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 South Carolina deem unopposed Laurens school-board candidates elected without holding an election?
An Assistant Deputy AG said the proposed bill was constitutionally doubtful for Laurens boards that appeared to have unsupervised taxing authority. Skipping the vote would prevent write-in…
Could a South Carolina coroner discard old death-investigation files to make room for new records?
An Assistant Deputy AG advised against destroying or removing the files. He found no coroner-specific authority to discard them outside the Public Records Act and recommended seeking storage or…
Which South Carolina court handled a parent’s school-attendance violation, and what contempt limit applied?
An Assistant Deputy AG said a criminal charge for failing to enroll or send a child to school belonged in magistrate court. The alternative family-court process could enforce an attendance order by…
Could a proposed South Carolina bill stop a losing primary candidate from taking office through write-in votes?
An Assistant AG said the proposal was probably unconstitutional as drafted because it covered federal candidates and might bar a candidate from that office indefinitely. She acknowledged competing…
Could South Carolina’s transportation department authorize interstate tolls and set rates without a new legislative act?
An Assistant Deputy AG said existing statutes appeared to give SCDOT broad turnpike authority, including on interstate routes. Rates had to support bond debt service with Budget and Control Board…
Did a South Carolina public employee’s military-leave day mean eight hours even on a longer regular shift?
A Deputy AG said the statutory leave counted regularly scheduled workdays, including longer shifts, rather than fixed eight-hour blocks. He identified up to 30 extra days for an emergency call-up…
Could a South Carolina magistrate impose installments on a judgment and issue a warrant when secured collateral was sold?
An Assistant Deputy AG said installment payment in place of execution required the creditor’s express agreement. A warrant for disposal of collateral could be supported under the cited statute…
Did a Georgetown-only law transferring board appointments to county council raise constitutional problems?
An Assistant AG said the 1996 act’s constitutionality appeared doubtful under the ban on laws for a specific county and raised a separate concern about special legislation. He did not invalidate it;…
Could Beaufort County use its water recreation fund for public swimming lessons?
A Deputy AG concluded that the fund could not pay for swimming and water-safety instruction under the longstanding interpretation limiting it to physical water recreation resources. He said the…
Did York County towns have to return road funds approved before the transportation committee dissolved?
An Assistant AG said the towns did not have to return C funds that the transportation committee had approved and disbursed while it was operating. He presumed those acts valid and said county…
Could a technical college area commission require each county to pay a particular share of operating costs?
An Assistant Deputy AG read the cited statute to leave each participating county’s operating share to agreement between the district commission and county government. The letter found no further…
Could Carlisle town council members be suspended after arrest or lose office after conviction?
An Assistant AG said arrest alone did not permit the Governor to suspend the council members. An indictment or waiver and a crime involving moral turpitude were required for suspension; a conviction…
Could Winthrop charge Charlotte-area graduate students in-state tuition without a statutory exception?
A Deputy AG said Winthrop had to follow the statutory residency and tuition rules and could not offer a lower nonresident rate outside an express exception. He did not independently verify the…
Was the Darlington school district’s 1978 special act still in force and facially constitutional?
A Deputy AG said the cited 1978 act had not been repealed or amended and that its text showed no apparent constitutional defect. The letter did not address an unstated, specific challenge to the act.
Could Beaufort legislators replace transportation committee members and change the committee’s size?
An Assistant AG found no statutory term or fixed committee size and said the legislative delegation appeared able to change membership and replace appointees. The committee still had to fairly…
Did a South Carolina county have to supply a dispatcher when a city was short staffed?
A Deputy AG said the staffing arrangement should be resolved by contract between the city and county. He cited authority for contracted county services inside a municipality and did not identify an…
Could a South Carolina nonprofit director cast a board vote through a proxy?
A Senior Assistant AG read the nonprofit corporation law to require a director acting as a director to be present for the vote to count. He distinguished proxy voting by members and discussed a…
What standards governed a South Carolina agency placing a fence or enclosure on state land?
The 1997 informal opinion said an enclosure of public land had to serve a public purpose and primarily benefit the public, comply with any dedicated use and applicable law, and be assessed on its…
Could Sumter County transfer control of its jail from county government to the sheriff by ordinance?
The 1997 informal opinion advised that the local law putting Sumter County jail custody with the county governing body remained effective and that only the General Assembly could change that…
Could Horry County voters petition for a referendum to repeal a hospitality-fee ordinance?
The 1997 informal opinion said the cited 15-percent petition procedure applied to certain debt ordinances pledging the county’s full faith and credit, not the hospitality-fee ordinance described. It…
Could an officer handcuff a person during an investigatory stop before establishing probable cause to arrest?
