State AG Opinions
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How large a road-construction bond could Harris County require from a subdivision developer, and could the county also demand a maintenance bond?
The construction bond could not exceed the estimated cost of building the subdivision roads and streets. Harris County could not require a separate maintenance bond under the cited statutes or as a co…
After a criminal case ends without bail forfeiture, can a Texas county deduct court costs from the bond returned to the surety?
No. JM-261 concluded that neither a county treasurer nor a trial court could charge costs against a bail-bond surety after the surety was absolved of liability under article 2372p-3, section 13(c).
Could a Texas county clerk release records filed in a mental-health docket to the public?
Only in part. JM-260 concluded that a county clerk could disclose material that did not reveal intimate details of the patient or family, while statements of fact and other private material required j…
Did every owner of a Texas business using an assumed name have to file and sign a separate assumed-name certificate?
No. JM-259 concluded that the unincorporated business entity filed one certificate listing the required information for every beneficial owner, and each partner did not have to execute a partnership's…
Could the Titus County Hospital District lease part of its hospital to private doctors for their medical offices?
No. JM-258 concluded that the district's constitutional and statutory powers covered hospital purposes and care for needy residents, not private physicians' office space.
Could the Sweeny Hospital District buy or lease real property outside its district boundaries for regular hospital operations?
No. JM-257 concluded that the district's enabling law did not clearly authorize outside-boundary property acquisitions, although the district could pay for temporary outside care when an emergency or …
Could the Texas State Library transfer federal money as cash grants to other state agencies for institutional library services?
No. JM-256 concluded that article 5435 did not expressly or necessarily authorize the State Library and Archives Commission to create a cash-grant program for other agencies.
When could a Texas county begin collecting the optional $5 vehicle registration fee authorized to start in 1985?
A county that properly adopted the fee could begin collecting it on January 1, 1985, but only for renewals of registrations expiring February 28, 1985. It could not charge the fee on renewals purchase…
If a DC police officer or firefighter is hurt in a crash while driving a District vehicle on duty, can they collect no-fault PIP benefits from DC on top of their regular disability and salary benefits?
No, not from DC. On-duty DC police and firefighters injured in District vehicles are limited to disability and salary benefits under the Comprehensive Merit Personnel Act (and the older Police/Fire Re…
Could Maryland require Montgomery County school board members to live in specific residence districts through a state law?
In this 1984 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General advised that a bill requiring five Montgomery County school board members to reside in specific districts was constitutional, because the bill estab…
Are Maryland Juvenile Services Administration records about a child kept confidential the same way juvenile court records are?
In this 1984 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that Juvenile Services Administration records identifying a child, including intake, counselor, and institutional records, are protected a…
Could a Texas public university withhold an employee's paycheck to collect parking fines, bounced-check charges, or court-ordered debts owed to the university?
No. JM-255 concluded that a university in the Texas State University System could not use self-help paycheck withholding to collect sums an employee allegedly owed the university.
Could a Texas commissioners court approve a raise for a county attorney's investigator who was a commissioner's first cousin?
Yes. JM-254 concluded that approving a raise for the investigator position did not violate the nepotism statute because the county attorney, not the commissioners court, selected the person holding th…
Could a Texas commissioners court appoint a commissioner's first cousin to fill a vacant county tax assessor-collector office?
No. JM-253 concluded that no commissioner could vote to appoint another commissioner's first cousin to the vacancy, and the chief deputy's earlier service did not qualify for the statute's continuous-…
Could the Texas State Library give county and city libraries cash grants funded only by state general revenue for library services or construction?
Not under article 5436a. JM-252 concluded that the statute allowed state money only as matching funds within the federal library program, while article 5446a authorized narrower state-funded system gr…
Could a Texas county bail bond board require a sheriff's or district attorney's designee to work in that official's office or meet added knowledge requirements?
No. JM-251 concluded that a county bail bond board could not add qualifications for a sheriff's or district attorney's designee when the legislature had not included those limits in the statute.
Could Texas probate a driver's-license suspension for refusing a DWI breath test when the driver received criminal probation or a jury recommended no suspension?
No. JM-250 concluded that a breath-test-refusal suspension was a separate civil penalty that could not be probated, regardless of a probated DWI sentence or a jury recommendation against suspension.
Could a Texas county limit domestic-relations-office services by income or charge an income-based application fee?
No. JM-249 concluded that article 5142a-1 authorized neither an income ceiling for domestic-relations-office services nor a graduated application fee based on an applicant's income.
Could a quorum of a Texas public board meet privately to hear information and ask questions if the members did not discuss public business with one another?
Yes, under JM-248's reading of the 1984 statute. The gathering was not a statutory meeting if members only listened to and questioned the presenter and did not exchange views among themselves about pu…
Could Harris County transfer its child-support payment collection division from the juvenile board to the county domestic relations office?
No. JM-247 concluded that article 5139W specifically placed the child-support collection service under the Harris County Juvenile Board, and the commissioners court could not transfer that statutory d…
Could Brazoria County treat the land between the Gulf and the Intracoastal Canal as a barrier island and place a dune-protection line along its entire coast?
