State AG Opinions
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Does Delaware's open meetings law give the public a right to speak at a school board meeting?
No, the AG found. FOIA's open meeting provisions don't guarantee anyone a right to address a public body at all, so a school board did not violate the law by letting an aunt speak on other topics…
Can a Texas river authority give over-65 lakefront leaseholders a discounted, frozen lease rate?
The Brazos River Authority, which leases lakefront property around Possum Kingdom Lake to private individuals, asked whether it could give lessees over 65 a 10% discount off current lease rates and…
Could South Carolina arrest and hold an out-of-state probationer on the sending state's warrant?
The AG said a South Carolina officer with general arrest powers could arrest a supervised out-of-state offender on the sending state's warrant for a supervision violation. The jail had to accept the…
Does Texas's enhanced driver's license for crossing the Mexico border conflict with federal passport law?
The Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety asked whether Transportation Code section 521.032, which lets the Department issue an enhanced driver's license for crossing the Texas-Mexico…
Could Summerville limit political signs to the month before an election while allowing other signs year-round?
The AG considered the 30-day limit on political signs constitutionally suspect because comparable real estate signs had no such time limit. It emphasized that the ordinance remained valid and…
Can a Texas city council member also serve on a local water supply corporation's board?
Senator Jeff Wentworth asked whether a member of the Village of Wimberley City Council, and the mayor, could serve at the same time on the board of directors of the Wimberley Water Supply…
Could a Dillon County council member also chair the county Democratic Party?
The AG said an elected officer of a county political party could serve on county council without violating the state constitutional ban on holding two public offices. Council membership counted as…
Does a new Texas school-district contract ban apply to agreements signed before it took effect?
The Webb County Attorney asked how Texas Education Code section 11.168, which bars a school board from agreeing to use district employees, property, or resources to build or renovate improvements on…
Can a Texas city manager hire a city commissioner's relative without breaking nepotism law?
A state senator asked the Attorney General several nepotism questions about the City of Pharr, where a city commissioner had recommended a woman for a city job; she later had a child with the…
Does a Texas county have to maintain private subdivision roads it approved on a plat?
The Hood County Attorney asked whether the county had to maintain the roads in the Hill Country Estates subdivision, which were laid out and approved on a plat back in 1983. The Attorney General…
Can a Texas court let a probationer pay a fee instead of doing community service hours?
A district judge in Jim Wells County, through the county attorney, asked whether a court can modify probation conditions to let qualified probationers pay a set fee per hour (suggested at the…
Can the Texas Lottery Commission run a raffle-style game?
The Chair of the Texas Lottery Commission asked whether the commission could run a raffle-style game, one where tickets are sold at lottery retailers for a set drawing date, but with no duplicate…
Can a Texas bingo hall use a video screen to show pull-tab bingo results?
Senator Jane Nelson asked whether a Texas Lottery Commission rule that allows a 'graphic and dynamic' video confirmation of the outcome of pull-tab (instant) bingo games crosses the line into…
Could a Florida community development district pay for residents' holiday events with surplus money or interest?
No. The Attorney General concluded in 2008 that the Lake St. Charles Community Development District lacked authority to spend surplus district funds on holiday social events or food and drink…
Could a Bennettsville council member become Kingstree's town manager and keep both posts?
The AG said serving simultaneously on Bennettsville City Council and as Kingstree town manager would probably violate South Carolina's dual-office prohibition. Separately, a council member who no…
Could a Florida housing authority pay its lawyer's Bar dues and offer multiyear contracts or severance?
The Attorney General's office said in 2008 that a housing authority appeared able under state law to pay employed legal staff's Bar dues if its board found an authority purpose and budgeted the…
Can Maryland State Police charge a share of its overall helicopter operating costs, not just direct medical-flight costs, to the state's medevac fund?
The Attorney General concluded that the Department of State Police's practice of charging the Maryland Emergency Medical System Operations Fund for a percentage of its overall helicopter operating…
Could South Carolina recover municipal court assessments more than three years after they were collected?
The AG concluded that municipal court assessments collected for the State were held in trust, not owned by the municipality. In his view, the cited three-year limitations period did not bar an…
Who paid for minimum-wage increases when a Connecticut state service contract was silent about the cost?
The Attorney General concluded that the state should reimburse contractors for minimum-wage increases during a contract when the contract did not assign that cost. He addressed state janitorial…
Could a South Carolina county enact sheriff-proposed ordinances that overlap state criminal law?
The AG said county ordinances had to remain within delegated powers and could not conflict with state law or increase or decrease penalties for the same state-law offense. He declined to decide…
Who handles old tax lawsuits after a Texas appraisal district's boundaries shrink to the county line?