The 1997 informal opinion said handcuffing during a stop had to be judged by the need for officer safety and all the facts. Courts often treated handcuffing as an arrest, but had allowed it during a…
Could South Carolina child-support enforcement funds be used to pay a county vehicle-storage bill?
The 1997 letter quoted a statute restricting child-support funds to related enforcement activities and pointed to a decision treating those funds as supplemental. It declined to determine whether…
Could a South Carolina town pay Christmas bonuses to its mayor and council members without an ordinance or other payment obligation?
The 1997 informal opinion concluded that Santee could not pay the bonuses if it had no legal or contractual duty to do so. On the facts stated, the payments appeared to be extra compensation after…
Could a South Carolina county use zoning to restrict adult businesses or ban public nudity?
The 1997 informal opinion described court decisions upholding Richland County zoning and licensing rules for sexually oriented businesses while warning that a total public-nudity ban would likely…
Did a South Carolina teacher have to surrender or renew a teaching certificate while serving in the General Assembly?
No. The 1997 letter said legislators who held teaching certificates were exempt from recertification requirements during their elected terms and their certificates remained valid. It rejected a…
Could a South Carolina public school place video cameras in classrooms for surveillance?
The 1997 informal opinion said video-only classroom surveillance would likely survive Fourth Amendment and federal interception-law challenges because the author found no reasonable expectation of…
Could one person serve on both a Charleston County constituent school board and the county park and recreation commission?
The 1997 informal opinion said a court would most likely find simultaneous service prohibited by South Carolina's dual-office rule. The author treated both positions as public offices exercising…
Who paid a South Carolina county jail for holding prisoners arrested by a town police department?
The 1997 informal opinion repeated earlier AG views that a municipality generally bore costs for prisoners within municipal-court jurisdiction, while the county bore costs for state-law charges…
Could a South Carolina police department require its city to allow civilian ride-alongs?
The 1997 informal letter did not decide the merits of Seneca’s discontinued ride-along program. It said whether to permit it was a municipal policy choice left to the discretion of the municipal…
Could an Edgefield County sheriff use jail vending-machine proceeds for recreation benefiting inmates?
The 1997 informal opinion said vending proceeds could be public funds and a program benefiting the whole inmate population appeared permissible, subject to local rules. It recommended accounting for…
Could a South Carolina magistrate issue an arrest warrant over a returned payroll check from an out-of-state employer?
The 1997 informal opinion said South Carolina’s fraudulent-check offense applied only to checks made or delivered in the state. Unless the out-of-state employer’s check was actually given or…
After a South Carolina magistrate finds no probable cause, is the defendant released from jail and from the bond?
The 1997 Attorney General opinion said the defendant must be released from physical custody after a no-probable-cause preliminary hearing, but the finding is not an acquittal. It concluded that bond…
Could South Carolina’s parks and tourism department create a nonprofit heritage-corridor foundation and lend it staff?
The 1997 letter said the department had implied authority to create the described nonprofit and contract with it for tourism and historic-development work. Agency employees could assist for that…
Did South Carolina’s 1995–96 budget override the annual per-diem limit for county social-services board members?
The 1997 informal opinion found strong support for applying the budget act’s broad per-diem provision to county DSS advisory boards despite the older statute’s annual limit. It retained earlier AG…
Could South Carolina bar election to The Citadel’s Board of Visitors for a term extending past age 75?
The 1997 AG opinion predicted that a court would uphold the age restriction under equal protection and would find the board members outside the federal age-discrimination statute as policymaking…
After Martin v. Condon, could South Carolina counties prohibit video-poker cash payouts by local vote?
The 1997 informal opinion read Martin as blocking local criminal bans while a statewide gambling-law exemption made the payouts legal. The author thought the Legislature would likely need to repeal…
How did South Carolina’s Attorney General view later-term abortion under state law in 1997?
In 1997 the Attorney General asserted that a procedure he called “partial birth” abortion after fetal viability was unlawful unless absolutely necessary to preserve the pregnant patient’s life or…
Could a South Carolina city pay a YMCA to provide recreation programs to residents?
The 1997 informal opinion said recreation was a valid public purpose and the city could contract with the YMCA for those services if the contract limited the YMCA to recreation programs in its…
Could one person sit on both Barnwell County’s hospital board and transportation committee?
The 1997 letter concluded that simultaneous service would most probably violate South Carolina’s dual-office rule. It treated hospital and nursing home board membership as a public office and relied…
Could Spartanburg suspend a police officer based on a domestic-violence protection order without a criminal charge?
