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 constable who never got a peace officer license run for re-election?
The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that yes. The law requires an elected constable to obtain a peace officer license within two years of taking office, but that deadline is a condition for…
Do you need a license to practice psychotherapy, hypnosis, or biofeedback in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that yes, in 1995, practicing psychotherapy, hypnosis for health care purposes, hypnotherapy, or biofeedback for compensation without a Texas psychology license…
Can a Texas justice of the peace court handle underage drinking cases?
The Attorney General concluded that no, justice courts (justice of the peace courts) did not have jurisdiction over prosecutions for a minor's purchase, consumption, or being furnished alcohol under…
Could one Texas city charge impact fees and include capital improvements for service provided inside another city?
Under the law in 1995, a municipality could contract with another municipality to provide capital improvements inside the second city and could charge impact fees there if the contract authorized…
Can any Texas peace officer enforce a city's ordinances?
The Attorney General concluded that articles 2.12 and 2.13 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the statutes that list who counts as a peace officer and set out a peace officer's general duties, do…
Can a Texas county pay to fly in a job candidate for an interview?
The Attorney General concluded that yes, in some circumstances. A county commissioners court may pay the travel expenses of someone applying for a county job, such as a county forensic pathologist…
Can Texas pay a finder's fee for tips that help recover permanent school fund property?
The Attorney General concluded that no, the state could not use the comptroller's contingency-fee contracts under section 403.0195 of the Government Code to pay for tips that helped recover property…
Does a Texas police department have to fingerprint you for free if you ask?
The Attorney General concluded that yes. Section 80.001 of the Human Resources Code required every state and local law enforcement agency in Texas to fingerprint a person on request, and to do it…
Could the Texas Department of Insurance regulate viatical settlement companies under the 1993 law?
The Attorney General concluded that no, it could not. The 1993 statute that purported to give the Texas Department of Insurance jurisdiction over viatical settlements (the business of buying the…
If city police arrest someone for a state crime, does the county jail have to take them?
The Attorney General concluded that yes, once a magistrate signed a commitment order for a person arrested on a state criminal charge, the county jail had to take custody and the sheriff could not…
Can Texas voters petition for an election to adopt a local homestead property tax exemption?
The Attorney General concluded that no, the optional homestead exemption under section 11.13(n) of the Tax Code could not be adopted by public election, whether triggered by a voter petition or…
Can the same person serve as a county commissioner and a school board trustee in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that one person could not hold both offices at the same time: county commissioner and public school district trustee were legally incompatible. Under the common-law…
Can a Texas alcohol commissioner own a managed investment fund that might hold alcohol-company stock?
The Attorney General concluded that section 5.05(a) of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code bars a member of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission from holding stock or any pecuniary interest in a…
Do Dallas planning and zoning commissioners have to follow conflict-of-interest rules?
The Attorney General concluded that members of the City of Dallas Planning and Zoning Commission are 'local public officials' under chapter 171 of the Local Government Code, because they exercise…
Can parties in a Texas case agree to have someone other than a certified court reporter take a deposition?
The Attorney General concluded that where Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 166c lets the parties agree to take an oral deposition before 'any person,' it conflicts with Government Code section…
Does a small Texas water district have to keep customers' addresses and phone numbers private?
The Attorney General concluded that the Franklin County Water District is a 'government-operated utility' under House Bill 859 (codified at V.T.C.S. article 1446h), so it must keep a customer's…
Is there an annual gallon limit on a Texas winery's direct sales under section 16.01(d)?
The Attorney General concluded that a winery permit holder selling wine to consumers under subsection (d) of section 16.01 of the Alcoholic Beverage Code (a 1993 provision available to a winery in a…
Does the ADA override Texas's ban on electronic bingo devices for disabled players?
The Attorney General concluded that a keypad device with electronic memory that helps a player track bingo cards (the PowerBingo System) is a 'computerized or electronic device' barred by section…
When several 1993 Texas bills changed the same truancy-fine law, which fines applied?
The Attorney General concluded that three bills from the 1993 legislative session (House Bill 681, House Bill 1372, and Senate Bill 7) all amended Education Code section 4.25, the…
Can a Texas county auditor also work for a nonprofit that gets county funding?
The Attorney General concluded that when the county-auditor oath of office (Local Government Code section 84.007(b)), which bars a county auditor from having a personal interest in any county…
Could the Texas Legislature legalize slot machines without another constitutional amendment, either privately or through the state lottery?
