State AG Opinions
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Can a Texas county judge hold a death inquest when the local justice of the peace isn't available?
The Attorney General concluded that no, a county judge could not conduct an inquest. Article 49.07(c) of the Code of Criminal Procedure lists the county judge and other officials who must be notified …
Can a Texas county pay or buy equipment for a volunteer fire department without a contract for fire services?
The Attorney General concluded no. Under section 352.001(c) of the Local Government Code, a county commissioners court could purchase fire-fighting equipment for, or pay, a volunteer fire department o…
Under the Idaho Constitution's Origination Clause, which bills must start in the House: only those that levy taxes, or also bills with incidental revenue effects like fee increases or property tax exemptions?
Prudence required introducing bills potentially affecting general revenues in the House. Dumas v. Bryan (1922) read 'bills for raising revenue' broadly enough that bills with incidental revenue featur…
Can a village trustee in New York sit on a police disciplinary hearing where her own son is a witness?
No. The AG concluded a Mount Kisco trustee should fully recuse, including from deliberations and executive session, where her son (a patrol officer) might testify in a disciplinary case. Even without …
Do Texas beach parking and user fees get charged sales tax?
The Attorney General concluded no. Beach user fees that local governments charge under chapter 61 of the Natural Resources Code and the General Land Office rules were not subject to sales tax under ch…
Can a Texas county pay for officials' conference fees, prepay newspaper notices, or pay salaries early?
The Attorney General concluded that the Texas Constitution's bans on gifts of public money (article III, section 52 and article XI, section 3) did not stop a county from paying officials' conference r…
What's the lowest speed limit a Texas county can set on a county road?
The Attorney General concluded that under section 545.355 of the Transportation Code, a county commissioners court could lower the speed limit on a county road or highway, but not below 30 miles an ho…
Do telemarketing and door-to-door cancellation laws apply to home warranty (residential service contract) sales in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that chapter 37 of the Business and Commerce Code, the telephone-solicitation law, applied to unsolicited calls by a residential service company (home warranty company) …
Is it illegal to park in or block a van-access aisle in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Parking a vehicle so that it blocks a van-access aisle (the striped lane next to a van-accessible disabled parking spot) is a misdemeanor under section 681.011(c) o…
Can a Texas transit authority buy a railroad line that runs outside its service area?
The Attorney General concluded yes, with a condition. A metropolitan transit authority created under chapter 451 of the Transportation Code may buy a railroad line and right-of-way even where part of …
What authority does Oregon State Police have to enforce administrative rules governing Capitol Mall parks?
OSP can enforce DAS's Capitol Mall parks rule (OAR 125-075-0005) with Governor's approval. The rule incorporates 1983-era Salem city ordinances. Violations are 'violations' under state criminal law, p…
Can a New York town enforce its noise ordinance against a school district doing construction after hours?
No, where the ordinance requires a building permit to do school construction after-hours. The AG concluded the Education Law reserves school construction regulation to the State and the Commissioner o…
When does a private road in a New York town become a public highway by long use?
Under Highway Law § 189, a road becomes a public highway by use only if it was both open to the general public (not just neighbors and their guests) and continuously maintained by the town for 10 year…
Can a New York village swap one parking lot for another piece of land instead of selling for cash?
Yes, if the trade promotes the public interest. The AG concluded a village has discretion to choose the method of sale, has no statutory script for selling real property, and may accept an in-kind exc…
Does a Texas DA have to sell forfeited property at a sheriff's auction?
The Attorney General concluded no, not when a local forfeiture agreement exists. Sheriff's auction is only the fallback method that article 59.06(a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure requires when no …
Can a Texas school teacher also be a paid county commissioner?
The Attorney General concluded yes. A public school teacher or administrator may hold the office of county commissioner at the same time and keep the salary that comes with the commissioner position, …
Can a Texas county accept a donation that must be spent on one specific road?
