Texas Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Texas, with full citations and the original source on every page.
No Texas opinions match these filters
Try a different search term or clear the filters.
Can Texas punish someone for handing out anonymous campaign flyers?
The Attorney General concluded that section 255.001(a) of the Election Code, which requires political advertising to identify who paid for it, cannot constitutionally be enforced against a private…
Can the state demand a jury trial in a Texas juvenile case?
The Attorney General concluded that the state has no right to a jury trial in a juvenile proceeding. Under the Family Code, only the child and the child's attorney can waive the child's right to a…
Can a Texas state agency turn its website into a portal for outside online courses?
The Attorney General concluded that the State Board for Educator Certification has no authority to use its official website as a portal giving direct access to distance-learning courses developed…
Can a Texas university move donated endowment funds to its private foundation?
The Attorney General concluded that money donated to a state university for a restricted purpose, like endowed faculty positions or scholarships, is held in a charitable trust. To shift control of…
Can a Texas county stop an elected official from sending staff home early?
The Attorney General concluded that an elected county official can dismiss the employees in his or her office for all or part of a day, for any reason, as long as the closure serves some public…
Can a Texas county let oil companies run temporary water lines along a county road right-of-way?
The Attorney General concluded that a county's right to allow public utility lines on or under its road right-of-way does not, by itself, give it the legal right to grant a separate easement to a…
Is a Texas oyster-bed lease permanent, and can it be sold or passed to heirs?
The Attorney General concluded that an oyster-bed lease under chapter 76 of the Parks and Wildlife Code is a year-to-year (periodic) lease, not a perpetual one, so the state can end it at the close…
When does a Texas city tax abatement end if the owner joins the city council?
The Attorney General clarified that a municipal property tax abatement ends on the date the owner assumes office as a member of the city council, not on election day and not at the end of the year.…
Can dedicated cemetery land in Texas be sold or used for something else?
The Attorney General concluded that land dedicated as a cemetery must be used as a cemetery unless and until the dedication is removed, and selling the land does not change that. Moving remains to…
If my Texas dig is delayed, do I have to call the line-locate center again?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Section 251.151 of the Utilities Code requires an excavator to notify a notification center no earlier than 14 days before digging begins, so if the start date…
Can a Texas public board go into closed session to discuss a contract?
The Attorney General concluded that under section 551.071 of the Government Code a governmental body may meet privately with its attorney in executive session to get advice on the legal issues…
Does a Texas county auditor's salary cap include the state salary supplement?
The Attorney General concluded yes. A county auditor's compensation may not exceed what the highest paid elected county officer (in Henderson County, the county attorney) receives, and section…
Who can electronically transfer county tax money to the Texas county treasury?
The Attorney General concluded that county tax funds can be moved electronically from the tax assessor-collector's account at the county depository to the county treasury, even though no statute…
Does repeal of the federal supply schedule program change Texas local government purchasing authority?
The Attorney General concluded that when Congress repealed the federal program that let states and local governments buy off the General Services Administration's federal supply schedules, the one…
Do Texas police have to take a missing 17-year-old into custody if the teen does not want to go?
The Attorney General concluded that article 63.009(g) of the Code of Criminal Procedure requires an officer who locates a seventeen-year-old reported as a missing child to take possession of the…
In Texas, who pays to bury an indigent person, the county or the family?
The Attorney General concluded that under section 694.002 of the Health and Safety Code, the county must provide for and pay to dispose of a deceased pauper's remains according to its own rules,…
Can a Texas county use a state salary supplement to pay the employer's payroll taxes on it?
The Attorney General concluded that section 46.0031 of the Government Code does not permit a county to pay the employer's share of employment taxes (such as FICA) on a county attorney's state…
What standard must a Texas state agency meet to override a parent's rights over their child?
The Attorney General concluded that a state agency that tries to interfere with a parent's fundamental right to direct the upbringing of his or her child must satisfy the 'compelling state interest'…
Can a city council member be appointed to a separate government board by their own council?
The Attorney General concluded that the common-law doctrine of incompatibility bars an officer who holds appointing power from appointing himself to another office, so a San Antonio city council…
How must a Texas school district procure a single 'program manager' for a big building program?
