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 state require outdoor shooting ranges to be built to National Rifle Association standards?
The Attorney General concluded no, as the statute was then written. Section 756.042 of the Health and Safety Code required the owner of an outdoor shooting range to build and maintain the range to sta…
Can a Texas commissioners court overturn an ex officio road commissioner's firing of a road employee, or move that worker to another precinct?
The Attorney General reached a mixed conclusion. On whether an ex officio road commissioner can fire full-time road employees to save money without risking discrimination suits, the opinion noted the …
Are older Texas health spas still exempt from posting a security bond after the 1989 Health Spa Act changes?
The Attorney General concluded no. The 1985 Health Spa Act let an established spa owner open new spas without posting a security bond (a 'grandfather' exemption in former section 10(d)). The 1989 amen…
Can the same person be a county deputy constable and an assistant fire chief at the City of Houston at the same time in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Neither the Texas Constitution's ban on holding two civil offices of emolument (article XVI, section 40) nor the common-law doctrine of incompatibility blocks one p…
Did Texas county education districts have to follow the truth-in-taxation notice, hearing, and rollback rules even though their tax rate was set by formula?
The Attorney General concluded the county education districts (CEDs) had to comply with the notice and hearing requirements of the Tax Code's truth-in-taxation provisions, even though the CEDs had no …
Can Texas treat a disabled teacher who recovers after age 60 as disabled for life, blocking their return to work, when younger teachers can come back?
The Attorney General concluded no. Government Code section 824.304(c) conclusively presumed that a Teacher Retirement System disability retiree whose retirement began at or continued past age 60 was d…
Can the Texas health department share abortion-clinic records with the medical or nursing board, or confirm a place is not a licensed abortion facility?
The Attorney General concluded no to both. The Texas Abortion Facility Reporting and Licensing Act makes the records the Department of Health holds confidential and lets the department release them to…
Can Texas therapeutic optometrists prescribe antiviral or glaucoma eye drugs, and could the optometry board list allowed drugs by category instead of by name?
The Attorney General reached a split conclusion. First, neither the Optometry Act provision authorizing therapeutic optometrists to prescribe certain eye drugs nor the board's rule violated article II…
Does having lobbyists at your firm disqualify you from serving on a Texas state commission with a lobbyist conflict-of-interest rule?
The Attorney General concluded no. Under section 2.061(d) of the General Services Act, a person who is a member of a firm could still serve as a commissioner of the General Services Commission even if…
Can a Texas county enforce floodplain building rules over waterways that a port or navigation district controls?
The Attorney General concluded yes, but only to a limited extent. The Port of Houston Authority has exclusive jurisdiction over the building of structures over waterways within its geographical limits…
Can a Texas agency meet in closed session to discuss who to appoint to an advisory committee, or do open meetings rules require it stay public?
The Attorney General concluded the meeting had to stay open. Members of the Texas Commission on Fire Protection's two advisory committees (the Fire Protection Personnel Advisory Committee and the Volu…
Can the Texas National Guard use federal money to buy liability insurance for staff running a mobile recruiting shooting range, even from an out-of-state insurer?
The Attorney General concluded yes. The Texas Adjutant General, as head of the Texas National Guard, had authority to obtain liability insurance, paid for with federal funds, to cover Guard officers a…
Do Texas juvenile probation officers have to supervise out-of-state juveniles sent here under the Interstate Compact on Juveniles, even ones Texas couldn't have prosecuted as juveniles?
The Attorney General concluded yes. By adopting the Uniform Interstate Compact on Juveniles as chapter 25 of the Family Code, Texas both authorized and required its juvenile probation officers to supe…
Can a Texas health district refuse to let you inspect old birth and death records and charge a fee?
The Attorney General concluded yes, as to the original records. Old birth records (more than 50 years old) and death records (more than 25 years old) are public and not exempt under the Texas Open Rec…
Where do funds left over from a USDA agriculture inspection agreement have to go in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded the money has to go into the state treasury. When a 1981 cooperative agreement between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Texas Department of Agriculture ended i…
Can a Texas hazardous waste permit hearings examiner talk privately with agency staff about the case?
The Attorney General concluded no. A 1991 law (Senate Bill 1099) added section 361.0831 to the Health and Safety Code, governing hazardous-waste-permit contested cases before the Texas Water Commissio…
Does interest on Texas's proprietary school tuition fund go back to the fund or to general revenue?
The Attorney General concluded the interest goes to the state's general revenue fund. The Proprietary School Tuition Protection Fund, created by Education Code section 32.91, is a 'special fund in the…
Does the State Office of Administrative Hearings handle Court Reporters Certification Board cases?
