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 private car display POLIZEI lettering and police-style markings in South Carolina?
The 2005 AG thought a private car bearing POLIZEI lettering, stripes, and a shield-like decal violated the vehicle-marking restriction, even without blue lights. He expressly called the conclusion…
Could a South Carolina fire marshal also serve as a Group I constable?
Yes, the 2005 AG concluded that the Irmo Fire Marshal could also serve as a Group I constable. Fire marshal was an office for dual-office purposes, but the constitutional exception covered the…
Could a rice-field owner bait and post navigable water to stop public duck hunting?
The 2005 AG concluded that baiting and posting the described broken-bank rice field to stop public hunting would violate the hunting-obstruction provision if the waterway was navigable and no…
Could Aiken County stop getting the auditor endorsement before recording scanned deeds?
No. The 2005 AG said deeds still needed the county auditor endorsement before recording. If the endorsement was customarily shown by an auditor stamp, the new imaging system did not remove the…
Could one person serve on both the Central Midlands Transit Authority board and the Richland-Lexington Airport Commission?
The 2005 AG said no. He treated service on each governing body as a public office, so holding both positions at once would violate South Carolina’s dual-office prohibition.
Could a Georgetown County elections commissioner also sit on the county library board?
No. The 2005 AG concluded that both the Georgetown County Registration and Elections Commission seat and the county library board seat were public offices, so one person could not hold them simultaneously.
Did South Carolina treat county election commissions as state boards for its absence-removal rule?
No. The 2005 AG said county election commissions were county bodies, so the statute removing members of state boards after three unexcused absences did not apply. He also said the Governor made…
Did Dorchester school construction payments count as debt service, and who set the bond tax levy?
The 2005 AG said the described annual bond payments were debt service. He expected the purchase plan likely would fall outside a statutory financing-agreement ban but warned a court could decide…
Could a State Museum commissioner also serve on the museum’s fundraising foundation?
The 2005 AG said yes for the described foundation, because its private nonprofit board was not a public office. He separately flagged a possible ethics conflict and suggested asking the State Ethics…
Could a school trustee vote while facing a simple assault charge and unproven complaints?
The 2005 AG said the described trustee and other members could continue attending and voting. An arrest warrant and allegations in letters had not suspended or removed anyone, and the required legal…
Could Greenville County stop printing real-property indexes if it kept a nightly computer backup?
The 2005 AG said no. A nightly backup held by the county information-systems department did not satisfy the then-applicable requirement for a second copy available to the public when electronic…
Could a municipal judge deny good-time credit when a defendant chose jail instead of paying a fine?
No, for the local-facility sentence the 2005 AG analyzed. He said a defendant serving the jail alternative remained entitled to statutory good-time credit despite not paying the fine. The letter did…
Who controlled the South Carolina Patients’ Compensation Fund after the 2005 amendment?
The 2005 AG said the Fund’s Board of Governors had ultimate management authority over both its restricted and operating accounts. The board could designate the State Treasurer to administer the…
Did a voluntarily retired teacher keep a continuing contract after a school district rehired them?
The 2005 AG said no for a voluntarily retired teacher rehired under the statute he examined. Retirement ended the prior employment relationship, and the district could negotiate a new agreement…
Who performed Chester County auditor and treasurer duties after their terms expired during a government-change dispute?
The 2005 AG said the incumbent Chester County auditor and treasurer would continue serving after June 30 while successors had not yet qualified, including during the pending litigation about the…
Could North Myrtle Beach require parasailing boats to stay 1,900 feet offshore?
The 2005 AG said the proposed safety restriction was within the city’s authority in its jurisdictional waters, but the city had to follow the state procedure for applying to the Department of…
Did Jacob’s Law cover church youth trips unrelated to school or child care?
The 2005 AG read Jacob’s Law as inapplicable to the described church youth trips to the beach or mountains, while saying churches could be covered when transporting students to school, school…
Was St. George’s water supply contract with a regional agency a municipal franchise?
No. After reviewing the actual agreement, the 2005 AG revised his earlier view and said the deal was a long-term water purchase and supply contract, not a municipal franchise subject to the cited…
Did a charitable boat “poker run” with paid tickets and cash prizes violate South Carolina gambling law?
The 2005 AG said the described Beaufort Rotary poker run was prohibited as a card game under the gambling statute. He compared its paid tickets and chance-based prizes with an earlier event he had…
Did South Carolina’s secured-property sale offense cover a car sold despite a private lender’s title lien?
The 2005 AG said no under the provision he examined. He read its exception for property titled by state safety or natural-resources agencies to include privately owned cars and boats titled through…
Could the Edgefield County delegation adopt a school-board redistricting plan outside the General Assembly floor?
