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 a school band use its booster club’s charter buses for trips if the buses did not meet federal school bus safety standards?
The South Carolina AG concluded in 2008 that Jacob’s Law applied to the three buses used for band trips. The school could not use them for student transportation unless they met federal school bus…
When could South Carolina police use a roadblock to check drivers, and what documents did motorists have to show?
The 2008 opinion explained that checkpoints needed an administrative plan with neutral limits on officers. It also quoted restrictions on seat belt checkpoints and the then-existing duties to carry…
Could a Barnwell County employee keep her job while running for clerk of court?
The AG knew of no South Carolina statute barring a county employee from running, but said county policies could restrict it. Its no-dual-office conclusion assumed her paid job was not itself an…
Could South Carolina pay state hospital nurses for overtime before their regular payday?
The AG concluded that paying nurses for overtime they had already worked did not violate the ban on unearned salary. An early payment still required Budget and Control Board approval of an exception…
Could South Carolina create a regional airport authority and transfer Horry County's airport to it?
The AG concluded that the legislature could create a regional authority encompassing Horry County's airport and transfer county airport property to another public entity. It warned that legislation…
Could a South Carolina city use an ordinance to put its primary under the statewide June primary law?
No. The AG concluded that Section 7-13-15 excluded municipal primaries altogether. Its reference to a different schedule set by statute or ordinance qualified the listed nonmunicipal primaries; it…
Could Blythewood's council let its mayor hire the town administrator alone?
The AG said a court would likely find that the mayor and council had to employ the administrator together, so the council could not delegate that decision to the mayor alone. It also said an…
Did South Carolina generally prohibit buying ammunition in 2008?
The AG found no general South Carolina ban on buying ammunition in 2008. It identified particular restrictions on tear-gas-gun ammunition and teflon-coated rounds, plus hunting-related limits, and…
Could Allendale County require CSX to establish a railroad crossing after finding it necessary?
The AG said compliance with the quoted state-law procedure appeared to authorize the Boogaloo crossing after a public convenience and necessity finding. It left possible federal restrictions to the…
Could Horry County's school board set rules for board discussion and public input?
The AG said school boards had broad discretion to set governance and meeting rules consistent with state law. It could not decide whether Horry County's policy actually defrauded the public,…
Did York County's later school impact fee amendments lose protection under South Carolina's 1999 law?
The AG said the 1999 Development Impact Fee Act did not authorize school facility fees. It thought York County's pre-Act fee was probably still protected after later waiver repeals, but found the…
Did a Sunday move South Carolina's 2008 candidate filing deadline to Monday?
No. For the 2008 party-primary and convention candidacy statements, the AG read the statutory window as noon March 16 through noon March 30 even though both dates fell on Sundays. It found no Sunday…
Could a South Carolina court keep someone jailed after a sentence ended because a fine was unpaid?
The fine remained unpaid after the defendant served the jail term. The AG said confinement could not simply be extended for nonpayment; the opinion described execution against property first, a…
Could a South Carolina homeowners association forbid an owner from displaying the U.S. flag?
The AG said an association's restrictions depended on its governing covenants and agreements. Quoting an earlier opinion, it said federal law barred a covenant prohibiting members from displaying…
Could one person sit on South Carolina's Savannah River commission and the Jasper terminal board?
The AG concluded that simultaneous service did not violate South Carolina's dual-office provision. The Savannah River Maritime Commission was a state office, but the Jasper terminal project board…
Did disability alone fully exempt a Pendleton homeowner from property tax?
No. The AG agreed that disability alone did not make a Pendleton property owner wholly exempt from property tax. It identified a homestead exemption for the first fifty thousand dollars of a…
Could South Carolina arrest and hold an out-of-state probationer on the sending state's warrant?
The AG said a South Carolina officer with general arrest powers could arrest a supervised out-of-state offender on the sending state's warrant for a supervision violation. The jail had to accept the…
Could Summerville limit political signs to the month before an election while allowing other signs year-round?
The AG considered the 30-day limit on political signs constitutionally suspect because comparable real estate signs had no such time limit. It emphasized that the ordinance remained valid and…
Could a Dillon County council member also chair the county Democratic Party?
The AG said an elected officer of a county political party could serve on county council without violating the state constitutional ban on holding two public offices. Council membership counted as…
Could a Bennettsville council member become Kingstree's town manager and keep both posts?
The AG said serving simultaneously on Bennettsville City Council and as Kingstree town manager would probably violate South Carolina's dual-office prohibition. Separately, a council member who no…
Could South Carolina recover municipal court assessments more than three years after they were collected?