The Attorney General concluded no. The 1991 law creating the State Office of Administrative Hearings (article 6252-13f) reaches only 'state agencies' that are subject to the Administrative Procedure a…
Can the Texas Public Utility Commission lower the assessment utilities pay without the Legislature?
The Attorney General concluded no. Section 78 of the Public Utility Regulatory Act set the assessment each utility pays (one-sixth of one percent of gross receipts) to fund the Public Utility Commissi…
Who runs the West Brazoria County Drainage District if the board election never happened?
The Attorney General concluded the Brazoria County commissioners court is still the district's governing board. A 1981 law was supposed to replace the commissioners court with a five-member board elec…
Does a Texas justice of the peace have to keep a paper copy of an electronic court docket?
The Attorney General concluded no. Article 45.13 of the Code of Criminal Procedure lets a justice of the peace or municipal court judge process and store the court's criminal docket electronically, an…
Can a Texas hospital pay doctors a flat fee to be on call to admit ER patients?
The Attorney General concluded yes, conditionally. Section 161.091 of the Health and Safety Code makes it an offense for a licensed health care professional to pay or accept money for securing or soli…
Can a Texas city cut a sales tax that is paying off its development corporation's bonds?
The Attorney General concluded that it cannot, as to bonds already issued. Section 4A of the Development Corporation Act lets a city hold a rollback election to reduce, or limit the time of, the sales…
Can the Texas dental board limit HIV-positive dental workers more than state law does?
The Attorney General concluded that several rules the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners adopted for HIV- and HBV-infected dental health care workers exceeded the board's authority because they con…
Who actually controls the rules of the Texas Automobile Insurance Plan?
The Attorney General concluded that the State Board of Insurance, not the private insurance companies that make up the Texas Automobile Insurance Plan (TAIP), holds the ultimate rulemaking authority o…
How can a Texas county pay for a county elections administrator's office?
The Attorney General concluded that even though the Interlocal Cooperation Act generally lets counties contract with other local governments for shared services, Victoria County had to fund its electi…
Can a Texas county pay back a private person's legal bills from a lawsuit?
The Attorney General concluded that article III, section 52 of the Texas Constitution prohibits Morris County from reimbursing two private landowners for the attorneys' fees they ran up in a right-of-…
Can a school employee keep their job if a relative is elected to the board?
The Attorney General answered eight questions about the Texas nepotism law (V.T.C.S. article 5996a) as it applies to school districts. The key holdings: an employee may keep a promotion he held for at…
Can a Texas hospital district lease space to a private drug treatment center?
The Attorney General concluded that the Chambers County Hospital District could lease part of its hospital facility to a group of private physicians to run an adolescent drug treatment center. Health …
Can a city council member vote on zoning that affects their own neighborhood?
The Attorney General concluded that, in certain circumstances, chapter 171 of the Local Government Code requires a home rule city council member to abstain from voting on a zoning matter affecting ter…
Can a Texas city let employees donate sick leave to coworkers who run out?
The Attorney General concluded that a Texas home rule city has the authority to create a voluntary 'sick leave pool,' where employees contribute accrued sick leave that coworkers who have exhausted th…
Who decides how much a county court reporter in Texas gets paid?
The Attorney General concluded that the Denton County Commissioners Court, not the district judges, sets the salary of official court reporters in the county courts at law. Government Code section 52.…
Can Texas make you arbitrate a dispute instead of going to court?
The Attorney General concluded that the Texas general arbitration statute (V.T.C.S. article 224 et seq.) does not violate the 'open courts' provision of the Texas Constitution (article I, section 13).…
Can a Texas county charge subdivision owners to fix their roads, and how?
The Attorney General concluded the charge a county levied to improve subdivision roads under article 6702-3 was a 'special assessment,' not a tax, so property-tax rules did not apply. The county tax a…
Are life insurance cash values fully protected from creditors in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that article 21.22 of the Insurance Code wholly exempted life insurance proceeds and cash values from seizure by creditors, and that this unlimited exemption controlled …
Can a Texas employer get an applicant's workers' comp injury history before a job offer?
The Attorney General concluded the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, as interpreted by the EEOC, bars an ADA-covered employer from getting an applicant's workers' compensation history before ma…
Can Texas add a $10 court cost in only some counties for the same crime?
The Attorney General concluded no. Section 51.702(b) of the Government Code let a county's commissioners court opt in to charging an extra $10 court cost on each criminal conviction in a statutory cou…
Can a Texas hospital district elect all its directors from single-member districts?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Chapter 286 of the Health and Safety Code let a hospital district elect all of its directors 'by place' from single-member districts, and those single-member distri…
Is random drug testing of all public employees legal in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that whether a particular government drug-testing policy is constitutional generally turns on facts, so it is beyond the scope of an AG opinion; the governing board must…
Can a Texas county build its jail somewhere other than the county seat?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Although county jails were traditionally placed at the county seat, a 1989 amendment to section 292.001 of the Local Government Code authorized a commissioners cour…
Is a Texas county auditor's own salary subject to the 5% budget increase cap?