No. A slot machine whose payout depended entirely on chance was a prohibited lottery under article III, section 47, and the Legislature could not authorize it without a constitutional amendment. The…
Could Texas exempt privately owned dredge-disposal land from property tax?
The Attorney General concluded that section 11.29 of the Tax Code, which exempted land a person dedicates by donated easement as a disposal site for material dredged from the Gulf Intracoastal…
Does a small public construction job in Texas still need a workers' comp coverage certificate?
The Attorney General concluded that Labor Code section 406.096 requires a workers' compensation coverage certificate on every building or construction contract with the state or a political…
Can a 1993 Texas law stop an economic development corporation from paying a debt it took on before the law passed?
The Attorney General concluded that section 4A(q) of article 5190.6, V.T.C.S., added in 1993, bars a type 4A economic development corporation from assuming or paying down a debt that existed before…
How much can a Texas court charge to file a protective order?
The Attorney General concluded that section 71.04(e) of the Family Code caps the total a court clerk may charge a family-violence protective order applicant at $36, covering both the $16 filing fee…
Can a Texas school district pull out of a junior college district?
The Attorney General explained that a junior college district can disannex (drop) territory only when the Legislature has passed a statute authorizing it, and only by the method the statute…
Can a child support recipient change the payment address without going back to court?
The Attorney General concluded that a district clerk could honor a child support recipient's change-of-address request, including a request to send the payments in care of a child support collection…
Could a Texas district clerk charge civil filing fees for a preindictment habeas application or withhold the writ until fees were paid?
The civil fee schedule in Government Code section 51.317 did not apply to a preindictment habeas application. A clerk could charge a reasonable fee under section 51.319(5), capped by the comparable…
What can police tell a school when they arrest a student in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that article 15.27 of the Code of Criminal Procedure let a law enforcement agency tell the right school official much more than the bare fact that a student had been…
Can a Texas bar or liquor store owner keep a gun for self-defense?
The Attorney General concluded that a holder of a retail license or permit to sell alcoholic beverages could possess a firearm for self-defense without risking the license. The 1993 amendments…
Can the Texas Board of Health require radiologic technologists to get specialty certificates?
The Attorney General concluded that the Texas Board of Health was authorized, though not required, to adopt rules creating a specialty certification system for medical radiologic technologists…
Can a grand jury indict someone for a crime committed in a different county?
The Attorney General concluded that a Kleberg County grand jury could return an indictment for an offense committed in neighboring Kenedy County, as long as venue for that offense was proper in…
Does the Texas educator code of ethics survive if the commission that wrote it is abolished?
The Attorney General concluded that the Code of Ethics and Standard Practices for Texas Educators survived the 1993 abolition of the Teachers' Professional Practices Commission, because the…
Can a Texas city use zoning to control where liquor and package stores open?
The Attorney General concluded that the phrase "on-premise sale" in the Alcoholic Beverage Code's preemption exception (section 109.57(d)(2)) means the sale of alcohol for consumption on the…
Can the Texas Public Utility Commission apply for and spend federal grant money?
The Attorney General concluded that the Public Utility Commission had authority under the Public Utility Regulatory Act (article 1446c, V.T.C.S.) to apply for federal grants that were necessary and…
Does an off-duty Texas police officer need a private security license to work as a guard?
The Attorney General concluded that the peace-officer exemption in section 3(a)(3) of the Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies Act applied only when the off-duty officer was hired…
Can a Texas licensing board make you give your Social Security number to renew your license?
The Attorney General concluded that section 7 of the federal Privacy Act of 1974 barred the Texas Real Estate Commission from refusing to renew a license just because the licensee would not disclose…
In Texas, do you go to justice court or county court for passing a stopped school bus?
The Attorney General concluded that because a first offense of overtaking and passing a school bus (section 104 of article 6701d) was punishable by fine only, it fell within a justice court's…
Did the Texas Open Meetings Act apply to four insurance-solvency and guaranty boards, and could they meet privately or by telephone?
Yes. All four insurance-related governing bodies were statewide governmental bodies subject to the Open Meetings Act, with notice posted by the secretary of state at least seven days before a…
Can a Texas county add a courthouse security fee to court filings, including probate cases?