The Attorney General concluded yes. A county commissioners court may accept a money donation under section 252.214 of the Transportation Code even when the donor attaches a condition, such as requirin…
Can a Texas assisted living (personal-care) facility provide nursing services to residents?
The Attorney General concluded the Board of Human Services rule was ultra vires (beyond the agency's authority) to the extent it let a personal-care facility provide 'occasional nursing services' beyo…
Can a Texas county pay for an autopsy when its resident dies in another county?
The Attorney General concluded no. Under chapter 49 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, a justice of the peace can order an autopsy only as part of an inquest into a death that occurred in that justice…
If a polygraph examiner learns a child was abused, must they report it in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Although the Polygraph Examiners Act generally makes information from a polygraph exam confidential, section 261.101 of the Family Code requires anyone who suspects…
Can the NC Principal Fellows Commission approve school administrator programs at private colleges in NC, and award scholarship loans to students enrolled in those private programs, or is the Commission limited to UNC system institutions?
Yes to both. The Principal Fellows Commission may approve programs at private NC institutions and award scholarship loans to qualifying students there. The statute (G.S. 116-74.42) authorizes the Comm…
Did the 1976 repeal of Minn. Stat. §§ 452.02 and 454.041 invalidate a 1958 AG opinion on the City of Breckenridge's authority to set utility rates exceeding operating costs and transfer surplus revenue to the general fund?
No. The 1958 opinion did not rely on the repealed statutes; it rested on the absence of restrictive charter or statutory provisions, traditional common-law powers of municipal corporations, and the ci…
Can a city council add a $675,000 budget vote to its meeting agenda on the day of the meeting?
No, under the law as it stood in 1999, when the issue wasn't actually new. The AG found the City of Newark violated FOIA by amending its March 22, 1999 meeting agenda at the last minute to add a $675,…
Can a NC county board of elections release a voter's Social Security number along with the rest of their voter registration record?
No, the AG concluded, for any SSN collected from a voter after January 1, 1975, without the disclosure notice the federal Privacy Act of 1974 requires. The Privacy Act forbids government agencies from…
If two members of an airport authority's board are also senior bank executives, can the authority award the bank a bond underwriting contract without running afoul of NC's conflict-of-interest law?
Yes, as long as the directors do not own more than 10% of the bank, disclose their interest, and do not vote on the authorization. The opinion also reads the § 14-234(a) 'banks or banking institutions…
Was the 1999 NC William Lee Act amendment that gave tax credits to electronic shopping and mail-order houses (but not brick-and-mortar retailers, and not businesses with consolidated operations) constitutional?
The opinion concluded the amendment was mostly defensible under rational-basis review, but flagged one distinction as constitutionally weak: penalizing companies that kept inventory and sales staff in…
Does the NC Secretary of State need a new statute before she can accept federal grants or private gifts to help her implement the Nonprofit Corporation Act?
No. The implied-powers doctrine, combined with a 1935 general authorization and the General Assembly's regular practice of recognizing all agencies' authority to accept unanticipated gifts and grants,…
Could the Texas Land Commissioner convey state-owned submerged land to a coastal city?
The Attorney General concluded no. A 1944 Special Award by which the Land Commissioner ceded an interest in state-owned submerged land to the City of Aransas Pass was not valid. Submerged land under n…
Does the head of the DC Department of Health, or a deputy who runs a public-health program, need a DC medical license to do their job?
Only if the official actually practices medicine as part of the job. The DC Health Occupations Act defines the 'practice of medicine' as preventing, diagnosing, or treating individual patients' condit…
Can a New York municipality borrow from the State emergency services revolving loan fund as a surrogate for a private fire company or ambulance service?
No. The AG concluded the State Finance Law § 97-pp loan program is for municipalities and fire districts to acquire their own emergency equipment, not for a municipality to act as a financial conduit …
Can a Texas hospital district enter an interest-rate swap or hedge contract on its bonds?
