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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Could one Texas county pay another county's sitting county attorney extra compensation for serving as a special prosecutor?
No. Because a county attorney was an 'attorney for the state,' article 2.07(b) made the special-prosecutor work an additional duty of the existing office without additional compensation.
Could Texas courts require probationers to use electronic home-monitoring devices without violating their rights or the rights of household members?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that electronic monitoring did not inherently violate the constitutional rights of a probationer or a person sharing the home, provided the probationer could…
Could a Texas constable enforce traffic laws outside the constable's precinct but still within the same county?
Yes, after September 1, 1987. The Attorney General concluded that amended article 6889 extended a constable's expressly authorized acts, including traffic enforcement, throughout the county.
Could a Texas peace officer release a person charged with a misdemeanor on a personal bond without a judge or magistrate's approval?
No, except for the separate written-promise procedure in traffic cases. The Attorney General concluded that only the court handling the case or a magistrate could authorize a personal bond.
Could the Texas Department of Corrections give every incoming prisoner good-time credit for time previously spent in a county jail?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the director could presume good conduct and award county-jail good-time credit uniformly, so long as the statutory discretion was exercised consistently with…
When could a Texas taxing unit stop paying into a reinvestment zone's tax increment fund after three years?
The Attorney General concluded that a taxing unit could stop after three years only if none of the three listed development events had occurred. Bonds, property acquisition, or the start of…
Could someone bring personal copying or microfilm equipment into a Texas county clerk's office to copy public records?
Sometimes. The Attorney General concluded that the public had a qualified right to use personal copying equipment, but an office could impose reasonable limits for safety, efficiency,…
Was gas and electricity used by Texas restaurants to prepare food exempt from sales tax, and could the comptroller require a utility study?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that the exemption applied so long as restaurant food preparation was generally understood as processing tangible personal property for sale. The comptroller…
Could the Texas governor sign HUD nursing-home need certifications after the Texas Health Facilities Commission was abolished?
In 1987, the Attorney General concluded that state-law authority alone was not enough. The governor could satisfy the federal mortgage-insurance certification requirement only if he was also the…
Can Texas police arrest someone without a warrant for a family-violence misdemeanor an officer did not see happen?
The 1987 opinion concluded that article 14.03(a)(2) and (a)(3), which let officers make warrantless arrests for certain assault and protective-order misdemeanors not committed in their presence,…
When could a Texas county pay a private attorney to represent a sheriff or other county official?
A county could pay for private counsel when commissioners determined in good faith that the official acted within official duties and that a legitimate county interest, not merely a private…
Can a Texas county accept credit card payments for court fines and fees?
The 1987 opinion concluded that article 3910a, which let commissioners courts authorize county officers to take credit cards for fees, fines, and court costs, was a valid and enforceable statute.…
Is a Texas county liable when a volunteer fire department it contracts with causes harm?
The 1987 opinion concluded that a county could be liable, to the extent the Texas Tort Claims Act allowed, for the negligent acts of fire services provided under a contract authorized by article…
Can a Texas commissioners court hold an election to move property appraisal into the county tax assessor-collector's office?
No. The 1987 opinion concluded that section 6.26 of the Tax Code let voters petition for an election only to consolidate tax assessing and collecting functions, not appraisal. Because appraisal is a…
Do Texas public hospitals have to provide childbirth and prenatal care to indigent patients?
The 1987 opinion concluded that under the Indigent Health Care Act a public hospital had to provide medically necessary inpatient and outpatient care to eligible indigent residents, which would…
Can a Texas CPS caseworker also be a foster parent for the same agency?
The 1987 opinion did not give a yes-or-no answer. It concluded that whether a Department of Human Services child protective services specialist could serve as a foster parent was a…
Does a Texas public university have to offer its employees every approved HMO, or can it choose which ones?
The 1987 opinion concluded that a public college or university had to consider applications from every HMO approved by the state or federal government to offer services in Texas, not just those…
Who pays for a parole violator's medical care while he is held in county jail awaiting a revocation hearing?
The 1987 opinion concluded that the county, not the Texas Department of Corrections, was responsible for the medical care of a parole violator held in a county jail while awaiting a parole…
Can a Texas commissioners court appoint a county commissioner's relative to a vacant county office?
No. The 1987 opinion concluded that the nepotism statute, article 5996a, barred a commissioners court from appointing the first cousin of a sitting commissioner as acting county clerk. Neither the…
How is the Harris County auditor selected, and do the judges' selection meetings fall under the Open Meetings Act?
The 1987 opinion concluded that, before a 1987 amendment, article 1645a-10 required a Harris County auditor to be chosen by a two-thirds vote of all the district judges having jurisdiction in the…
When was a court-appointed attorney entitled to compensation for representing an indigent defendant in Texas?