The 1997 informal opinion said reliance on a protection order after an adversarial factual hearing could legally support suspension, assuming no employment document changed the city manager’s…
Did a Santee lounge need another business license after adding nude dancing to its video-poker operation?
The 1996 informal opinion said there was a strong argument that adult entertainment was a separate business under Santee’s ordinance and required its own license. The author declined to decide…
What happened to a Beaufort County council seat when its member moved out of the district?
The 1996 informal opinion said the member’s lawful tenure ended when he ceased to reside in his district, although residency was a factual question. It said he could continue as a de facto council…
Could South Carolina’s transportation department hand highway-construction powers to a Horry County advisory group?
The 1996 informal opinion said the department could use a RIDE committee for research and planning, but lacked authority to delegate its full statutory highway powers to that committee or its…
When did a 1996 South Carolina AG letter say police could conduct a strip or body cavity search?
The 1996 informal opinion said a jail strip search had to relate to security needs, while a field strip search required a clear showing of exigent circumstances. For a search below the skin, it…
Could York County transfer its C-fund transportation program from the committee to county council?
The 1996 informal opinion said a York County council could not take over spending of state gasoline-tax “C” funds from the county transportation committee. It also said a council member serving on…
Could York County council distribute the state gasoline-tax C funds itself?
The 1996 informal opinion said a York County council could not take over spending of state gasoline-tax “C” funds from the county transportation committee. It also said a council member serving on…
Could a South Carolina coroner use a blue light or investigate a crash without a death?
A 1996 informal opinion repeated an earlier AG view that a coroner could use a blue light while going to or returning from actual coroner duties, without gaining general police powers. It described…
Could a South Carolina school district require more course units for a state high school diploma?
The 1996 informal opinion said no. It read the amended state statute as fixing the units for a state diploma through the State Board of Education and giving districts no authority to raise that…
Did Spartanburg school districts need county approval to sell district property in 1996?
The 1996 informal opinion said no. It concluded that the county-specific act transferred the relevant county board power to local school trustees and gave the districts fiscal autonomy, so neither…
Should a South Carolina school district follow state board guidance on local funding effort while the rule was disputed?
The 1996 informal opinion suggested following the State Board of Education’s interpretation until a court or the legislature clarified the disputed local-effort calculation. It said the board’s…
To whom did a Spartanburg Technical College commissioner need to submit a resignation?
The 1996 informal letter said the commissioner should tender resignation to the governor because the governor appointed the successor. It referred questions about holding over and withdrawing a…
Did a parent’s Chapter 13 bankruptcy automatically stop collection of an earlier child-support order?
The 1996 informal opinion found a good legal argument that a preexisting child-support obligation and its enforcement were outside the Chapter 13 automatic stay, and said arrears could not be…
Could a South Carolina clerk record a document acknowledged within the state in 1996?
The 1996 informal opinion said acknowledgments executed within South Carolina appeared to be recognized under an amended recording statute. It told the clerk to follow the amendment rather than an…
Could South Carolina’s education department withhold school-bus funds to collect a district’s debt for extracurricular bus use?
The 1996 informal opinion suggested that the department obtain legislative authorization before withholding transportation funds to recover charges for bus uses it viewed as outside state funding.…
Could a South Carolina police department buy traffic radar with forfeited drug money?
The 1996 informal opinion said the proposed radar purchase was authorized as a drug-enforcement expense in the requesting department’s circumstances, where the chief reported that 47 percent of drug…
Could a South Carolina private detective carry a concealed weapon while working under the 1996 permit law?
The 1996 informal opinion said a private detective who qualified for a civilian concealable-weapons permit could carry under that permit while working or as a private citizen, subject to the new…
Could a South Carolina school deny library or cafeteria access to students who would not disclose Social Security numbers?
The 1996 informal letter said a district did not appear authorized to deny library or cafeteria access for refusing to disclose a Social Security number, unless the district could identify an…
Did a South Carolina jail officer count as a peace officer, and did threats against deputies fall under the public-official statute?
The 1996 informal opinion said detention officers had peace-officer status while performing assigned inmate-custody duties. It separately concluded that a deputy sheriff was a public official under…
Could one Saluda employee handle both police paperwork and municipal court clerking?
The 1996 informal opinion said that assigning one worker to both the police department and municipal court would be inappropriate because it blurred prosecutorial and judicial functions. On a…
Could South Carolina be liable for investments made by a nonprofit created by a state authority?
The 1996 letter said state liability was unlikely if the nonprofit operated independently rather than under state control. It cautioned that liability could arise if the corporation functioned as…
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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.