The Attorney General concluded no. The El Paso Hospital District has only the powers the Legislature expressly gave it, plus those necessarily implied to carry out the express ones. It can run a hospi…
When the NC Department of Revenue mistakenly listed the Libertarian Party as a qualified party on 1998 tax forms (when it didn't have the 1% voter registration the statute requires), should the funds taxpayers checked for the Libertarian Party go to the Libertarian Party anyway, and how should the 'Unspecified' designations be split?
The Libertarian Party keeps the funds taxpayers designated for it, even though the Party did not formally qualify under § 105-159.1. The NC AG reasoned that the Secretary of Revenue's interpretive det…
Can the Texas fire commission hire someone whose spouse leads a firefighters' association?
The Attorney General concluded that, on the facts given, yes. Section 419.006 of the Government Code bars the Commission on Fire Protection from putting an officer, employee, or paid consultant of a T…
Can a city fix a decades-old mistake of not enrolling an employee in the Texas Municipal Retirement System?
The Attorney General concluded no, at least not for errors older than four years. Section 855.410 of the Government Code only imposes interest on late monthly contributions; it does not create a proce…
When a Minnesota county sheriff and the county board of commissioners disagree about what color the sheriff's squad cars should be, who gets to decide?
The county board. The AG concluded that under Minn. Stat. § 387.29, subd. 2 and the county board's general power to manage county property under § 375.18, subd. 2, the board has the final say on the c…
Can a NC Chief District Court Judge issue a standing order forbidding juvenile court counselors from diverting any juvenile case that came out of the public schools?
No. Person County DA Joel Brewer asked the AG to evaluate a local administrative order by the Chief District Court Judge that flatly prohibited diversion of any juvenile case originating in the public…
Can a school district charge fees under a brand-new records-request policy for requests it received before the policy existed?
No, under the law as it stood in 1999. The AG found the Christina School District violated FOIA by withholding financial records a parent requested in March and April 1999 while it developed a new fee…
Can the New York Racing and Wagering Board approve electronic computer aids to help bingo players track their cards?
Yes, in the specific format proposed. The AG concluded the Board may authorize an electronic aid that displays winning cards by serial number, where the player still uses paper cards, random ball draw…
Can a New York off-track betting corporation also hold a harness racing meeting at a track it owns?
No. The AG concluded an off-track betting corporation (OTB) cannot conduct a harness race meeting. OTBs are public benefit corporations with the limited statutory purpose of off-track pari-mutuel wage…
Can the Maine Legislature designate confirmation committees by simple resolution, and can it extend its session by majority vote despite a statutory adjournment deadline?
The Maine AG concluded that the 'as provided by law' clause in Me. Const. art. V, pt. 1, § 8 modifies all of the preceding committee-composition language, and that the Maine Legislature can designate …
Can a Texas county leave the state funds off the form jurors use to donate their jury pay?
The Attorney General concluded no. Section 61.003 of the Government Code requires that each prospective juror get a form letting them donate their jury-service reimbursement to listed funds and progra…
Can the Texas Lottery Commission renew a bingo or lottery license after it has already expired?
The Attorney General concluded that the Commission cannot revive a dead license. It may renew a bingo license or a lottery sales-agent license only if the licensee mailed or faxed a sufficient renewal…
Does a Texas official's child's income count as the official's income for conflict-of-interest rules?
The Attorney General concluded that a minor child's or dependent child's earnings are the child's own gross income, not the parent official's. Family Code provisions giving parents control over a mino…
Where does the interest earned on a Texas prosecutor's hot-check fund go?
The Attorney General concluded the interest does not stay in the hot-check fund. Although the common law says interest follows the principal, section 113.021(c) of the Local Government Code overrides …
Can a Texas county commissioner be paid to drive an ambulance for the county EMS department?
The Attorney General concluded no. Section 81.002 of the Local Government Code, the oath every county commissioner takes, forbids a commissioner from having any interest, direct or indirect, in a cont…
Does the Texas Open Meetings Act apply to a committee that helps a county choose an architect?