The 2005 AG said the plan required action on the General Assembly floor. He noted that the particular plan apparently had already been resubmitted there, making the immediate procedural question…
Could someone serve on Bamberg’s city economic development board and county hospital board at the same time?
The 2005 AG said yes on the facts supplied. The hospital board likely counted as a public office, but the city economic development board made recommendations and did not exercise sovereign power.
Did Georgetown County tourism groups have to use county procurement procedures when spending accommodations-tax grants?
The 2005 AG said recipients of Georgetown County accommodations-tax tourism funds should follow established county procurement procedures. The county could decide which procedures applied, including…
Could a South Carolina nonprofit own a for-profit utility business, and did alleged use of competitors’ information violate unfair trade law?
The 2005 AG found no absolute bar to a nonprofit owning or operating a for-profit company if its profits supported nonprofit purposes instead of members. He could not decide whether PUPS met that…
Could a local emergency food and shelter board review aid recipients’ names to prevent duplicate payments?
The 2005 AG said a local board could collect and review recipients’ names for program oversight and predicted that this limited disclosure would not violate their privacy. He encouraged signed…
Did South Carolina’s state motorcycle safety program bar private companies from offering rider training?
The 2005 AG said no. The statute authorized a state technical-college program without making it the exclusive motorcycle safety course. He left uncertainty about whether a separate…
Could the mayor of Hollywood, South Carolina also serve as the town’s zoning administrator?
The 2005 AG said no. The zoning administrator’s permit and enforcement powers made it a second public office, state law separately barred mayors from other municipal office or employment, and the…
Could Charleston voters misassigned to District 5 vote in the corrected District 7 special election?
The 2005 AG said qualified Plantation Apartments voters should be allowed to vote in the new District 7 special election even if the county’s mapping error had let them vote in District 5 the…
Could South Carolina’s Insurance Reserve Fund insure a defender corporation and its employees against tort claims?
The 2005 AG said no. He read the fund’s authority as covering government entities and their personnel, while treating defender corporations and their employees as private nonprofit entities for this…
Was the Beaufort Water Festival’s paid River Rally card event a prohibited lottery in 2005?
The 2005 AG said yes. Participants paid for cards drawn at docks and could win prizes based on their hands, meeting the opinion’s prize, payment, and chance test. He also said the event violated a…
Could Charleston County’s human services director serve on Hollywood Town Council?
The 2005 AG found no state dual-office violation because the director was an employee, while a council member held public office. He left the possible federal Hatch Act restriction unresolved and…
Could a South Carolina town refuse to authorize tattoo facilities after the state legalized regulated tattooing?
The 2005 AG read the new law as letting a locality withhold the required authorizing ordinance, preventing a tattoo facility from receiving a license there. He considered that local-option scheme…
Was an entire gaming machine illegal if it offered prohibited poker alongside legal games?
The 2005 AG said a machine offering simulated poker was contraband under the statute even if it also offered lawful games. For other card games, officers and then a magistrate had to assess the…
Could a Union County drug and alcohol commissioner also serve on Lockhart Town Council?
The 2005 AG said no. He treated both the county drug and alcohol commission seat and the Lockhart council seat as public offices under the South Carolina dual-office prohibition.
Did St. George’s proposed exclusive water supply contract require a town vote and referendum?
The 2005 AG said yes. He treated the proposed twenty-year agreement with the Lake Marion Regional Water Agency as an exclusive water franchise requiring a two-thirds town governing-body vote…
Could an Allendale social services director keep the job while running for clerk of court?
The 2005 AG knew of no general rule requiring the director to resign before running. He advised checking with a DSS attorney because local law or county or state DSS policy might address the candidacy.
Could Georgetown County assign delinquent tax collection to its county treasurer?
The 2005 AG said no under the law he reviewed. County council could not transfer the delinquent tax collector’s duties to the treasurer; the General Assembly would have to make that change by law.
Could a Barnwell soil and water commissioner also serve on Denmark Technical College’s area commission?
The 2005 AG said no. He treated both positions as public offices exercising state sovereign power, so simultaneous service would violate South Carolina’s dual-office prohibition.
Could a South Carolina floodplain ordinance automatically adopt future federal map revisions?
The 2005 AG said no. A council could incorporate an existing flood map, but future revisions required another ordinance because automatic adoption would give another body the council’s legislative power.
Could a Greenville register of deeds certify a deed copy someone printed from online records?
The 2005 AG said the register should certify copies made directly by the office, not copies printed outside it from online records. He read the statute as requiring the office to give the certified…
Could Greenville record sworn affidavits saying neighboring land had long been used as a farm?