The Attorney General concluded that a school district may not use the Professional Services Procurement Act (Government Code chapter 2254) to contract for bundled 'guaranteed program management'…
What makes a newspaper one of 'general circulation' for publishing legal notices in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that a 'newspaper of general circulation' is one with more than a de minimis number of subscribers within a geographic region, a diverse subscribership, and some news…
Does a county clerk have to bill another county for mental health hearing costs?
The Attorney General concluded that section 571.018(b) of the Health and Safety Code, as amended in 1999, requires the clerk of the court conducting a mental health services proceeding to bill the…
When is a payment to a departing school superintendent a 'severance payment'?
The Attorney General concluded that a 'severance payment' under section 11.201(c) of the Education Code is compensation paid to a superintendent beyond wages upon early termination by a school…
Can a hospital district keep collecting taxes after it closes its hospital?
The Attorney General concluded that closing a hospital does not end a hospital district's constitutional duty to provide and pay for medical care for its needy residents, so the Garza Hospital…
Can cities agree to cut off utility service to people who owe another city?
The Attorney General concluded that the Interlocal Cooperation Act did not authorize local governments that run utilities or landfills to sign a contract where each would collect the others' unpaid…
Does a city taxicab ordinance apply to a government-run Medicaid van service?
The Attorney General concluded that if the City of Midland's taxicab ordinance covered the Medicaid transport service the Concho Valley Council of Governments ran under a contract with the Texas…
Can Randall County have fewer than four justice of the peace precincts?
The Attorney General concluded that a 1999 amendment to the Texas Constitution added Randall County (alongside Chambers County) to a clause letting those counties set their justice of the peace and…
Can an elected college trustee also serve as a city municipal judge?
The Attorney General concluded that an elected junior college trustee may serve at the same time as a city municipal judge. The trustee post is unpaid, so it is not an 'office of emolument' that the…
Can a judge make a defendant post part personal bond and part surety bail?
The Attorney General concluded that a Texas magistrate may not require a 'split bond,' meaning one bond that is partly a personal bond supervised by a pretrial services office and partly a secured…
Who controls a sheriff's budget and vehicles, the sheriff or the commissioners court?
The Attorney General concluded that a commissioners court holds the county's budgetary power and may fund a sheriff's function less than he requests, but it may not cut so deep that it prevents him…
Do the Business and Commerce Code's fraudulent-filing penalties apply to transactions excluded from UCC chapter 9?
No. The Attorney General concluded that because section 9.104 of the Business and Commerce Code excludes thirteen kinds of transactions from all of chapter 9, and the fraudulent-filing provision in…
Can a Texas home-rule city use tax money to pay for school children's out-of-state trips?
It depends. The Attorney General concluded that a home-rule city may spend public funds on an activity its charter authorizes without separate legislative permission, but every expenditure has to…
Who decides whether trimming sideburns counts as cutting hair or a beard under Texas barber law?
The Attorney General concluded that the State Board of Barber Examiners, not the AG's office, holds the power to define where 'hair' ends and 'the beard' begins under section 1601.002(1)(A) of the…
Must a hospital district board member who leads a labor council recuse from prevailing-wage votes?
No. The Attorney General concluded that chapter 171 of the Local Government Code, the local conflict-of-interest law, did not bar a Harris County Hospital District board member from voting on…
Can a county juvenile board hire its own lawyer and pay the fees without commissioners court approval?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the Potter County Juvenile Board, a separate statutory entity, had implied authority to hire private counsel to defend itself, including in a suit brought…
Can Texas police secretly record or broadcast what suspects say in the back of a patrol car?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that a person sitting in a police car has no expectation of privacy that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable, so what they say there is not a protected…
Can a Texas school district charge tuition for prekindergarten or under-age kindergarten students?
No, not just because of the student's status. The Attorney General concluded that a school district may not charge tuition for a prekindergarten student, or for a kindergarten student who is not…
Does the County Purchasing Act cover a local government corporation a county sets up?
No. The Attorney General concluded that 1999 amendments to the Transportation Code, in section 431.101(e), exempt the contracts of a local government corporation from the competitive-bidding…
Can a Texas junior college buy insurance through a single designated broker of record?
It depends on the dollar amount. The Attorney General concluded that a junior college district may not use a designated broker of record to buy insurance when the premiums total $10,000 or more in a…
Can a Texas state licensing board inspect a polygraph examiner's office without a search warrant?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the Polygraph Examiners Board had no power to inspect a polygraph examiner's work product at the examiner's place of business without a warrant. A routine…
Does the Open Meetings Act apply when a quorum of a Texas public board committee attends an outside speech?