The Attorney General concluded that section 291.007 of the Local Government Code let a county commissioners court set a security fee of up to $5, collected once in each civil case filed in a county…
Who gets the interest on cash bail money and county jail inmate funds in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that cash paid in lieu of a bail bond is held in trust under chapter 117 of the Local Government Code. A district clerk may put it in a separate or interest-bearing…
Can the State Board of Education deduct a school district's debt to the state schools from its available school fund?
The Attorney General concluded no. Education Code section 21.507 let the commissioner of education deduct a district's share of state-school costs only from foundation school program payments, not…
If two Texas laws define 'gambling device' differently, which one controls?
The Attorney General concluded the two 1993 amendments did not truly conflict. Because Senate Bill 1067 carried its own transition rule (section 13.02) for handling other same-session Penal Code…
Can a county commissioner's company sell materials to the county in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that chapter 171 of the Local Government Code lets a county do business with a company a commissioner owns, to the same extent as other local governments, and that the…
Do Texas county school administrations have to follow the school-district lobbying limits?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the Dallas County Schools, a county school administration operating under chapters 17 and 18 of the Education Code, is a 'school district' within the meaning…
Can unlicensed practice of architecture be prosecuted in a Texas justice court?
The Attorney General reached a two-part answer. Unauthorized practice of architecture under article 249a, section 13 cannot be tried as a class C misdemeanor, because its fine range of $250 to…
Do Texas insurance mandates apply to a county's self-funded employee health plan?
The Attorney General concluded that several Texas Insurance Code provisions, including the HIV/AIDS data article (1.24C), the chemical dependency coverage article (3.51-9), and the dental benefits…
If a Texas teacher transfers retirement credit to the state employee system, who pays the early retirement incentive?
The Attorney General concluded that the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) must pay its proportional share of an early retirement incentive for a member who transfers service credit to the Employees…
Can a Texas public funds investment pool write covered call or put contracts?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the Public Funds Investment Act gives a public funds investment pool a specific, exclusive list of permitted investments, and covered call and covered put…
Can a Texas county commissioners court create its own civil process office?
No. The Attorney General concluded that a county commissioners court has no express or implied statutory authority to set up a civil process department that operates separately from the sheriff. The…
Is a cancer center's patient lodging exempt from property tax in Texas?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center's Jesse H. Jones Rotary House International, a center where cancer patients and their families stay during treatment, was…
Can a Texas public university limit which companies sell retirement annuities to its faculty?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that section 830.004 of the Government Code delegates to the governing boards of state institutions of higher education the authority to structure the optional…
How many paid vacation days do Texas police officers and firefighters get?
The Attorney General read two vacation provisions in section 142.0013 of the Local Government Code together rather than as a conflict. In a city with a population over 30,000, a firefighter or…
How long is a Texas water control district director's term, and when must the elections be held?
The Attorney General concluded that directors of the El Paso County Water Control and Improvement District (Westway) serve two-year terms. Westway was created by a 1961 special law that set two-year…
Can a Texas county donate its surplus or salvage property to a local charity?
On its face, yes. The Attorney General concluded that House Bill 2087, a 1993 law letting a county commissioners court donate salvage or surplus property to a local civic or charitable organization,…
Can a married couple both hold local elected office in Texas if their districts overlap?
Yes, on the facts presented. The Attorney General found no conflict of interest that would disqualify either spouse from office. Texas's local conflict-of-interest law (chapter 171 of the Local…
How many votes does a member of a Texas agricultural marketing cooperative get?
One. The Attorney General read section 52.085(a) of the Agriculture Code as a flat one-vote-per-member rule for agricultural cooperative marketing associations, with a single narrow exception for…
Do a Texas county retirement system's extra-interest checks to retirees count as an illegal gift of public money?
No. The Attorney General concluded that when the Texas County and District Retirement System pays annuitants extra interest out of its endowment fund's distributive benefit account, that is not an…
Can a Texas county bail bond board limit how many bonds a corporate surety writes or question its property appraisals?
The Attorney General answered eight questions from Denton County and drew a consistent line: a county bail bond board may not pile requirements onto a corporate bondsman beyond what the bail bond…
Can Texas require EMTs and paramedics to pass an exam to keep their certification?
The Attorney General concluded that House Bill 241, passed in 1993, did not strip the Texas Department of Health of the power to require a recertification exam for emergency medical services…
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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.