State AG Opinions
Free state attorney general opinions with plain-English summaries, full citations, and the original source on every page.
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When does a Texas constable's deadline to get a permanent peace officer license start if he was appointed and then elected?
From the start of the elected term. The Attorney General concluded that a Bowie County constable who was first appointed to fill an unexpired term and later sworn in to a full elective term had 270 da…
Can an off-duty Texas peace officer working security on a casino boat make arrests once the boat is at sea?
Only inside Texas waters. The Attorney General concluded that Texas peace officers working as off-duty security guards on casino boats can make arrests under state law within the state's territorial w…
Does Texas own old artifacts that were dug up from state land before the 1969 Antiquities Code?
Not automatically. The Attorney General concluded that whether the state owns artifacts removed from state lands before the 1969 Antiquities Code depends on the particular artifacts and where they wer…
What did Idaho's AG say about a 2002 ballot initiative to restructure the Idaho Fish and Game Commission?
The AG's review focused on technical drafting questions for a proposal to reduce the Fish and Game Commission from seven to five members, eliminate the party-affiliation restriction, eliminate at-plea…
Can a New York taxicab charge a different fare for the same trip at different times of day?
Yes, as long as the different fares and the conditions under which they apply are conspicuously posted inside the cab. The AG concluded that General Business Law § 396-p(1) assumes fare variation is a…
Can North Carolina local school boards pool their risk through the NC School Boards Trust, and does joining that pool waive their governmental immunity for tort claims?
Yes, school boards can join the NC School Boards Trust as a joint agency under Chapter 160A, Article 20. Participation in the self-retained portion of the pool does not waive governmental immunity und…
Can a public hospital system in North Carolina lend operating revenues to a nonprofit hospital corporation it created to run a long-term acute care hospital?
Yes. The Municipal Hospital Act (G.S. § 131E-7(b)) lets public hospitals contract with nonprofit corporations to provide health care and use hospital revenues to fund those contracts. A $1.825 million…
Can a New York city pay back a council member's court filing fees for a personal Open Meetings Law lawsuit against the city that was dismissed?
No. The AG concluded the gift-or-loan clause of N.Y. Const. Art. VIII § 1 bars the reimbursement. Bringing an Open Meetings Law suit is not within a city council member's official duties; the council …
Could a Lawrason Act police chief let officers do paid off-duty security work in town police cars, and could the mayor dismiss traffic tickets by initialing them?
At the time of this 2002 opinion, the AG concluded off-duty security work in town vehicles was permitted (with liability caveats), but a mayor could not dismiss a traffic ticket just by signing his in…
Are a North Carolina legislator's emails and other written communications about redistricting public records the public can inspect, and who is the legal custodian of those records?
It depends on who the communication was with. Communications between a legislator and a legislative employee, including a staff lawyer, are confidential before enactment of a redistricting plan and be…
Does a Texas state agency board member have to resign to run for the Legislature?
Not necessarily. The Attorney General concluded that a member of the Texas Department of Economic Development governing board did not hold a 'lucrative office,' because the member received only expens…
Does a Texas county have to refund pretrial diversion fees it had no authority to collect?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that 'pretrial diversion fees' a Hopkins County Attorney's predecessor had collected without legal authority, along with the interest earned on them, had to be retu…
What happens to a Texas constable when redistricting abolishes his precinct?
The Attorney General concluded that, under article V, section 18(c) of the Texas Constitution, a constable whose precinct is abolished by redistricting serves out the rest of his elected term in the p…
What did Idaho's AG say about the original 2002 J.A.I.L. (Judicial Accountability Initiative Law) ballot initiative?
The AG concluded each of the proposal's four substantive elements (eliminating judicial immunity, creating a Special Grand Jury for judges, adding judge-removal procedures, and Grand Jury implementati…
Can the Town of Riverhead, in Suffolk County, eliminate its elected receiver of taxes position?
Yes. The AG concluded Town Law § 36(1) lets a second-class town abolish the receiver of taxes office by resolution and transfer its functions to the town clerk. The Suffolk County Tax Act (L. 1920, ch…
Can a New York town ban using old mobile homes as backyard storage units?
