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.
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Can a Texas parent teach their teen driver education without a driving-school license?
The Texas Department of Public Safety asked the Attorney General several questions about Senate Bill 964, which let a parent or legal guardian teach a state-approved driver education course to their o…
Can a Texas city's weaker adult-business zoning replace a county's stricter rules when it annexes the land?
Senator Don Henderson, chairing the Senate Jurisprudence Committee, asked whether the Local Government Code's annexation rules are unconstitutional because they let a city's weaker sexually oriented b…
Can a Texas tax assessor-collector spend escrow interest without commissioners court approval?
Brazos County Attorney James Kuboviak asked whether a county tax assessor-collector may set up a separate account for the interest that builds up on the dealer's motor vehicle inventory tax escrow acc…
Can a Texas judge charge a fee to perform a wedding and keep the money?
Representative Steve Holzheauser asked whether a judge may perform marriage ceremonies during regular office hours, using public property and public employees, and keep the fee charged for personal us…
Could a Texas justice of the peace keep hot-check restitution and fines in a separate checking account before paying them out?
A justice of the peace in a county under 190,000 could place Penal Code section 32.41(e) restitution in a separate account because the money belonged to the dishonored-check holder, not the county. Fi…
Do judges who manage a probation department have to follow the Open Meetings Act in Texas?
Harris County District Attorney John B. Holmes, Jr., asked whether the committee of district and statutory county court judges that oversees the county's Community Supervision and Corrections Departme…
Can a Texas city use public funds or hotel taxes to help build a presidential library?
Texas A&M System Chancellor Barry Thompson asked, for the City of College Station, whether the city could spend public money (including hotel-motel occupancy taxes) on the George Bush Presidential Lib…
Can I still get a pardon after my conviction was set aside at the end of probation in Texas?
Then-Governor George W. Bush asked the Attorney General two questions about article 42.12, section 20 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the provision that lets a judge, at the end of 'regular' or 'sh…
Can a deaf juror bring a sign language interpreter into the jury room during deliberations?
Harris County District Attorney Mike Driscoll asked whether an interpreter for a deaf juror could go into the jury room during deliberations, given an apparent conflict between two Texas statutes: art…
Can a Texas city enter a telecom joint venture with a private phone company?
Senator David Sibley asked whether the City of San Antonio, acting through its City Public Service Board electric utility, could enter a twenty-five-year contract with ICG Access Services to jointly b…
Can a Texas city end a TIF reinvestment zone and recreate it to reset the tax base?
Representative Fred Hill asked, for the City of Dallas, whether a city can terminate a tax increment financing (TIF) reinvestment zone and create a new one with the same boundaries to set a fresh tax …
Does a Texas county clerk have to file a judgment from a 'common law court'?
A county attorney asked whether a county clerk must file a judgment from a self-styled 'common law court,' the kind used by the 'Republic of Texas' movement. The Attorney General said no. The Texas Co…
Can a Texas coach work as an athletic trainer without a license?
The Texas Department of Health asked whether someone whose job title is 'coach,' but whose main duties are working on injured athletes, must be licensed as an athletic trainer. The Attorney General sa…
When does a Texas school district have to use formal competitive bidding for construction?
The Texas Education Agency commissioner asked how two purchasing laws fit together: Education Code section 44.031, which lets a school district pick from six purchasing methods based on best value, an…
Can a Texas public school issue driver education completion certificates without DPS approval?
A state senator asked whether the Texas Education Agency must supply driver education completion certificates to a public school whose course was not separately approved by the agency or the Departmen…
Can a Texas county put deputy constables under its civil service system?
The Bexar County Criminal District Attorney asked whether a county civil service commission, in a county with a basic civil service system under subchapter A of chapter 158 of the Local Government Cod…
Can Texas refuse a marriage license to someone behind on child support?
Two Texas prosecutors asked whether a 1995 law was constitutional. It required everyone applying for a marriage license to swear, under oath, that they did not owe delinquent court-ordered child suppo…
Is a county jail built through a lease-purchase agreement exempt from property taxes?
Winkler County asked whether the jail and sheriff's office complex it occupies under a lease-purchase contract with a private company is subject to ad valorem (property) taxes. The Attorney General sa…
Could a Texas district clerk demand advance payment of sheriff or constable fees for serving civil process?
No, except for the separate out-of-county situation governed by Rule 126. Rules 17 and 149 required the service fee to be taxed as a court cost and collected after judgment. That arrangement extended …
Do home-rule city police officers in Texas have to take the constitutional oath of office?
