State AG Opinions
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Could Maryland's Transportation Trust Fund pay for parking lot construction at the old Redskins stadium site?
Partly. The opinion concluded the Secretary of Transportation already had authority to use Transportation Trust Fund money for a grant to build on-site roadways and related infrastructure at the propo…
Can a town council avoid Delaware's open-meetings law by having members review and sign a policy memo one at a time instead of meeting together?
Yes, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG found that when Georgetown's mayor and council members discussed, drafted, and individually signed a memo setting employee policy without ever noticing a…
Does a Texas official automatically resign by announcing a run for another office, and can they keep serving?
A county attorney asked about the Texas Constitution's 'resign to run' rule (article XVI, section 65). A Hopkins County court-at-law judge, with more than a year left in his term, announced at a commi…
If a school board member's company doesn't sell directly to the schools, but instead sells materials to contractors who in turn install them at the schools, does that indirect arrangement still violate § 14-236?
Probably yes. Section 14-236 reaches both direct and indirect pecuniary interests in supplying goods to the schools the board administers. Selling through contractor intermediaries still gives the boa…
A school board member's company sells and services HVAC equipment to the school system. When the school administration (not the board) decides who to use for routine servicing of already-installed units, and the work is service-only with no parts or materials, does that violate North Carolina's public-officer conflict statutes?
No. Section 14-234 only applies when the public body itself makes or approves the contract; routine administrative servicing decisions made without board involvement do not trigger it. Section 14-236 …
Do Texas Youth Commission workers earn longevity-pay credit during their first year in a hazardous job?
The Texas Youth Commission asked the Attorney General two pay questions. First, does an employee in a hazardous-duty position keep building 'lifetime service credit' toward longevity pay during the fi…
Can vendors sell phone or pager service to Texas agencies through the catalogue purchase method?
The General Services Commission asked whether vendors of local telephone, long-distance, cellular, mobile-radio, or pager service could sell those services to state agencies through the 'catalogue pur…
Can the same person be Troy's corporation counsel and serve on the Troy school board?
No. The AG concluded that a person may not simultaneously serve as Troy's corporation counsel and as a member of the Troy City School Board. Education Law § 2502(7) bars the same person from holding t…
Does a NY volunteer fire/rescue department have to honor a nonhospital DNR order, keep DNRs on file, and check them before answering 911 calls?
Must honor; need not maintain files. The AG concluded that a village volunteer fire/rescue department is required to honor nonhospital DNR orders issued under Public Health Law § 2977, and may disrega…
Can the Maine Legislature let Sardine Council members cash out a share of Council assets and let the Council set its own excise tax rate?
Mixed answer. The AG concluded the Legislature could authorize a pro-rata refund of Sardine Tax assets if the Council dissolved, treating it as a tax refund to all who paid in. But it could not author…
If the State Education Assistance Authority created a new fund to help families save for college, would that fund automatically be an instrumentality of the State, or just a trust fund managed by the Authority?
Just a trust fund. The AG concluded that the Authority's act of creating the proposed CollegeVision Trust Fund would not by itself make the fund a State instrumentality. The fund would instead qualify…
Is a real estate marketing program where sellers pay into a fund that funds a drawing for a $10,000 broker cash prize and a buyer trip an illegal lottery under New York law?
Yes. The 'Good as Gold' promotion combines the three elements of an unlawful lottery — consideration, chance, and a prize — and violates both N.Y. Const. art. I, § 9 and Penal Law § 225.00. Removing t…
Could an Idaho political subdivision voluntarily withdraw its employees from PERSI without first triggering the statutory complete or partial withdrawal conditions, and did current employees have a constitutional right to keep accruing PERSI benefits if their employer left the system?
No. Idaho Code § 59-1326 only permits withdrawal upon complete or partial withdrawal as defined; absent that, voluntary withdrawal was not authorized. The AG also concluded Idaho law did not currently…
When the Social Services Commission is asked to expand who qualifies as a 'special needs child' for adoption assistance, can it adopt a temporary rule, and what budget approval will the change require?
The Social Services Commission can consider a temporary rule only if one of the six statutory criteria in N.C.G.S. § 150B-21.1(a) applies (such as a recent federal change, court order, or recent legis…
When North Carolina creates new judgeships that go unfilled because of a delayed Voting Rights Act preclearance, how does the Governor fill them once preclearance finally comes through?
The Governor fills them by appointment under § 7A-142, treating the offices as vacant. The 1993 legislation created two District Court judgeships in Districts 3A and 20, with terms running from Decemb…
Can a Texas water district tax Permanent University Fund land that never got water service?