The AG concluded that municipal court assessments collected for the State were held in trust, not owned by the municipality. In his view, the cited three-year limitations period did not bar an…
Could a South Carolina county enact sheriff-proposed ordinances that overlap state criminal law?
The AG said county ordinances had to remain within delegated powers and could not conflict with state law or increase or decrease penalties for the same state-law offense. He declined to decide…
Could a South Carolina college student register to vote using a dormitory address?
The AG said a student could establish a voting domicile in the college community, including while living in a dormitory. Registration officials could ask about several facts to assess intent, but…
Did South Carolina’s endangered-species habitat tax credit take effect after a funding condition failed?
The AG concluded that a failed funding condition prevented the 1999 habitat-credit provisions from taking effect. A 2001 enactment made the tax-credit statute operative, but did not enact the linked…
Could a South Carolina city charge a towing company a business license fee when it was based elsewhere?
The AG concluded that a towing company holding the required Class E Certificate of Compliance could be charged a license fee only by the city or town of its residence or principal place of business…
Could an out-of-state bail bondsman seize a defendant in South Carolina and place them in a county jail?
The AG said an out-of-state bondsman appeared to have authority to arrest a defendant in South Carolina under a bond-revocation warrant from another state. He found no definite authority requiring a…
Could South Carolina poll watchers inspect the voter sign-in list during an election?
The AG reaffirmed that poll watchers could review the names and signatures of voters who had signed the poll list when poll managers judged that the activity would not interfere with the election.…
Could a South Carolina school district employee also serve on that district’s board?
The AG concluded that the requester could no longer serve on School District Three’s board after the district became his employer, paid him and subjected him to its personnel policies. His earlier…
Would Cayce’s proposed sex-offender residency and loitering restrictions survive constitutional review?
The AG predicted that a court would likely uphold Cayce’s proposed restrictions on registered sex offenders living or loitering near listed places frequented by children. He emphasized the…
Could a South Carolina store bring civil and criminal shoplifting charges at the same time?
The AG concluded that a merchant could pursue civil and criminal shoplifting charges simultaneously under the statute he examined. Once a store used the statutory civil remedy, it could not…
Could Cayce deny a new business license because an earlier tenant lost a license at the same property?
The AG said Cayce’s ordinance looked constitutionally suspect because it could deny a new applicant a business license based solely on a previous operator’s conduct at that location. He could not…
Could a Citadel board member remain eligible while deployed outside South Carolina?
The AG concluded that military duty outside South Carolina alone did not make an otherwise qualified person ineligible for the Citadel Board of Visitors. The person still had to meet elector…
Could South Carolina’s Pharmacy Board ignore a date legislators said was mistaken in a technician-certification proviso?
The AG read the 2007 proviso to cover pharmacy-technician applicants who met its academic and supervised-practice requirements before November 2004. Even if legislators intended a later date, he…
Could Spartanburg County animal-control officers use county summonses for every state animal-law violation?
The AG concluded that Spartanburg County could not adopt all the listed state animal-law provisions as county ordinances and use county summonses for every violation. Some state penalties exceeded…
Who was responsible for a mental-health patient waiting in a hospital for a state treatment bed in South Carolina?
The AG concluded that the hospital holding a certified patient pending a state mental-health bed had responsibility for the patient’s custody and control. Hospital security or local law enforcement…
Could a solicitor require both pretrial-intervention fees from an accepted applicant?
On the facts described, the AG saw no problem with requiring both the application and participation fees because he believed a decision to accept the defendant into pretrial intervention had already…
Could a shared technology-center employee serve on either sponsoring school board?
The AG said a technology-center employee would likely face a master-servant conflict on the board of the district that employed the person, and could not also sit on the center’s own board. Whether…
Could Gaffney’s public-works board sell land, skip audits, or fund a golf-course corporation?
The AG said the Gaffney public-works board had to undergo semiannual audits and lacked authority to create a corporation to build a golf course. A court might find implied authority to sell other…
Did reserve-police service count as certified law-enforcement experience for South Carolina sheriff candidates?
The AG concluded that a sheriff-qualification statute could use the identical definition reenacted elsewhere after its old cross-reference was repealed. He also concluded that reserve police…
Who kept Chester County deed and mortgage records when there was no register of deeds?
The AG concluded that, because Chester County had no register of deeds, its clerk of court performed that office’s statutory recordkeeping duties and kept the related deed, mortgage and other…
Could a South Carolina mental-health commissioner also serve on a county school board?