The AG concluded a town has authority to regulate old mobile homes used as fixed-base storage facilities under Town Law § 130(16) and its police power, but cannot adopt a blanket prohibition that skip…
Can a disability rights advocacy group see a patient's records if the legal guardian says no?
The Attorney General concluded that Texas' designated protection and advocacy system, Advocacy, Inc., could have access to patients with mental illness or developmental disabilities and to their recor…
Can a Texas city make running a red light a civil ticket instead of a crime, and use red-light cameras?
The Attorney General concluded that the City of Richardson could not adopt an ordinance turning the disregard of a traffic-control signal into a civil violation, because state law makes running a red …
Who decides which expelled students go to a juvenile justice alternative education program in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that, beyond providing some funding to the county juvenile board and reviewing the county-funded part of its budget, a county and its commissioners court had no statutor…
Can Texas ban doctors and other health professionals from using testimonials in their ads?
The Attorney General concluded that, while it could not say definitively as a matter of law that a blanket ban was unconstitutional, a court would very likely strike down the absolute ban on testimoni…
Can a nonprofit economic development corporation claim a North Carolina property tax exemption on raw, unimproved land it owns for future redevelopment?
No. North Carolina's charitable property tax exemption in G.S. § 105-278.7 covers only buildings, the land they actually occupy, and adjacent land convenient to their use. Unimproved tracts held for f…
Are draft redistricting plans drawn by a North Carolina legislator personally, using the legislature's computer system but without staff help, public records the public can demand to see?
The statutes do not clearly answer the question. G.S. §§ 120-130, 131, and 133 protect plans drawn by legislative employees but say nothing about plans drawn by legislators themselves. Two competing c…
Can North Carolina's NC Flex flexible-benefits program offer state employees a voluntary indemnity health plan that pays fixed-dollar amounts for hospitalization, heart attack, and similar events, and can it offer alternative dependent health coverage?
Yes for the fixed-dollar indemnity plan; depends-on-details for dependent coverage. N.C.G.S. §§ 116-17.2 and 143-34.1(d) prohibit NC Flex from duplicating benefits provided by the State Health Plan, T…
Does Delaware's public records law require a school district to create records it doesn't have or get records from a private contractor?
No, under the law as it stood in 2002. The AG found Cape Henlopen School District did not violate FOIA by failing to hand over a bus schedule, claim forms, or zoning-inquiry records it did not possess…
When did buildings outside city limits in Texas have to start meeting the state energy code?
The Attorney General concluded that new construction in areas outside a municipality's jurisdiction had to begin complying with the Texas Building Energy Performance Standards as of September 1, 2001,…
Did Texas appellate court law clerks and briefing attorneys get the state employee pay raise?
The Attorney General concluded that briefing attorneys and law clerks at the state appellate courts were entitled to the across-the-board four percent state employee salary increase in section 10.12 o…
Can a city council member or county commissioner also serve on a Texas groundwater conservation district board?
The Attorney General concluded that no, in most cases. A person who already holds a compensated seat on the governing body of another local political subdivision (other than a county) could not also s…
Can a Texas justice of the peace send a juvenile to detention for contempt of court?
The Attorney General concluded that a justice court could not order a child confined for a term of detention (the practice asked about was three days in a county juvenile facility) as contempt for vio…
Which plumbing code applies to new home construction in Texas cities?
The Attorney General concluded that the three 2001 plumbing bills could be harmonized rather than read as canceling each other out. Senate Bill 365 made the International Residential Code the mandator…
After Minnesota lowered the council-vote threshold for most zoning amendments to a simple majority, can a home-rule charter city still require a two-thirds council vote by its own ordinance?
No. The AG concluded that after the 2001 amendment of Minn. Stat. § 462.357, subd. 2, the statutory majority-vote rule for most zoning ordinances preempts any inconsistent charter or local ordinance. …
When someone is arrested for a domestic violence crime in North Carolina, can a magistrate set bail right away, or does the defendant have to stay in custody until a judge can act?