Two Texas legislators asked whether a home-rule city's police officers and police-department staff must take the constitutional oath of office. The Attorney General found the law unsettled on whether …
Do Texas Medicaid providers have to certify they're current on child support?
The Texas Department of Health asked whether the Family Code rule barring child-support delinquents from state-funded contracts applied to Medicaid providers. The original statute (former Family Code …
Does a 15-passenger van have to meet Texas school bus rules when carrying students?
The Commissioner of Education asked how to read the 'school bus' and 'passenger car' rules in Education Code section 34.003, added by Senate Bill 1 in 1995. That statute lets school districts use pass…
Does a Texas official automatically resign by announcing a run for another office, and can they keep serving?
A county attorney asked about the Texas Constitution's 'resign to run' rule (article XVI, section 65). A Hopkins County court-at-law judge, with more than a year left in his term, announced at a commi…
Do Texas Youth Commission workers earn longevity-pay credit during their first year in a hazardous job?
The Texas Youth Commission asked the Attorney General two pay questions. First, does an employee in a hazardous-duty position keep building 'lifetime service credit' toward longevity pay during the fi…
Can vendors sell phone or pager service to Texas agencies through the catalogue purchase method?
The General Services Commission asked whether vendors of local telephone, long-distance, cellular, mobile-radio, or pager service could sell those services to state agencies through the 'catalogue pur…
Can a Texas water district tax Permanent University Fund land that never got water service?
The University of Texas System asked whether the El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1 could levy taxes 'on the benefit basis' under Water Code chapter 55, subchapter N, against three tracts…
Can a Texas city annex land again after it was annexed and then disannexed by petition?
A state representative asked whether a Texas general-law city is barred from reannexing an area that it had annexed under Local Government Code section 43.033 and then had to disannex after the reside…
Besides the $10 teen court fee, can a Texas municipal court charge a juvenile other court costs?
A district attorney asked whether a municipal court of record must charge a juvenile in a 'teen court' program any court costs beyond the $10 administrative fee that the teen-court statute (Code of Cr…
Can a Texas county clerk charge a court-security fee or records fee to file a birth, death, or fetal death record?
The Commissioner of Health asked the Attorney General to reconsider an earlier opinion (DM-283) that had said county clerks must collect the $1 courthouse-security fee on birth and death certificates.…
Do oil and gas royalties from land under a Texas highway have to go into the constitutional highway fund?
The Texas Department of Transportation asked whether oil and gas royalties from highway right-of-way land must be credited to the highway fund that the Texas Constitution creates in article VIII, sect…
Can a Texas hospital include facilities at separate locations under one license, or must each site be licensed separately?
The Commissioner of the Texas Department of Health asked whether the department could license a hospital for additional facilities operated apart from its main location, given that the licensing statu…
If a Texas county adopted the optional county road law decades ago, is that still in effect, and can the county hire a road administrator instead of a licensed engineer?
The Waller County district attorney asked whether the county's old adoption of the Optional County Road Law of 1947 was wiped out when the Legislature repealed and recodified that law in 1983, and whe…
Can a Texas city let charities solicit donations from drivers in the roadway while banning other roadside solicitation?
A state representative asked the Attorney General whether the Texas law that lets local authorities permit people to stand in a roadway to solicit charitable donations, while banning solicitation for …
Can a recorded abstract of judgment cloud the title to a Texas homestead, and is refusing to release it slander of title?
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which holds student-loan judgments, asked whether recording an abstract of one of those judgments clouds a debtor's homestead and whether refusing to rel…
Can a Texas gas station question a driver's disability before giving full service at self-serve prices?
The Commissioner of Agriculture asked how gas stations should handle the Texas law that requires them to refuel disabled drivers. The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that under article 8613, a stat…
Can a Texas city or county ban licensed concealed handguns in its parks, or a transit agency on its buses?
Representative Ron Wilson asked, after the 1995 concealed handgun law passed, whether a rapid transit authority could bar licensed concealed handguns from its buses and whether cities and counties cou…
Could a Texas business post a sign barring concealed-handgun license holders, and how could the owner enforce it?
Yes. The 1995 concealed-handgun law did not prevent private business owners from excluding license holders under the criminal-trespass statute, and a posted sign was the most effective notice. Owners …
Can a Texas school district transport students in a vehicle that isn't a certified school bus?