The AG concluded that Mental Health Commission membership and county school-board membership were both public offices, so one person could not hold both simultaneously. A commissioner could run for…
Could a bondsman surrender a defendant to an unrelated county jail or request an informal release hold?
The AG said a surety seeking immediate surrender should take a defendant to the detention facility where the bond was issued, subject to the statutory affidavit and motion. A jail in another county…
Could South Carolina emergency management enter its proposed disaster-grant applicant agreement?
The AG reviewed the proposed agreement for local applicants under two disaster-funding programs. He said the Emergency Management Division had authority to enter it, found the reviewed provisions…
Could Summerville enforce its sign rules inside town limits on state or county rights-of-way?
The AG concluded that Summerville’s sign ordinance generally applied throughout town limits, including county and state rights-of-way. State law nevertheless barred most signs within highway…
Did South Carolina’s move-over statute cover a traffic stop with only police vehicles present?
On further review, the AG concluded that the move-over statute could be read to include traffic stops attended only by law-enforcement vehicles. He cited its wording about authorized emergency…
Could a South Carolina charter-school committee use a nonprofit to manage hiring and could an advisory panel veto its charter?
The AG said a charter-school committee could use a nonprofit for administrative hiring work if the committee retained final supervision and control over hiring and firing. The Charter School…
Could a South Carolina town give its mayor strong-mayor powers by council ordinance without a referendum?
The AG concluded that changing an established municipal form of government required a referendum. The council could call the election by ordinance, but an ordinance alone could not make the change.
Could South Carolina inmates receive good-conduct credits for donating organs or bone marrow?
The AG said the proposed discretionary credit provision did not appear unlawful on its face, but warned that a court could treat credits given for transplant donations as prohibited valuable…
Could South Carolina amend the Greenville Hospital Board's local enabling act after Home Rule?
The AG considered an amendment to the board's pre-Home-Rule local act constitutionally suspect as special legislation. An enacted amendment would remain presumptively valid unless a court struck it down.
Could a Mauldin planning commissioner also serve on the city's cultural center board?
The AG concluded that the planning commission seat was a public office, but the cultural center board seat likely was not. On the facts supplied, holding both seats did not violate South Carolina's…
Was farm equipment exempt from South Carolina vehicle registration if it used a road fewer than ten times a year?
The AG said the number of road trips alone did not decide the exemption. Highway movement had to be necessary and connected to the equipment's use as an implement of husbandry.
Which education taxes counted as school operating millage for South Carolina's homestead exemption reimbursement?
The AG included millage for kindergarten through grade twelve education, school districts and boards, vocational and career centers, and alternative schools. It applied the same reading to the older…
Could a licensed nonphysician call themselves 'doctor' while treating patients in South Carolina?
The AG read the medicine statute to treat use of 'doctor' in work diagnosing or treating human conditions as the practice of medicine unless the designation also identified the person's licensed…
Could any South Carolina officer collect a cash bond at a traffic stop?
The AG concluded that the cited roadside cash-bond authority applied to officers of the State Highway Patrol and State Police, not to other law-enforcement officers generally. He noted separate…
Could South Carolina’s Election Commission put Social Security numbers on potential-juror lists?
The AG concluded that the State Election Commission was neither required nor authorized to include Social Security numbers on potential-juror lists sent to county jury commissioners.…
Was Greenville County School District’s annual millage increase capped at four mills?
The AG read Act 602 of 1992 to limit Greenville County School District’s annual operating-millage increase to four mills, including increases based on inflation, unfunded mandates or reduced…
Could a South Carolina school district withhold a settlement agreement because it promised confidentiality?
The AG concluded that the confidentiality clause did not override South Carolina's FOIA. The district had to disclose the settlement's nonexempt information, separating any narrowly exempt material.
Could South Carolina's environmental agency withhold nuclear-waste monitoring records just because an operator called them proprietary?
The AG said DHEC had to assess any trade-secret claim itself, apply the exemption narrowly, and separate exempt from releasable information. It also recommended that monitoring reports use standards…
Did South Carolina require a political party to use a particular account to pay presidential-primary filing fees?
The AG found no South Carolina law requiring the party to pay those fees from a specified account or type of funds. It expressly left federal campaign-finance restrictions unresolved.
Could a South Carolina county stop paying sheriff's deputies when grant funding for their positions ended?
The AG said it was extremely doubtful that a county council could eliminate funding for particular deputy positions when a grant or special revenue source ended. It appeared the county would have to…
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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.