency deputies prosecute criminal violations of the agency’s laws in magistrates court?
The Attorney General concluded that the criminal-prosecution statute controlled even in magistrates court. Any authorization for department deputies to prosecute cases had to come separately from…
Could South Carolina’s Forestry Commission use fitness tests for fireline employees and revise the testing program?
The Attorney General concluded that the Commission could set reasonable fireline fitness standards and that its proposed annual testing and physician-statement option appeared reasonable. A worker…
Were College of Charleston student EMS volunteers covered by South Carolina’s State Accident Fund if injured on a call?
The Attorney General found no statutory basis for State Accident Fund coverage for the student EMS volunteers as described. They did not fit the opinion’s listed volunteer-rescue or student…
Could South Carolina DMV approve a privately sponsored religious specialty license plate after the state-created “I Believe” plate was struck down?
The Attorney General concluded that DMV should approve the private nonprofit’s plate if it met the specialty-plate criteria, viewing the message as private speech. The opinion also recognized that…
Did a South Carolina coroner have to obey a court order to release a decedent’s biological specimen for a paternity case?
The Attorney General concluded that the coroner had to comply with the court order unless it was reversed, modified, or vacated through proper court proceedings. The evidence-preservation concern…
Could South Carolina’s higher education commission consider a school owner’s old license revocation by another state agency?
The Attorney General concluded that the commission could consider the owners’ earlier school-license revocation under its good-reputation licensing criterion, even though the Department of Education…
Could Cherokee County use excess school sales-tax revenue to reduce school operating property taxes?
The Attorney General concluded that revenue beyond the school bond debt-service need could reduce the next levy for the school district’s operating and maintenance expenses. It described this as…
Could Beaufort County hand enforcement of its tree-removal zoning ordinance to homeowners associations?
The Attorney General concluded that the county could not delegate enforcement of its zoning ordinance to a private homeowners association. It treated zoning enforcement as an exercise of county…
Could one person serve as county veterans affairs officer for two South Carolina counties?
The Attorney General found no express statutory or dual-office bar to one person serving both counties, but warned that a court might infer a county-residency requirement for each office. Because…
Did South Carolina’s 10 percent cash-deposit bail option violate the constitutional right to bail by sufficient sureties?
The Attorney General concluded that the statute allowing a court to accept a cash deposit of up to 10 percent of the bond amount as an alternative to a surety bond would withstand constitutional…
Did a South Carolina detention center have to let reporters inspect its copies of arrest warrants and incident reports?
The Attorney General concluded that the detention center had to make those copies available for walk-in media inspection even when the originals were available at courts. The arresting agency or…
Were South Carolina circuit public defenders exempt from unemployment contributions as members of the judiciary?
The Attorney General found no basis to exempt circuit public defenders from the state unemployment program. Their inclusion in a retirement system for judges and solicitors did not make them members…
Did Beaufort have to answer a records request about retiree health premiums, and could it charge pre-65 retirees a different rate?
The Attorney General said the city had to respond to the written records request under the 2010 FOIA procedure and generally disclose nonexempt records it held. It did not view the separate pre-65…
Could Ridgeland use traffic cameras to issue ordinary speeding citations when an officer watched the video?
The Attorney General concluded that the 2010 legislation allowed photographic or video evidence for the specified traffic citations only during the stated emergency circumstances. An officer…
Who owned naturally accreted beachfront land at the south end of Pawleys Island?
The Attorney General concluded that the described accreted land belonged to South Carolina under the coastal statute, rather than to the private claimant merely because he paid taxes or used it. The…
Could an Oconee County tax committee disregard a property assessment appeals board decision after the appeal period passed?
The Attorney General concluded that the tax committee could not simply disregard the appeals board’s decision; a dissatisfied party had to use the proper appeal route. The office could not determine…
Could Richland County voter-registration board members also be county registration staff, and could the governor name the chair?
The Attorney General concluded that board members serving as county voter-registration employees created a self-appointment conflict and that a court would likely reject the ordinance treating them…
When did a two-year period begin after an uninsured driver defaulted on an accident payment agreement in South Carolina?
The Attorney General deferred to DMV’s interpretation that the two-year period in the historical license-restoration provision began when the driver defaulted on the installment agreement, when…
Could Ridgeland mail speeding tickets based on photo radar to drivers in 2010?
The Attorney General concluded that the 2010 law did not authorize ordinary photo-radar enforcement of traffic violations. Its narrow emergency exception required personal notice within one hour for…
Could a South Carolina government building record audio in areas open to the public?
The Attorney General concluded that audio recording was permissible in government-building areas to which the public had unrestricted access, because people had no reasonable expectation of privacy…
Could a South Carolina state constable serve a Florence municipal nuisance summons?
The Attorney General concluded that a state constable could have the required jurisdiction to serve the city’s nuisance summons if appointed and commissioned as a code enforcement officer. A private…
Did a South Carolina school district have to report suspected school crimes and allow police to investigate on campus?
The Attorney General concluded that districts had to make the reports required by the school-safety statute and could not limit police investigation of crimes on school grounds. It said police…
Could a South Carolina Workforce Appellate Panel member also serve on private boards or a county council?
The Attorney General concluded that panel membership was a public office under South Carolina’s dual-office rule. The requester’s private and federally created board affiliations did not constitute…
Could a South Carolina registered nurse administer propofol for moderate sedation under a physician’s supervision?
The Attorney General concluded that a registered nurse could administer propofol for minimal to moderate sedation with an FDA-approved computer-assisted sedation system under a physician’s direct…
Could an out-of-state bail bondsman enter South Carolina to arrest a defendant on another state’s bond-revocation warrant?
The Attorney General reaffirmed that an out-of-state bondsman could enter South Carolina to arrest a defendant on another state’s bond-revocation warrant without a South Carolina bondsman license.…
Could Clarendon County use local hospitality tax revenue to operate and maintain a tourism building?
The Attorney General concluded that the county could use hospitality tax revenue for operation and maintenance if it collected at least nine hundred thousand dollars a year in accommodations taxes…
Could a South Carolina county assessor lower a home’s tax value immediately after its market value fell?
For the opinion’s 2010 hypothetical, the Attorney General said a home’s $200,000 base-year value remained the tax value despite a later $150,000 market estimate until reassessment. An assessment…
Did South Carolina’s advertising-approval rule prevent the Agriculture Department from promoting state-grown products?
The Attorney General concluded that a court would likely treat the Commissioner of Agriculture’s specific statutory publicity duties as an exception to the general advertising-approval rule. It said…
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Attorney general opinions in South Carolina are written by the South Carolina Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.