The Texas Education Agency asked whether a school district could buy, lease, rent, or use a vehicle that does not meet federal and state school bus safety standards to carry students. The Attorney Gen…
Is Texas's one-year residency requirement for a liquor license constitutional?
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission asked whether the Alcoholic Beverage Code's one-year residency requirement for liquor license and permit applicants violates the U.S. Constitution, given that t…
Does a Texas state agency have to pay county clerk filing, records, and courthouse-security fees?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that the Texas Railroad Commission had to pay county clerk fees when it filed the well-plugging notices required by Natural Resources Code section 89.043(e). The…
Which University of Texas fees are military veterans exempt from under the state tuition exemption?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that veterans who qualified under Education Code section 54.203 were exempt from most dues, fees, and charges at the University of Texas at Austin, but not from …
How do you have to serve a Texas tenant when you sue for eviction and back rent together?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that the streamlined service rules for evictions (forcible detainer actions), Texas Rules of Civil Procedure 739, 742, and 742a, do not apply to a suit for rent …
Can a Texas county make the county attorney put the hot-check fund in the county budget?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that the county attorney's hot-check fee fund, the money collected under article 102.007 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for handling dishonored and forged che…
If Texas wins my unpaid-wage claim, can I collect on the state's lien myself?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that the Texas Employment Commission had no authority to hand off (assign or transfer) a lien or notice of assessment for unpaid wages to the worker who filed th…
Can Texas appraise open-space farm and ranch land by the cash lease method?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that the cash lease method of valuing open-space farm and ranch land for property tax was constitutional. Article VIII, section 1-d-1 of the Texas Constitution r…
Can a Texas court appoint a paid lawyer for a poor death-row inmate's habeas appeal?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that a Texas trial court did have the power to appoint a lawyer for an indigent capital murder defendant in a postconviction habeas corpus proceeding under Code …
Does the federal Brady Act force a state mental health agency to give gun-buyer records to police?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that the federal Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act did not require or authorize the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation to disclose conf…
Can a Texas school take and keep a student's pager if it's only leased, not owned?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that Education Code section 21.309, which barred students from carrying pagers at school and required confiscation and forfeiture to the district, applied to lea…
If Texas changes just two senate districts, does the whole senate have to run for re-election?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that any legislation redrawing Texas senate districts, even a bill touching only two of the thirty-one, is an 'apportionment' under article III, section 3 of the…
Can a Texas county or school district skip competitive bidding by buying through the state catalogue?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that a local government (a county, city, school district, junior college district, or other political subdivision) that takes part in the state's cooperative pur…
Can you get a pardon in Texas after completing deferred adjudication?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that a person who successfully completes deferred adjudication community supervision and has the charges dismissed and is discharged under article 42.12, section…
Can a Texas court clerk turn unclaimed court funds over to the state without a judge's order?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that section 117.002 of the Texas Local Government Code is valid and constitutional. Under it, money deposited with a county or district clerk in a court case th…
Does a Texas school district have to take competitive bids before buying insurance?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that a Texas school district must put a contract for the purchase of insurance out for competitive bids if the contract is worth $25,000 or more over a twelve-mo…
Can a Texas state agency buy liability insurance for its employees?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that the Texas Workers' Compensation Commission could obtain Texas Tort Claims Act liability insurance for its employees under section 101.027 of the Civil Pract…
Do disabled parking plates let you skip campus parking permits and fees at a Texas university?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that a Texas state university could require students, faculty, and staff, even those who are disabled, to register their vehicles and pay a reasonable fee, and c…
Is it illegal in Texas to bet on card games played online over computers and modems?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that when two or more people use their own computers and modems to play and bet on a card game, the activity is illegal gambling under chapter 47 of the Texas Pe…
Can a Texas city make its own rules for septic systems, or does the state control that?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that chapter 366 of the Texas Health and Safety Code set up comprehensive statewide regulation of on-site sewage disposal systems (septic systems) under the stat…
Do you have to pay the witness fee for someone subpoenaed to a deposition, not just to court?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that the witness fee in section 22.001 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code (then a flat $10 per day) had to be paid to everyone subpoenaed to appear an…
Does Title VI of the Civil Rights Act ban discrimination in federally funded programs, and who counts as a recipient?
The Attorney General confirmed in 1995 that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. sections 2000d to 2000d-7) was enacted to prohibit discrimination based on race, color, or national orig…
Can a public retirement system's board review a disability applicant's medical records in a closed meeting?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that the board of trustees of a public retirement system may meet in closed session to review and deliberate the medical and psychiatric records of someone apply…
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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.