A magistrate cannot set conditions of pretrial release during the first 48 hours after arrest for a covered domestic violence crime. Only a judge may set those conditions during that window. If no jud…
Who has the legal authority to select and contract with the midway operator for the North Carolina State Fair: the Department of Agriculture or the Board of Agriculture?
The Department of Agriculture. G.S. § 106-503 says the Board manages the State Fair, but the Executive Organization Act of 1971 transferred the Board to the Department by Type II transfer, putting the…
Does North Carolina law require a county to let the public monitor its 800 MHz radio system in real time, or to record radio traffic that the county is not already recording?
No. The Public Records Act covers records that exist; it does not force a county to create a record. If a county chooses not to record 800 MHz radio traffic, no statute requires it to start, and no st…
When a regional transportation authority asks a North Carolina county to approve a 5% rental vehicle tax, can the county add provisions or amend the tax before approving it?
No. Under G.S. § 105-551, the regional transportation authority sets the tax rate, terms, and effective date. County commissioners must approve or decline the proposal as submitted; they may not amend…
Does the North Carolina Secretary of State have to file a patentable-intellectual-property report before licensing its homegrown business-registration software to other states?
Probably not for the older program, possibly yes for the newer module, and the safer course is to disclose either way. The NC AG concluded in 2002 that the Secretary of State's existing SoSKB software…
How many state employees can a North Carolina agency designate as legislative liaisons after the 2001 lobbying reform law?
Only two. Session Law 2001-424 amended Article 9A of Chapter 120 to (a) define 'legislative liaison personnel' as a state officer or employee whose principal duties in practice or in their job descrip…
Can a Texas constitutional county judge help manage the community supervision and corrections (probation) department?
The Attorney General concluded that no. Section 76.002(b) of the Government Code lets the district judges trying criminal cases and the judges of statutory county courts trying criminal cases particip…
Can you be charged with failure to drive in a single lane in Texas if you fell asleep at the wheel?
The Attorney General did not decide whether any specific drowsy-driving incident is a crime, because whether particular conduct violates a criminal statute is a fact question for a jury and a matter o…
Is a bingo equipment revenue-share lease between a manufacturer and distributor legal in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that a revenue-share leasing agreement between a bingo-equipment manufacturer and a distributor violates section 2001.556 of the Occupations Code if, under that agreemen…
Can a county council fold its executive session minutes into the minutes of the open portion of the same meeting?
No, under the law as it stood in 2002. The AG found the Sussex County Council violated FOIA by not maintaining minutes of a July 17, 2001 executive session separate from the minutes of the meeting's p…
Can North Carolina counties be forced to get federal stormwater permits even though the state, not the counties, owns the roads where most stormwater drains?
Yes. Counties can be required to obtain a Phase II NPDES stormwater permit in four scenarios: (1) the county owns or operates an MS4 in an urbanized area discharging directly to receiving waters; (2) …
Do Maine Capitol Security officers who can make arrests have to complete the same police academy training as municipal police?
The Maine AG concluded that when Capitol Security personnel are given arrest authority under 25 M.R.S.A. § 2908, they become 'law enforcement officers' subject to the mandatory MCJA training requireme…
Can UNC system audiology clinics fit and sell hearing aids to the public, or does the Umstead Act ban that as competition with private hearing aid dealers?
Yes, UNC audiology clinics can fit and sell hearing aids without violating the Umstead Act. Hearing aid fitting is an integral part of the graduate education required for ASHA certification and NCHADF…
Can a New York county let ATV riders use county reforested lands and give an ATV club exclusive use of trails the club builds there?
Mixed: yes to ATV use and trail construction, no to exclusive use. The AG concluded County Law § 219(1) authorizes recreational use of county reforested lands and VTL § 2405(2) lets a municipality des…
Can a Texas bingo hall offer video poker on its electronic bingo card-minding devices?
The Attorney General concluded that the Texas Lottery Commission must examine the secondary, non-bingo features added to an electronic bingo card-minding device and disapprove them if they let a playe…
Which of twelve new misdemeanors created by the Georgia General Assembly in 2001 should be added to the Georgia Crime Information Center's fingerprintable-offense list?