It depends on what gets discussed. The Attorney General concluded that when a quorum of a public board's standing committee attends a speech or meeting run by someone else and a member takes part in…
Can a Texas navigation district accept easements from the Army Corps just to hand them back to landowners?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the Port of Bay City Authority of Matagorda County, a special purpose district with only the powers the Legislature gave it or that are clearly implied, had…
Can a Texas agency require an HIV test to get a professional boxing license?
No, not by rule. The Attorney General concluded that the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation could not require professional boxing applicants to take an HIV test as a condition of…
Does Texas's religious freedom law let a faith-based school grant degrees without state approval?
No. The Attorney General concluded that chapter 110 of the Civil Practice and Remedies Code, Texas's religious freedom statute, does not exempt a religious degree-granting university from state…
Can a volunteer firefighter also serve on the city council in Texas?
Not in Gilmer's case. The Attorney General concluded that a member of the Gilmer Volunteer Fire Department could not also serve on the city council, because the city charter put the fire department…
Can the Texas Ethics Commission release campaign donors' street addresses on a computer diskette?
No. The Attorney General read section 254.0401(e) of the Election Code to bar the Texas Ethics Commission from releasing a campaign contributor's street or P.O. box address by any electronic means,…
Can a Texas water district set up a retirement system for its elected directors?
No, for a retirement system. The Attorney General concluded that section 49.069(b) of the Water Code does not let a water district establish a public retirement system for district directors who…
Can a Texas county quit the county court judge salary supplement program in the middle of the year?
No. The Attorney General concluded that a county participating in the salary supplementation program for statutory county court judges, funded by the extra court costs and fees collected under…
What happens to a defendant's cash bail money in Texas when the DA never files charges?
When no criminal case is filed, the sheriff does not send the defendant's cash bail bond to the court clerk, because the statutes that require that step assume a pending case. The Attorney General…
Can a Texas county move police training funds into its general fund?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the money allocated to local law enforcement agencies under section 1701.157 of the Occupations Code, which funds continuing education for local peace…
Can a Texas university board let regents join a regular meeting by phone?
Not by telephone. The Attorney General concluded that a governing board of a higher-education institution cannot hold a regular meeting with absent members participating from remote locations by…
Can a Texas police chief approve a job transfer for his own son or nephew?
Not if the approval involves any discretion. The Attorney General concluded that section 573.062(b) of the Government Code bars a public official from participating in any employment action…
Who is disqualified from serving on a Texas county appraisal review board?
The Attorney General concluded the El Paso board member was ineligible to serve. The decisive point was that, when he was appointed, he was acting as paid legal counsel to the appraisal district,…
Can a Texas county fix an invalid appointment by waiting until the appointee becomes eligible?
No, not automatically. The Attorney General concluded that if a county attorney's appointment was invalid when made because the appointee had not lived in the county for the required six months, the…
Can a Texas state agency create an advisory committee without express statutory authority?
Yes, if the agency's own governing statutes authorize it, expressly or by implication. The Attorney General concluded that chapter 2110 of the Government Code, which is about the cost and…
Can a Texas state agency make you use comp time before getting workers' comp benefits?
No, on both counts. The Attorney General concluded that a state agency has no authority to require an injured employee to exhaust accumulated compensatory leave before weekly income benefits begin…
How does a Texas special-law city like Socorro convert to home-rule status?
The Attorney General concluded that the City of Socorro, a special-law city created by the legislature in 1871, could not amend its charter to become a hybrid special-law/home-rule city by following…
Can a Texas nursing home use an automated machine to dispense prescription drugs without a pharmacist on site?
The Attorney General concluded no. Under the Texas Pharmacy Act, a machine that sorts, labels, and packages prescription drugs is dispensing them, which makes the facility where it sits a pharmacy…
Can a Texas school district keep a permanent substitute teacher whose relative was just elected to the school board?
The Attorney General concluded yes, as a general matter. A permanent substitute, an uncertified teacher hired to fill a vacancy until a certified teacher is found, who is expected to report every…
Can a Texas municipal utility district hire the spouse of a board member?
The Attorney General concluded no. When a municipal utility district board hired a board member's husband as utility superintendent, the board members who voted for the hiring violated section…
Browse Texas opinions by topic
Attorney general opinions in Texas are written by the Texas 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.