The University of Texas System asked whether the El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1 could levy taxes 'on the benefit basis' under Water Code chapter 55, subchapter N, against three tracts…
Community colleges have to pay tort claims out of their local-funding stream, but can they at least use state funds to buy the liability insurance that covers those claims?
Yes. Section 115D-31.1 directly says community colleges may use state funds to pay liability-insurance premiums, even though § 115D-32(a)(2)b2 ordinarily makes tort awards a local-funding responsibili…
Can a Texas city annex land again after it was annexed and then disannexed by petition?
A state representative asked whether a Texas general-law city is barred from reannexing an area that it had annexed under Local Government Code section 43.033 and then had to disannex after the reside…
Can the NC State Ports Authority issue bonds to finance an industrial facility that the Authority owns and leases to a private company, even when the facility is not located right next to the ports?
Yes, the AG concluded, with two strict conditions. First, the lease must impose a binding obligation on the private company to use the state ports at a substantial level (this satisfies the constituti…
If a Teaching Fellows scholarship recipient becomes an assistant principal instead of staying in the classroom, does that administrative role count toward the four years of teaching needed to forgive the loan?
No, not unless the Commission decides to broaden its definition. The Teaching Fellows statute does not define 'teaches' or 'years,' so the Commission has discretion to define both. The Commission has …
Besides the $10 teen court fee, can a Texas municipal court charge a juvenile other court costs?
A district attorney asked whether a municipal court of record must charge a juvenile in a 'teen court' program any court costs beyond the $10 administrative fee that the teen-court statute (Code of Cr…
Can the ABC Commission settle an administrative case against a permittee by accepting an offer in compromise that includes restitution paid to a local ABC board, when the permittee has been charged with refilling mixed-beverages liquor containers without paying the mixed-beverages surcharge?
No. The AG concluded that the Commission has no statutory authority to accept restitution as part of a compromise. § 18B-104 lists the administrative penalties available to the Commission, permit susp…
When Holden Beach was incorporated in 1969 with its western boundary at the low-water mark of Shallotte Inlet, and twenty-five years of beach accretion later the shoreline has moved 1,000 feet westward, does the town's police jurisdiction follow the new shoreline or stay at the 1969 line?
The boundary follows the new shoreline. North Carolina common law treats accretion (slow, gradual buildup of sand) as moving a water-defined boundary with the water, while avulsion (sudden change) doe…
Can a Maine municipality use a TIF district to pay public money directly to a private developer, and does that violate the equal-apportionment-of-taxes clause?
Yes on both counts. The AG concluded a municipality could appropriate TIF proceeds to a private taxpayer where the indirect economic-development benefits qualify as a public purpose under Common Cause…
Can a citizen use Delaware's FOIA to get records from the state courts about a judicial vacancy?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG concluded that the Delaware Supreme Court and the Municipal Court of Wilmington are not "public bodies" under FOIA because they are created by the state c…
Can a city council avoid Delaware's open-meetings law by splitting one discussion into several small groups, each below a quorum?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The AG found that when Newark's city council split into three separate sub-quorum groups to meet with the same university officials about the same building-plan …
Does Delaware's Freedom of Information Act give records-access rights to residents of other states?
No, under the law as it stood in 1996. The opinion found that Delaware's FOIA text, which repeatedly used the phrase 'citizen of the State,' was unambiguous and gave inspection and copying rights only…
Can the Buffalo Commissioner of Neighborhoods, Housing and Inspections also serve on the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority's board of commissioners and on the board of a HUD Section 8 administering nonprofit?
Yes. The three positions are compatible. The State authorized one city officer to sit on the BMHA board (Public Housing Law § 30(4)). The housing authority and the city are legally independent corpora…
Can a Texas county clerk charge a court-security fee or records fee to file a birth, death, or fetal death record?
The Commissioner of Health asked the Attorney General to reconsider an earlier opinion (DM-283) that had said county clerks must collect the $1 courthouse-security fee on birth and death certificates.…
Can a teenager confined to a North Carolina psychiatric hospital pick their own lawyer without their parents' approval?
No, not in 1995. The AG read G.S. § 122C-62(c)(2) together with § 122C-4 and concluded that for a minor client in a 24-hour mental health facility, the right to choose and consult counsel belongs to t…
Could someone use Maryland's Public Information Act to see the licensing paperwork a private group home operator keeps on file, even though the state never actually collected copies of it?