Five. The Georgia AG designated O.C.G.A. § 40-6-397 (aggressive driving), §§ 27-1-3(i) and (j) (unlawful hunting/trapping/fishing and violation of suspension), § 12-3-621 (disturbing archeological sit…
Can the Texas Legislature use a budget rider to require TxDOT to get a city's approval before building a border inspection station?
The Attorney General concluded no. Rider 63 to the 2001 General Appropriations Act tried to make the Texas Department of Transportation get the host city's written agreement to the location, plans, an…
Does an exclusive contract between a hospital and a health insurer violate Texas antitrust law?
The Attorney General concluded that exclusive dealing arrangements do not, as a matter of law, violate the Texas Free Enterprise and Antitrust Act of 1983. Whether a particular exclusive contract is i…
Must a Texas school expel a student who commits a drug or alcohol felony within 300 feet of school but not on school grounds?
The Attorney General concluded no. Texas Education Code section 37.007(a) makes expulsion mandatory only when the felony drug or alcohol conduct happens on school property or while the student is atte…
Can Texas require ephedrine dietary supplements to print the FDA's adverse-event reporting hotline on the label?
The Attorney General concluded yes. The Texas Department of Health did not exceed its statutory authority when it adopted a rule requiring dietary supplements containing ephedrine to carry a label wit…
Can a Texas county pay for a new groundwater conservation district's confirmation election?
The Attorney General concluded no. When the Legislature created the Kinney County Groundwater Conservation District, it set up a scheme in which the district's temporary board calls the confirmation e…
Can a county's delinquent-tax-collection attorney donate money or equipment back to the county?
The Attorney General concluded that an attorney who is paid through the special delinquent-tax penalty under Tax Code section 33.07 may not donate money, personnel, or equipment to the county if the d…
Could the Idaho Land Board deposit proceeds from selling state endowment lands into the new land bank fund, and from which endowments?
The AG concluded the Land Board may use the land bank fund for proceeds from eight endowment categories (penitentiary, public school, university, scientific school, agricultural college, normal school…
Can a retired teacher return to a full-time job at the same school district when a relative sits on the school board?
The Attorney General concluded no. Texas anti-nepotism law generally bars a school board from hiring someone related to a board member within the prohibited degree. One exception protects an employee …
Can the Texas podiatry board redefine 'foot' by rule so podiatrists may treat the tibia and fibula?
The Attorney General concluded no. Texas law limits podiatry to treating a disease, disorder, injury, deformity, or ailment of the human foot. The Texas State Board of Podiatric Medical Examiners adop…
Can Texas require owners of surface-irrigation septic systems to keep an ongoing maintenance contract?
The Attorney General concluded yes. The Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission rule requiring owners of surface-irrigation on-site sewage facilities to keep an ongoing maintenance contract is …
Can the Georgia Department of Transportation sign construction contracts for highway projects today, where the funding will come from the State Road and Tollway Authority's promise to borrow and provide the money later?
Yes. The Georgia AG concluded that DOT may rely on a contractual promise from the State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) to borrow and provide funds for highway construction. Under the Intergovernmen…
Can the Maine Harness Racing Commission allow telephone wagering at licensed tracks without a statute that authorizes it?
The Maine AG concluded the Harness Racing Commission could not authorize telephone wagering by rule. Maine law (8 M.R.S.A. §§ 275-B, 275-C) requires pari-mutuel sales to occur within the enclosure of …
Can a Texas county give public funds to nonprofits that serve abused or at-risk children?
The Attorney General concluded that Kerr County generally had statutory authority to fund the children's nonprofits at issue. Family Code section 264.006 lets a county provide services to and support …
Does a Texas county have to pay assistant prosecutors longevity pay even if the state doesn't reimburse it?
The Attorney General concluded yes on all three points. A 2001 law (subchapter D of Government Code chapter 41, effective January 1, 2002) requires counties to pay assistant prosecutors a longevity su…
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