The Attorney General concluded yes, on the facts presented. A Smith County 'Evaluation Committee' that ranked architectural firms for the commissioners court and then negotiated the contract with the …
Does a Texas funeral home need its own embalming room, and can it hire an embalmer as a contractor?
The Attorney General read article 4582b to require every licensed funeral establishment to have its own on-site embalming room; it cannot satisfy that licensing requirement by designating another busi…
If sponsors filed the text of a South Dakota constitutional amendment with the Secretary of State after one gubernatorial election but gathered signatures and submitted the petition after a later gubernatorial election, which election's vote count sets the signature threshold?
The later election. The AG read Article XXIII, Section 1 to require 10 percent of 'the total votes cast for Governor in the last gubernatorial election,' measured at the time the petition was submitte…
Does a federal law protecting military reservists' jobs override a state rule barring judges from practicing law while serving as a National Guard legal officer?
No. The opinion concluded USERRA, the federal law protecting reservists' civilian jobs, does not preempt or create an exception to Maryland's Code of Judicial Conduct, so a sitting circuit court judge…
If a NC Superior Court Judge is specially assigned to run the Administrative Office of the Courts, does that special assignment break his 'continuous service' for purposes of later becoming Senior Resident Superior Court Judge? Does he still receive his judicial salary?
No, the assignment does not break continuous service, and yes, the judge continues to receive his Superior Court Judge salary and expenses. The Chief Justice's constitutional power to assign judges in…
When two Texas bills amend the same tax statute in the same session, which one controls?
The Attorney General concluded that the later-enacted bill controls. In 1997 the Legislature passed two bills, Senate Bill 141 and House Bill 3306, both rewriting section 34.06(b) of the Tax Code on h…
Does a Texas city council have to post notice before going into closed session to talk to its attorney?
The Attorney General concluded that a private consultation with the body's attorney is a 'meeting' under the Open Meetings Act, so the body must give notice of the subject, even when the talk happens …
Can a Texas constable serve legal process in a school truancy case, or only the attendance officer?
The Attorney General concluded that a constable may serve process on a person who fails to appear at a truancy hearing, and must do so when a justice of the peace directs it. Section 25.091 of the Edu…
Must a Texas county auditor audit the county department of education, and can the county charge for it?
The Attorney General concluded that the Harris County Auditor must audit the Harris County Department of Education every year under article 2919g-1 of the Revised Civil Statutes, even though an indepe…
Can a Texas county attorney also work as a city attorney for a city in the county?
The Attorney General concluded that the Brewster County Attorney could simultaneously serve as an attorney for the City of Alpine. Because he was appointed by and served at the will of the city counci…
Is a state bond pricing committee covered by the Texas Open Meetings Act, and can it meet out of state?
The Attorney General concluded that a pricing committee appointed by the Texas Public Finance Authority Board to negotiate the final terms of a bond sale and sign the bond purchase contract is itself …
Did Oregon's income-tax exclusion for spousal health insurance violate the state constitution when same-sex domestic partners were excluded?
Yes. The 1999 opinion concluded that Oregon violated Article I, section 20 by excluding the value of employer-paid health insurance for spouses from taxable income while taxing the same coverage for s…
When a hospital authority leased a county hospital to a private operator in 1984, does it have the power years later to amend that lease and consent to assignment to a new operator without going through the public bidding process?
It can amend the lease, but assignment is subject to the full G.S. 131E-13 bidding regime. Hospital authorities all operate under Chapter 131E now (not the repealed Chapter 131), regardless of when th…
Can Texas store low-level radioactive waste in an assured-isolation facility, and can it ban private companies from disposing of federal nuclear waste?
The Attorney General concluded that an above-ground assured-isolation facility would satisfy Texas's current duty under the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact to manage and provide for…
Can Texas license Canadian or Mexican engineers under NAFTA, or does federal welfare-reform law require them to be U.S. citizens or residents?
The Attorney General concluded that the federal Welfare Reform Act of 1996 restricts professional licenses for aliens based on their immigration status, but it does not limit licenses to U.S. citizens…
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