No. The opinion concluded that licensing-related records a private child care facility applicant kept on its own premises, and that the Department of Human Resources reviewed on site rather than colle…
Do oil and gas royalties from land under a Texas highway have to go into the constitutional highway fund?
The Texas Department of Transportation asked whether oil and gas royalties from highway right-of-way land must be credited to the highway fund that the Texas Constitution creates in article VIII, sect…
Can a Texas hospital include facilities at separate locations under one license, or must each site be licensed separately?
The Commissioner of the Texas Department of Health asked whether the department could license a hospital for additional facilities operated apart from its main location, given that the licensing statu…
If a Texas county adopted the optional county road law decades ago, is that still in effect, and can the county hire a road administrator instead of a licensed engineer?
The Waller County district attorney asked whether the county's old adoption of the Optional County Road Law of 1947 was wiped out when the Legislature repealed and recodified that law in 1983, and whe…
After the 1995 General Assembly passed House Bill 7 making the State Superintendent's duties 'subject to the direction, control, and approval' of the State Board of Education, can the State Board override the Superintendent on staff direction, contract signing, meeting attendance, and policy implementation? Or does the Superintendent's status as a constitutionally elected officer protect those duties from State Board override?
The State Board wins. The North Carolina Constitution itself says the Superintendent's duties 'shall be prescribed by law,' and the 1995 legislation prescribed that all of those duties are subject to …
Can CUNY do more than hand out voter registration forms, such as helping students fill them out and transmitting them to the Board of Elections?
Yes. The AG concluded that while CUNY had not been designated as a participating voter-registration agency and was not required to do more than the form-distribution mandate of Election Law § 5-211, t…
Can the dean and faculty of a state medical school participate in a nonprofit physician contracting organization (and a for-profit administrative company owned by faculty) without running afoul of NC's conflict-of-interest, public-purpose, and Umstead Act limits?
Yes, the AG concluded. Participation by ECU School of Medicine faculty in ECHO (a nonprofit physician-contracting organization) and EMO (a for-profit network administrator partly owned by faculty) did…
Could the Department of Social Services contract with the Center for Employment Testing (CET) for job-skills training, even though CET accepted enrollees without high school diplomas and charged tuition above the state-supported institution rate?
Yes. The AG concluded that the administrative rule barring such arrangements applied only to 'post-secondary education' (bachelor's, college-transfer, and graduate programs), not to 'Job Skills Traini…
When North Carolina's prisons were overcrowded and the legislature directed the Department of Correction to study 'hot bunking' (assigning two inmates to one bed on alternating shifts) at Lincoln Correctional Center, is this practice constitutional and lawful, and can the Department then roll it out to other prisons?
Hot bunking is not per se unconstitutional. Federal courts have held that double-celling and similar dense-bunking arrangements do not automatically violate the Eighth Amendment if conditions as a who…
Must NY agencies index every decision where due process requires a hearing, or only decisions where a statute specifically grants the opportunity to be heard?
Only when a statute provides the opportunity. The AG concluded that, as amended by L 1995 ch 645, SAPA § 307(3)(a)'s expanded indexing requirements are triggered only when an explicit statutory 'oppor…
Can a New York town board appoint two court clerks, one to serve each of the town's two elected justices?
Yes. The 1990 Town Law amendments giving town justices a say in court clerk appointments did not limit the number of clerks; the town board can appoint one clerk per justice.
Can a New York village move authority over police discipline from the village board to the village manager?
Yes, but only by enacting a local law that supersedes Village Law § 8-804, and the change is subject to a mandatory referendum because it transfers a power of an elective officer.
Can a NY county formally dedicate land in front of a county office building as a Korean War Veterans Memorial Park?
Yes. The AG concluded that a county may dedicate land as a Korean War Veterans Memorial Park under its home-rule authority over county property. Once dedicated, the land is held in public trust and ca…
Can NY towns use the civil fine-collection process under CPL § 420.10 for unpaid junkyard fines and building-code violations?
Yes. The AG concluded that the Criminal Procedure Law, including § 420.10's civil collection process, applies to fines imposed for violations of General Municipal Law § 136 (automobile junk yards) and…
Can a Minnesota state agency assert federal copyright in original data it produces and require members of the public who want to sell or distribute copies to enter a license agreement, while still complying with the Government Data Practices Act?
Yes, subject to important limits. The AG concluded that state agency data constituting 'original works of authorship' is protected by the Federal Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. § 102(a)). The MGDPA gives th…
Can the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission make farms, developments, and other 'non-point' polluters follow specific best management practices in watersheds where existing water quality is below the standard, like the Neuse River?