Waller County's district attorney asked who is responsible for property tax lawsuits filed against the Waller County Appraisal District over property outside Waller County, after House Bill 1010…
Can a property tax consultant sign the agent form for a Texas property owner?
State Representative Fred Hill asked the Attorney General to interpret Tax Code section 1.111, which lets a property owner name an agent to handle property tax matters, and specifically whether a…
Could a South Carolina college student register to vote using a dormitory address?
The AG said a student could establish a voting domicile in the college community, including while living in a dormitory. Registration officials could ask about several facts to assess intent, but…
Did South Carolina’s endangered-species habitat tax credit take effect after a funding condition failed?
The AG concluded that a failed funding condition prevented the 1999 habitat-credit provisions from taking effect. A 2001 enactment made the tax-credit statute operative, but did not enact the linked…
Who paid a Florida sheriff's cost of transporting a jailed witness to court under the law reviewed in 2008?
The Attorney General's office did not assign the cost to a specific party. In 2008 it found no statute clearly making the sheriff responsible for the court-ordered prisoner-witness trips described…
Could a South Carolina city charge a towing company a business license fee when it was based elsewhere?
The AG concluded that a towing company holding the required Class E Certificate of Compliance could be charged a license fee only by the city or town of its residence or principal place of business…
Could Belleair Beach temporarily hold council meetings in another Florida city while rebuilding city hall?
No, absent state legislative authorization under the law analyzed in 2008. The Attorney General said Belleair Beach could not temporarily hold official council meetings in an adjacent city during…
Could an out-of-state bail bondsman seize a defendant in South Carolina and place them in a county jail?
The AG said an out-of-state bondsman appeared to have authority to arrest a defendant in South Carolina under a bond-revocation warrant from another state. He found no definite authority requiring a…
Could South Carolina poll watchers inspect the voter sign-in list during an election?
The AG reaffirmed that poll watchers could review the names and signatures of voters who had signed the poll list when poll managers judged that the activity would not interfere with the election.…
Could a South Carolina school district employee also serve on that district’s board?
The AG concluded that the requester could no longer serve on School District Three’s board after the district became his employer, paid him and subjected him to its personnel policies. His earlier…
Would Cayce’s proposed sex-offender residency and loitering restrictions survive constitutional review?
The AG predicted that a court would likely uphold Cayce’s proposed restrictions on registered sex offenders living or loitering near listed places frequented by children. He emphasized the…
Did state certification of a wetlands mitigation bank require a Washington county to approve its land-use permits?
No. The Attorney General concluded in 2008 that Ecology certification did not displace county permitting authority. Growth Management Act duties applied to local plans and regulations, which…
Could a South Carolina store bring civil and criminal shoplifting charges at the same time?
The AG concluded that a merchant could pursue civil and criminal shoplifting charges simultaneously under the statute he examined. Once a store used the statutory civil remedy, it could not…
Could Cayce deny a new business license because an earlier tenant lost a license at the same property?
The AG said Cayce’s ordinance looked constitutionally suspect because it could deny a new applicant a business license based solely on a previous operator’s conduct at that location. He could not…
Could a Citadel board member remain eligible while deployed outside South Carolina?
The AG concluded that military duty outside South Carolina alone did not make an otherwise qualified person ineligible for the Citadel Board of Visitors. The person still had to meet elector…
If two members of a five-person Delaware town council decide something together without a public meeting, does that violate the open meetings law?
Not automatically, the AG found. Because only four of the town's five council seats were filled and a quorum required three, a decision made by just two council members (the president and the…
Does a Delaware town have to spell out a hot-button issue like building height in its meeting agenda, or post its draft plans online?
Under the law as it stood in 2007, yes for the town, according to the AG. Posting notice at Town Hall satisfied FOIA even though the town skipped local newspapers, general agenda items like 'RAC…
Can a Texas police department put seized contraband money in an interest-bearing account?
Collin County's Criminal District Attorney asked the Attorney General what a law enforcement agency may do with money it seizes as contraband before a court enters final judgment. The Attorney…
Did Florida's Sunshine Law cover a city employee's post-termination hearing before a manager or appeal panel?
In 2007, the Attorney General said Stuart's post-termination hearings before its city manager were outside the Sunshine Law because the manager acted alone under the city's rules. A three-member…
How does Georgia's State Use Law set-aside procurement program work, and who decides what counts as the 'normal' price?
The Attorney General concluded that the State Use Council and the Commissioner of Administrative Services share the power to develop the set-aside list, the list is a mandatory source of supply for…
Did Hailey, Idaho's three voter-passed marijuana initiatives (medical marijuana, hemp, lowest enforcement priority) hold up under Idaho law?