The 1987 opinion concluded that appointed counsel was not entitled to compensation under article 26.05 without appearing in court. When counsel did appear, the court could consider related research…
Could a Texas county attorney hire and pay an investigator from the hot check fund without commissioners court approval?
Yes. The 1987 opinion concluded that a county attorney could hire an investigator and set the salary without commissioners court approval when the salary was paid solely from the special hot check…
Could Houston enforce its municipal anti-smoking ordinance inside Harris County buildings located in the city?
Yes. The 1987 opinion concluded that Harris County was not immune from Houston's anti-smoking ordinance and that the state laws cited by the county neither preempted nor conflicted with the city rule.
Did Texas's criminal rules for unlawfully assisting a voter apply to mail ballots, and were those rules too vague to enforce?
Yes, the Attorney General concluded that the applicable parts of Election Code section 64.036 covered assistance to mail voters under section 86.010. No, the opinion found the offense sufficiently…
Could a Texas court clerk require a court-cost deposit before filing an application for a family-violence protective order?
No. The 1987 opinion concluded that a district or county clerk had to file a protective-order application when tendered and could not make a court-cost deposit a condition of filing.
Could a Texas auto insurer raise prices or use underwriting information because a driver completed a defensive-driving course to dismiss a ticket?
No. The Attorney General concluded that section 143A barred insurers from using the dismissed charge or defensive-driving completion for insurance purposes. The opinion also treated that prohibited…
How did the FLSA require a Texas county to handle unused compensatory time when an employee left, and which budget line paid it?
The Attorney General concluded that a county had to pay unused FLSA compensatory time when employment ended and could not keep the former employee nominally on payroll. The adopted budget governed…
Was Texas's law requiring paid labor union organizers to register with the secretary of state still valid after Thomas v. Collins?
The 1987 opinion concluded that the registration requirement was not facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment and was not preempted by the National Labor Relations Act. It distinguished…
Did a minor child lose Texas public-employee death benefits after being adopted following the covered parent's death?
No. The Attorney General concluded that a child's adoption after the covered parent's death did not end benefits under article 6228f; the child's right had already vested and continued until the…
Who paid an indigent prisoner's medical expenses when the prisoner was moved from the Texas Department of Corrections to a county jail on a bench warrant?
The county did. The 1987 opinion concluded that article 104.002 made the county responsible because the prisoner was physically confined in the county jail when the injury and treatment occurred,…
Could a Texas commissioners court spend county school-land lease proceeds to improve the land?
No. The Attorney General concluded that Llano County could not use rent or lease proceeds from county school land to build improvements there; under the law discussed in 1987, those proceeds had to…
Did Jefferson County have to build a replacement road before ending county maintenance and supervision of the entire dead-end Atwood Road?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the replacement-road requirement applied when part of a public road was closed or discontinued in a way that could strand travelers, not when the county ended…
When did a document count as filed with a Texas district clerk if fees, signatures, attachments, or service copies were missing?
The 1987 opinion concluded that a document was filed when tendered to the district clerk, even if a required fee or signature was missing. The clerk should not alter party-supplied copies except to…
Did a Texas county have to use competitive bidding when it obtained federal surplus property through the Texas Surplus Property Agency?
No. The 1987 opinion concluded that a county could accept federal surplus property and pay the Texas Surplus Property Agency's authorized service and handling charges without competitive bidding…
Could individual Texas county departments buy their own office supplies without counting other departments' purchases toward the bidding threshold?
A county department could buy its own supplies only with commissioners court approval and subject to the County Purchasing Act. The 1987 opinion concluded that the $5,000 competitive-bidding…
Could a surplus lines insurance carrier issue the performance and payment bonds required for Texas public works contracts?
No. The 1987 opinion concluded that article 5160 required bonds from a corporate surety authorized to do business in Texas, while a surplus lines carrier was expressly classified as an unauthorized…
Did the city of Bastrop or Bastrop County have to fund indigent healthcare for city residents after the city hospital was leased to a private operator?
The city of Bastrop did. The 1987 opinion concluded that the hospital remained a public hospital because the city-created hospital authority owned it, so the city had to provide sufficient funding…
Was Jackson County responsible for indigent healthcare when a hospital district covered the entire county?
No. The 1987 opinion concluded that the countywide Jackson County Hospital District, not the county, was responsible for inpatient and outpatient care for indigent county residents under the Texas…
Were Texas bills restricting off-site new and used motor vehicle sales constitutional and consistent with antitrust law?
The 1987 opinion concluded that the proposed restrictions did not facially violate federal equal protection, due process, the Commerce Clause, or state and federal antitrust laws. It cautioned that…
Could a Texas State Board of Public Accountancy member be reappointed after serving less than six years and then holding over after the term expired?
Yes. The 1987 opinion concluded that the two-year reappointment bar applied only after a full six-year term, and service in a constitutional holdover capacity after the term expired did not count…
Could Texas barber-board members or inspectors take board exams, attend barber school, or work as part-time barber teachers?