Yes. The 1995 NC AG opinion concluded the EMC had authority under both the water classification statute (G.S. 143-214.1, including a supplemental Use Restoration Waters classification) and the stormwa…
Are members of a Community Penalties Board personally liable when something goes wrong, or do they have immunity like other public officials?
They have qualified immunity. The AG concluded that members of a Community Penalties Board are public officers because they exercise a portion of the sovereign power of the state (even when the board …
Can a Texas city let charities solicit donations from drivers in the roadway while banning other roadside solicitation?
A state representative asked the Attorney General whether the Texas law that lets local authorities permit people to stand in a roadway to solicit charitable donations, while banning solicitation for …
Can Dare County use its CAMA land use plan to block the Dare County Airport Authority from expanding the Dare County Regional Airport when the Authority opposes the restriction?
Only inside the CAMA permit process. The AG concluded that outside of a CAMA permit application, Dare County's only lever over the Authority's airport expansion was the County's separately granted pow…
Can a NY hospital resident's or intern's prescription be filled at a regular pharmacy outside the hospital where they work?
Yes. The AG concluded that prescriptions written by hospital residents and interns, while practicing in the hospital where employed under the supervision of a licensed physician, may be filled at any …
Can a NY town that bought parkland with 1960 bond-act money sell timber, lease to the Chamber of Commerce, grant easements, or build a town hall on it?
No to all four proposals. The AG concluded that Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Law § 15.09 bars municipal use of land bought with 1960 Park and Recreation Bond Act funds for anything othe…
Can a recorded abstract of judgment cloud the title to a Texas homestead, and is refusing to release it slander of title?
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which holds student-loan judgments, asked whether recording an abstract of one of those judgments clouds a debtor's homestead and whether refusing to rel…
Is there an overall dollar cap on how much debt a Maryland county without home rule, like Somerset County, can take on, or does each borrowing project need its own separate state law?
There is no single overall debt cap. The opinion concluded that because Somerset County lacks home rule, it can only create debt when the General Assembly expressly authorizes a specific project by st…
Could the State of Idaho lend public employees to the United Way for an eight-week fundraising drive while still paying their state salaries, and what general limits applied to sharing state employees and facilities with private charitable foundations?
No on the United Way loan: paying state employees to do charitable fundraising failed the public purpose doctrine. Sharing arrangements with charitable foundations were permissible only if they served…
Did Maine's state laws give the Department of Environmental Protection enough authority to run a Title V Part 70 air-quality permitting program?
Yes. The AG certified to EPA that Maine's combination of the Administrative Procedure Act provisions in 5 M.R.S.A. §§ 8001-11008, 38 M.R.S.A. (the air pollution laws), and DEP Regulations Chapters 100…
During the state fisheries license moratorium, was the Marine Fisheries Commission allowed to adopt a new rule expanding the area in Dare County where commercial menhaden purse seine fishing is restricted?
Yes. The license-moratorium statute let the Commission keep regulating commercial harvest in three narrow cases, one of which was 'user conflicts' between commercial and recreational fishermen. The ex…
Can a Texas gas station question a driver's disability before giving full service at self-serve prices?
The Commissioner of Agriculture asked how gas stations should handle the Texas law that requires them to refuel disabled drivers. The Attorney General concluded in 1995 that under article 8613, a stat…
Can the NC Board of Nursing waive its rule requiring proof of passing the national nursing exam when a foreign-licensed nurse seeks NC licensure by endorsement from California (where she was licensed in 1966 before California required the national exam)?
No. The rule's substance is rooted in N.C.G.S. § 90-171.32, which requires that the applicant's original jurisdiction's licensing requirements be substantially equivalent to or exceed NC's. California…
Can a state-employee flexible benefits program offer a pre-tax medical spending account without duplicating the State Health Plan and thus violating the duplication ban?
Yes. The AG concluded that a medical spending account (MSA) within NC Flex would not duplicate the State Health Plan because it would fill gaps in coverage and reimburse out-of-pocket expenses (deduct…
Can NC Flex include a medical spending account where state employees set aside pre-tax dollars for out-of-pocket medical costs, without illegally duplicating the State Health Plan's coverage?
Yes. A medical spending account that reimburses employees for out-of-pocket expenses like deductibles, coinsurance, and copays does not duplicate the Comprehensive Major Medical Plan; it fills coverag…
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