The 2005 AG said no. The affidavits described farm use and a neighbor’s residence but did not concern title to land, so they had no basis for recording under the statute he examined.
Could a South Carolina magistrate compel production of documents with a subpoena duces tecum?
The 2005 AG said no absent specific statutory authority or a court rule. The provisions allowing summary courts to summon witnesses did not authorize them to compel production of documents.
Could Hardeeville charge fire and emergency medical response fees to nonresidents after traffic crashes?
The 2005 AG concluded that Hardeeville’s ordinance was authorized and predicted a court would uphold it. Nonresidents paid for services because they did not pay city taxes; residents paid fees when…
Could Greenville’s register of deeds also be appointed county tax collector?
The 2005 AG said no. Both were separate public offices, and the statutory ex officio arrangement allowing some clerks of court to act as registers of deeds did not cover this separate appointment.
Did the firearm ban apply on Francis Marion University roads that were not open full time to public traffic?
The 2005 AG said yes on the campus police chief’s stated facts. The statutory road exception required roads to be open full time to public vehicles, and the chief said these roads were not.
Could bypassing a municipal water meter and taking unpaid water be charged as larceny?
The 2005 AG said theft of water from a municipality could be common-law larceny, even though a separate meter-tampering statute existed. He did not decide whether the greenhouse operator committed…
How did the South Carolina AG assess the proposed 2005 Right to Life Act’s constitutionality?
The 2005 AG considered the proposed act facially constitutional as state-law guidance outside abortion regulation. He said it could not be applied to deny the federal abortion right recognized by…
Was the Five Wishes advance-directive form legally binding in South Carolina in 2005?
The 2005 AG said the reviewed Five Wishes form did not substantially conform to South Carolina’s statutory living-will or health-care power-of-attorney forms, so it was not legally binding. It could…
Could South Carolina change appointments to a one-county water district through a district-specific bill?
The 2005 AG predicted that a court would likely find proposed H.3728 unconstitutional if the Startex-Jackson-Wellford-Duncan district’s tax and service areas stayed entirely within Spartanburg…
Could a private college trustee also serve on a South Carolina public university board in 2005?
The AG said trustees of private Limestone and Sherman colleges could also sit on the South Carolina State University board. A member of the Lancaster County Commission on Higher Education could not…
Did the Nonresident Violators Compact apply after a driver appeared in court but failed to pay a traffic fine?
The Attorney General concluded in 2005 that the compact applied when a driver appeared, pleaded guilty, and then failed to pay the fine. He reached the same conclusion for the described Georgia and…
Could a sheriff’s reserve officer also serve on the Clemson City Council in 2005?
The Attorney General concluded that a reserve officer who was not a commissioned constable could not serve on Clemson City Council at the same time. Both positions counted as offices under the…
Did a 1984 South Carolina AG opinion still bar licensed dealers from selling tasers in 2005?
The AG concluded that a 1990 amendment made the 1984 interpretation inapplicable to the described taser, which he understood lacked a die-cast metal alloy frame or receiver. The dealer statute did…
Did South Carolina’s 2005 dealer restriction cover a taser with no die-cast metal alloy frame?
The AG said no on the stated understanding that the taser lacked the frame or receiver described in the amended statute. He also said the dealer statute did not decide whether police could possess…
Could the Clinton Newberry gas authority distribute net revenue to its cities and appoint an at-large member from either city?
In 2005 the AG read the enabling act as providing both gas service and financial benefit to Clinton and Newberry, including distribution of net revenues. The seventh board member only had to live in…
Could an Oconee County building inspector also serve as a sheriff’s reserve officer in 2005?
The AG said an Oconee County Building Inspector III could also be a reserve officer on the facts supplied. He did not decide the result for a separately defined building codes enforcement officer.
Could Conway include a wholesaler’s out-of-city sales in its business license tax base?
In 2005, the AG said Conway could use the wholesaler’s total gross income under the ordinance it supplied, except for business wholly outside the city that was taxed by another municipality or…
Could Fripp Island create a special police district, and would the county sheriff keep authority there?
The AG concluded in 2005 that voters could establish a district through the statutory process. Its board could recommend special deputies, but the sheriff would commission acceptable nominees and…
Could Charleston’s register spend office revenue on document scanners without a county appropriation?
The AG said in 2005 that the register could not bypass the county appropriation process to buy imaging equipment with public money. A supplemental county appropriation was a possible route.
Could Beaufort County reassess all real property annually under its 2005 five-year reassessment law?
No. The AG read the 2005 statute to permit countywide real property reassessment only once every five years, so it did not authorize an annual reassessment for property tax purposes.
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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.