A board member could not take a licensing or certification exam administered by the board, and a barber inspector could not work for pay as a barber-school teacher. An inspector's enrollment in a…
Did a rice dryer qualify as tax-exempt farm machinery under the Texas Constitution and Tax Code?
The opinion did not decide the rice dryer's status because that required factual findings. It said the dryer qualified only if it was an implement rather than a real-property fixture and its primary…
Did Texas have to reimburse Midland County's district judges and district attorney for postage, telephone, and telegraph costs?
No. The Attorney General concluded that Government Code sections 24.019 and 43.004 did not make the state liable for those expenses in Midland County, a single-county judicial district.
Could Ector County give federal revenue-sharing money to a chamber of commerce to recruit new businesses?
The county could contract with a chamber of commerce for specific business-development services if it received adequate consideration and retained sufficient assurance that the public purpose would…
Did Texas's Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act give a judgment debtor due process, require notice from the clerk, and allow execution 30 days after filing?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that chapter 35 provided procedures to challenge a foreign judgment and did not deny due process. The clerk had to mail notice to the debtor, and a writ of…
Could Texas extend its oil severance tax to oil imported from other states and foreign countries?
No. The Attorney General concluded that House Bill 966 would discriminate against interstate commerce by taxing imported oil and that the same defect made it unconstitutional as applied to foreign…
Did all service within a Texas law-enforcement agency count toward hazardous-duty pay, and could that service credit transfer to another agency?
All years served within the employee's current agency counted, including years in nonhazardous assignments. Credit earned at one agency could not transfer to another, and conflicting appropriations…
Did Arkansas's three-percent highway-contractor preference require an Arkansas bidder to underbid Texas contractors on a Texas highway project?
No. Arkansas's preference depended on prior Arkansas contracts and tax payments, not solely on residency, so it did not trigger Texas's reciprocal preference against a nonresident bidder.
Could a Texas public university give elective credit for secular religious-studies courses taught through religious organizations, and could the organization nominate or pay the university faculty member?
A public university could grant elective credit for secular religious-studies courses if the program met Establishment Clause standards and was reviewed without denominational discrimination. It…
Could the Texas Legislature require colleges and universities to transfer excess Texas Public Educational Grant funds to the coordinating board for scholarships at other schools?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the tuition set-asides were state funds subject to legislative control and that Education Code section 56.039 validly redirected excess balances. The…
Could Texas agencies sign multi-year contracts that paid private vendors for cogeneration systems from future energy savings without creating unconstitutional state debt?
Potentially. The Attorney General said properly drafted legislation and contracts could avoid unconstitutional debt if the vendor had no recourse against state credit and the state's payment duty…
Did a Texas district court need a filed lawsuit before it could exercise supervisory control over a county commissioners court?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that article V, section 8 did not give district judges free-standing oversight authority; a lawsuit or other authorized review proceeding had to invoke the…
Could the Texas State Securities Board adopt a rule that automatically treated certain underwritten stock offerings as fair, just, and equitable based only on share price and total proceeds?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the proposed rule would let the securities commissioner bypass the statutory duty to examine whether an offering was fair, just, and equitable. The…
Could Galveston County Drainage District No. 2 charge a fee to review construction plans for crossings over its drainage ditches?
No. The Attorney General concluded that Water Code chapter 56 governed the district and gave it no express or necessarily implied authority to charge plan-review fees for ditch crossings.
Did a Texas county have to reimburse the UT Health Center at Tyler for heart treatment provided to an indigent county resident?
Yes, subject to the Indigent Health Care and Treatment Act's conditions and limits. State funding rules for indigent tuberculosis patients did not shift the cost of treating a heart condition to the…
Could one person serve both as an Angelina and Neches River Authority director and a member of Lufkin's planning and zoning commission?
Not if the river-authority director performed services carrying statutory compensation. Both positions were civil offices of emolument, and article XVI, section 40 barred one person from holding…
Could a Texas municipal or justice court require a resident driver to post an appearance bond just to plead not guilty and obtain a speeding trial?
No. When the driver met article 6701d's conditions and signed a written promise to appear, a court could not require an appearance bond solely because the driver pleaded not guilty and requested a trial.
Did Texas law give people with physical disabilities equal access to buses, trains, airplanes, and other public transportation?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the right applied to public transportation operating in Texas and depended on public use, not whether the transportation received public funding.
Did dismissal or acquittal of a Texas DWI charge prevent suspension of the driver's license for refusing a breath or blood test?
No. The license proceeding concerned refusal to provide a specimen and used a lower civil proof standard, so dismissal or acquittal of the separate DWI charge was not a defense.
Could a Texas county auditor examine inmate trust and jail commissary accounts held and operated by the county sheriff?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the auditor's authority reached all money the sheriff held in an official capacity, even if a particular account did not contain county-owned funds.
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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.