Mostly no. The AG concluded the medical-marijuana and industrial-hemp initiatives directly conflicted with Idaho criminal drug law and were preempted; the law-enforcement-priority initiative…
Is the Texas pollution-control property tax exemption limited to clean energy projects?
The Chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality asked the Attorney General whether the agency's rule-making authority over the pollution-control property tax exemption and tax rollback…
Can a Texas civil service commission give job applicants extra exam points for living in the city?
The Chair of the Texas House Committee on Urban Affairs asked the Attorney General whether a local civil service commission may adopt a rule that adds points to a fire or police applicant's exam…
Must a Texas home-rule city fill a council vacancy by election instead of by appointment?
The Cameron County District Attorney asked the Attorney General whether article XI, section 11 of the Texas Constitution prevails over the Harlingen City Charter on how to fill a vacancy on the city…
Could South Carolina’s Pharmacy Board ignore a date legislators said was mistaken in a technician-certification proviso?
The AG read the 2007 proviso to cover pharmacy-technician applicants who met its academic and supervised-practice requirements before November 2004. Even if legislators intended a later date, he…
Could Spartanburg County animal-control officers use county summonses for every state animal-law violation?
The AG concluded that Spartanburg County could not adopt all the listed state animal-law provisions as county ordinances and use county summonses for every violation. Some state penalties exceeded…
Who was responsible for a mental-health patient waiting in a hospital for a state treatment bed in South Carolina?
The AG concluded that the hospital holding a certified patient pending a state mental-health bed had responsibility for the patient’s custody and control. Hospital security or local law enforcement…
Does Syracuse's city charter requirement that city employees live in Syracuse apply to its paid firefighters, or do firefighters get a broader residency rule?
Syracuse paid firefighters must reside in Onondaga County, not within the city limits. Public Officers Law § 3(4) lets paid firefighters satisfy a city or village residency requirement by living in…
Could a Connecticut town choose the soda brand sold in vending machines run by the blind-services board?
No, not solely by town choice. The AG concluded that municipalities could approve the types of articles sold, but the Board of Education and Services for the Blind controlled specific brands in the…
Could a quarry company select and pay the independent environmental reviewer for a Connecticut water-supply site?
No, for the study required by the 2007 act. The Attorney General said the Department of Public Health had to choose and pay the independent evaluator from its available resources; neither the…
Could California or a city reject small addiction treatment homes because there were already enough nearby?
The California Attorney General concluded in 2007 that the state licensing department could not deny or revoke a treatment-facility license solely because local supply exceeded need. A city likewise…
Could a solicitor require both pretrial-intervention fees from an accepted applicant?
On the facts described, the AG saw no problem with requiring both the application and participation fees because he believed a decision to accept the defendant into pretrial intervention had already…
Could a Connecticut school board make an employee-legislator pay for a substitute while serving in the legislature?
The board could not charge the employee-legislator for a substitute if similarly situated employees were treated more favorably. Even under a consistent policy, the board had to pay for time…
Could one Maryland State university sue another over a duplicative degree program or appeal the higher education commission's decision?
Generally no under the law the opinion analyzed. The Attorney General said a State university could not sue another State institution in circuit court over program duplication or equal educational…
Could a shared technology-center employee serve on either sponsoring school board?
The AG said a technology-center employee would likely face a master-servant conflict on the board of the district that employed the person, and could not also sit on the center’s own board. Whether…
Could Gaffney’s public-works board sell land, skip audits, or fund a golf-course corporation?
The AG said the Gaffney public-works board had to undergo semiannual audits and lacked authority to create a corporation to build a golf course. A court might find implied authority to sell other…
Can a New York city subpoena documents and witnesses from local nonprofits that don't do business with the city, when the city is investigating something like sex-offender treatment?
Yes, in some circumstances. General City Law § 20(21) lets a city subpoena witnesses (and in at least some cases documents) when investigating a matter of concern to the city or its inhabitants,…
Can a New York court security officer or marine patrol officer (both peace officers) detain or arrest someone they know has an outstanding arrest warrant, even though peace officers can't execute warrants?
Yes, with limits. A New York peace officer who learns of an outstanding arrest warrant while performing the officer's special duties may physically detain the wanted person until a police officer…
When an Oregon health professional licensing board investigator also acts as the board's expert witness, what part of their report is protected from disclosure to the licensee facing discipline?
Only the expert-witness part. The investigator's mandatory report under ORS 676.165 must be disclosed; an expert-witness report (separate or as a distinct portion of one combined document) is exempt…
Who appointed members to a Florida juvenile justice circuit board, and could the board add three more?
Under the 2007 statute, county councils appointed the 15 circuit-board members beyond three specified officials. A circuit board could amend its bylaws to increase membership by up to three, but the…
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