The Attorney General concluded no. Local Government Code section 111.013 capped year-over-year increases in 'the amount budgeted for expenses of the county auditor's office' and in an assistant audito…
Can a Texas lender make you buy manufactured-home insurance from a company it picks?
The Attorney General concluded a creditor in a manufactured-home credit transaction could require the buyer to carry a paid-in-full property insurance policy for whatever term the creditor set, but co…
Can the Texas Commission on Jail Standards approve temporary or alternative inmate housing?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Only a county's traditional jail had to satisfy Chapter 351 of the Local Government Code. Other facilities that held county inmates answered only to the Commission …
Can a Texas budget rider force a state agency to adopt another department's procedures?
The Attorney General concluded no. A rider to a general appropriations act may only detail, limit, or restrict how appropriated money is spent. The rider here ordered the Texas Department on Aging to …
Can Texas's TABC presume a seller 'knowingly' sold alcohol to a minor just for not checking ID?
The Attorney General concluded no. The statutes let the Alcoholic Beverage Commission suspend or cancel a license only when the seller 'knowingly' sold alcohol to a minor, and Texas courts have read '…
Can a Texas commissioners court remove people it appointed to a county district board?
The Attorney General concluded that members of the governing boards of a county emergency services district, a rural fire prevention district, and the Comal County Water Oriented Recreation District a…
Can a Texas school district pick a bidder who isn't lowest because they're local or grow the tax base?
The Attorney General concluded that an independent school district could not award a competitively-bid construction contract to a bidder who was not the lowest based on the bidder's residence or locat…
In Texas, who picks the doctor for county jail inmates: the sheriff or the commissioners court?
The Attorney General concluded that only the county commissioners court could contract with a licensed physician to provide medical services to county jail inmates, because the commissioners court hol…
Is a charity casino-night fundraiser with real betting legal in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that people playing the casino games at the described nonprofit casino-night fundraiser would be committing the Penal Code offense of gambling, because paying for chips …
Did Texas's boxing admission tax apply to pay-per-view fees cable subscribers paid to watch fights at home?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the pay-per-view fees cable television subscribers paid to watch a live boxing telecast at home were not 'admission fees' under section 11(b) of the Texas Boxin…
Could a Texas county judge preside over probate of a will the judge drafted, witnessed, or that involved the judge's former law practice or relatives?
No single answer applied to all five situations. Constitutional disqualification required a direct financial interest, prohibited relationship to a party, or prior service as counsel in the same case;…
Can a Texas bail bond board make license applicants post cash instead of property deeds for their security deposit?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the Smith County Bail Bond Board could not adopt a rule forcing an original bail bond applicant to make the required security deposit only in the form of a cash…
Can a county attorney defend a hospital district employee in a criminal case, and can the district pay the legal bills?
Mostly no. The Attorney General concluded that article 2.08 of the Code of Criminal Procedure barred the Harris County Attorney from representing a Harris County Hospital District employee in a crimin…
Are auctioneer services 'professional services' that a Texas city can exempt from competitive bidding?
Not automatically. The Attorney General concluded that, except for the services covered by the Professional Services Procurement Act, a municipality decides in the first instance whether particular se…
Could the Texas police licensing commission require peace officers and jailers to be U.S. citizens?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education exceeded its rulemaking authority when it adopted 37 Texas Administrative Code section 2…
Does a Texas life sentence ever end before the person dies, such as when they are paroled?
No. The Attorney General concluded that a life sentence is exactly what it says, a sentence that continues until the convicted person's death. A person serving life may become eligible for parole, but…
Can a Texas juvenile board raise the salaries of its own county judge members?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the juvenile board for Castro, Hale, and Swisher counties had no authority to set the salaries of its members. Human Resources Code section 152.0411(c) gives th…
Can a Texas court reporter sign an exclusive contract to handle all of one company's deposition reporting?
The Attorney General concluded that neither Texas statutes nor the Texas Supreme Court's certification rules prohibited a certified shorthand reporter from contracting with a company, often an insuran…
Can the Texas low-level radioactive waste authority base its impact-assistance fund on planning and implementation fees?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the board of the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Authority cannot adopt a rule designating a percentage of its planning and implementation fees for i…
Can a Texas insurance company credit rehabilitation fees against its premium tax?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the fees the State Board of Insurance collects from an insurer it rehabilitates under article 21.28-A of the Insurance Code are not 'examination and evaluation …
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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.