No. JM-246 concluded that the artificial canal did not create a barrier island within the statutory meaning, so Brazoria County lacked authority under section 63.011 to establish the proposed coast-wi…
Did the Sweeny Hospital District automatically expand when the Sweeny Independent School District expanded its boundaries?
No. JM-245 concluded that the hospital district adopted the school district's boundaries as they existed in 1963, and could not expand without legislative authority and the required voter approval pro…
Could the Texas medical board use a single hearing examiner instead of board members to conduct physician disciplinary cases?
No. JM-244 concluded that the Medical Practice Act allowed delegation only to a hearing committee of at least three board members, not to a single outside hearing examiner.
Could a Texas sheriff refuse to enter a failure-to-appear or probation-revocation warrant into the statewide crime computer?
Yes. JM-243 concluded that a sheriff had reasonable discretion to withhold a warrant from the statewide computer, including when the county lacked personnel to retrieve a prisoner from elsewhere in Te…
Could West Texas State University convey fee title to campus land to a hospital district if the land reverted when hospital use ended?
Yes. JM-242 concluded that the 1973 law authorized the fee-title conveyance with a reversion clause, and continued student health services supplied adequate consideration.
Could E-1 visa dependents and NATO military personnel establish Texas residency for in-state university tuition?
JM-241 originally said yes, but the official landing page lists it as modified by JM-848. JM-848 later concluded that E-1 and NATO status alone did not require Texas to recognize United States domicil…
Could Maryland public school students hold a voluntary Bible study or prayer group during free time in the 1980s?
In this 1984 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that Baltimore County schools could permit students to form voluntary prayer or Bible study groups during genuinely free, unstructured tim…
Did general Texas higher-education tuition exceptions apply to nonresident students at the Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf?
No. JM-240 concluded that Education Code section 131.005(b)'s actual-cost tuition method exclusively governed nonresident tuition at the institute and displaced chapter 54's general exceptions.
Did Texas's peace-officer licensing commission license school-district security officers, and could those officers act beyond school property?
JM-239 concluded that the commission had no licensing responsibility for section 21.483 school-district peace officers, although the officers had to meet minimum standards within one year. Their autho…
Could a Texas commissioners court admit county officers or employees to a closed litigation meeting with its attorney?
Sometimes. JM-238 concluded that aligned officers or employees could attend when they were agents or representatives whose presence was necessary for effective attorney-client communication. Adversari…
Did a 1984 expansion of Dallas County Court at Law No. 1 jurisdiction also expand Courts Nos. 2 through 5?
Yes. JM-237 concluded that the statutes creating Dallas County Courts at Law Nos. 2 through 5 generally incorporated Court No. 1's jurisdiction, so the 1984 expansion applied to those courts too.
Could the Texas vocational-nursing board reject an expired-license renewal application because unlicensed practice was still only alleged?
No. JM-236 concluded that an unresolved allegation of practice under an expired license did not permit the board to refuse the renewal application, although a finding of illegal practice could support…
Could a Texas school board's switch to single-member districts cut short an incumbent trustee's elected term?
Yes. JM-235 concluded that the statute required every trustee position to be filled at the first single-member-district election and that shortening incumbent terms did not take a property right or en…
Could a Maryland county spend its share of the farmland transfer tax on staff salaries, not just on buying preservation easements?
In this 1984 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that Queen Anne's County could use its one-third share of the agricultural transfer tax not only to match state funds for buying farmland …
Did Texas nepotism law bar a school district from assigning a board member's relative to a higher teacher career-ladder level?
No. JM-234 concluded that a higher career-ladder level raised salary but was not a new office, position, employment, or duty, so the nepotism statutes did not apply to that assignment.
Could the Texas National Guard Armory Board trade state-owned property for another property instead of selling it?
Yes. JM-233 concluded that the board could exchange its property for an equally suitable property worth at least as much, subject to the statutory mineral-interest reservation.
Who could serve on a Texas county bail bond board, and when did a corporate surety become in default on a forfeited bond?
JM-232 concluded that a still-licensed individual did not lose board membership by transferring an assumed-name business, and a licensed corporation could serve through an agent. A corporate surety be…
Could a Texas state-school employee living on the facility's campus qualify as a resident candidate for the surrounding school board?
Yes, the campus residence did not itself make the employee a nonresident. JM-231 concluded that the candidate could appear on the ballot if the factual residency requirement was met, while noting that…
Could a non-parent managing conservator receive and choose Teacher Retirement System survivor benefits for a minor child?
Yes. JM-230 concluded that a non-parent managing conservator could receive, receipt for, and choose among the minor's TRS survivor benefits, but only while no guardian of the estate, guardian, or atto…
Could the Texas State Archives automatically open century-old personnel medical records after a fixed number of years?
Not if the records remained confidential by statute. JM-229 said ordinary privacy interests could lapse at death, but physician-created medical-record confidentiality continued after death, and the cu…
Did a Texas local human rights commission need a local ordinance before filing an employment-discrimination lawsuit?
No. JM-228 concluded that a commission created under section 4.02 could file the civil actions authorized by section 4.03(5) without a separate local ordinance, subject to the statutory referral or de…
Could a Texas state agency automatically fire an employee after six weeks of unpaid leave for an on-the-job injury while workers' compensation continued?
No. JM-227 concluded that an across-the-board six-week termination rule violated state policy unless the agency had a legitimate independent, job-related reason, assessed case by case.
Could a Texas home-rule city regulate hazardous-material storage outside city limits to protect its water supply?
Yes. JM-226 concluded that a home-rule city could regulate hazardous-material location and storage in its watersheds within the city and its extraterritorial jurisdiction, including nuisance controls …
Could a Texas pawnbroker split several items pawned together into separate transactions to collect higher total service charges?
No. JM-225 concluded that several items pawned at the same time could secure one transaction and could not be split to produce higher total service charges, although separate transactions were allowed…
Could a Texas county clerk record abstracts of judgment only in the real-property records instead of separate judgment records?
Generally no. JM-224 concluded that abstracts had to be recorded and indexed separately from real-property records, except when the county clerk used the authorized microfilm recordation system under …
Could a Texas probate clerk charge separate fees for certifying and recording an escheat order's mailing certificate and the administrator's payment receipt?
The clerk could not charge separately for certifying the escheat order or filing the mailing certificate because the general probate fee covered those duties. JM-223 allowed a filing fee for the admin…
Did an unarmed security employee working only for one Texas retailer have to register with the state private-security board?
No. JM-222 concluded that the longstanding exemption remained effective for unarmed personnel employed exclusively and regularly by one retailer in a true employer-employee relationship. Contract and …
Did Texas Tax Code section 11.431 allow a late homestead application and tax refund for the 1981 tax year?
No. JM-221 concluded that section 11.431 authorized late residence-homestead applications and related refunds beginning with the 1982 tax year, not 1981.
Could a Texas city or county spend public money through a local 1986 sesquicentennial committee?
Yes, for reasonable activities serving a valid public purpose and subject to constitutional limits on donations. JM-220 treated local committees as agents of the city or county that created them, not …
What happened to Texas AG Opinion JM-219 on school-district peace officers?
JM-219 was withdrawn and replaced by JM-239 in December 1984. Its original text remains available as historical material, but JM-239 is the replacement opinion for the licensing and off-campus-authori…
Could a Texas auto insurer waive a comprehensive deductible if the policyholder agreed to repair a windshield instead of replacing it?
It depended on timing and facts. JM-218 said a pre-loss offer or an offer incorporated by trade usage violated article 5.06(1), while an individual post-loss settlement was not automatically an unfair…
Could a Texas landscape architect prepare structural plans for retaining walls, shelters, decks, platforms, and elevated boardwalks?
Not when the work required engineering, architecture, or public-surveying skills. JM-217 said whether a particular improvement crossed that line was a fact question the Attorney General could not deci…
Did a Texas district clerk have to assign and docket a case transferred from another county before the filing fee was paid?
No. JM-216 concluded that the transferee clerk did not have to assign or docket the case until the filing fee was paid. If the fee was not timely paid, a district judge in the transferee county could …
Could the Texas highway department require every motor vehicle dealer to use a corporate surety bond for licensing?
No. JM-215 concluded that the 1984 law required a good and sufficient $25,000 bond but did not authorize the department to accept only corporate surety bonds. The department could still decide whether…
Could a Texas state agency use leftover parking-garage construction money to finish the Travis State Office Building?
Yes. JM-214 concluded that a 1984-85 appropriations rider allowed the State Purchasing and General Services Commission to move excess funds from the completed parking-garage project to additional Trav…
Could a Texas county court at law judge also serve as a trustee of an independent school district?
No. JM-213 concluded that the no-emolument rule did not bar the two posts, but the statute enforcing the Code of Judicial Conduct barred a county court at law judge from serving as a school trustee.
Could Texas county or district judges operate a work-release detention facility outside the county sheriff's supervision?
No. JM-212 concluded that county and district judges lacked authority to operate a work-release facility independently of the sheriff. It also said the Texas Commission on Jail Standards supervised fa…
Could Maryland constitutionally ban sex-based pricing in insurance, even for policies already in effect?
In this 1984 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that legislation banning sex-based pricing in insurance would be constitutionally defensible under the Contract Clause, because Maryland's…
Did a critical newspaper ad about a congressman have to include Maryland's campaign disclosure 'authority line' if it never mentioned the election?
In this 1984 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that Maryland's campaign-literature 'authority line' disclosure requirement did not apply to an independently published newspaper ad criti…
Were Texas country-club dues, initiation fees, and guest recreation fees subject to the new amusement-services tax?
JM-211 did not decide. It said the legislature had assigned the initial interpretation of taxable services exclusively to the comptroller, so the Attorney General declined to answer until the comptrol…
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