State AG Opinions
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Can a member of the City of San Diego Audit Committee also serve on SANDAG's TransNet ITOC, the SANDAG Audit Policy Advisory Committee, or as the MTS Internal Auditor without violating California's incompatible-offices statute?
Mostly no. The AG concluded that simultaneous service on the City Audit Committee and either SANDAG body would violate § 1099 because of overlapping audit jurisdiction. Service as MTS Internal…
Did the Arkansas AG certify the Lancaster proposed constitutional amendment that would have rewritten absentee-voting rules and banned wireless voting?
Rejected. The AG declined to certify Clinton Lancaster's proposed Absentee Voting and Anti-Wireless-Voting Amendment because of multiple ambiguities in the amendment text. The biggest problems: an…
Did the Arkansas AG certify Lancaster's proposed Hand-Marked Paper Ballots constitutional amendment?
Rejected. The AG found ambiguities in funding, the meaning of 'human intelligence,' disabled-voter access, and vote secrecy. He separately flagged partisan wording in the name and title.
Can a Mississippi city donate cash to a local cancer-awareness nonprofit foundation?
Conditionally yes, but only as matching funds. Under Miss. Code Ann. § 21-17-1(8), a Mississippi city may use municipal funds to match state, federal, or private funding for any program run by a…
Did the Arkansas AG certify the 'Reproductive Healthcare Amendment' for the 2024 ballot?
Rejected. The AG declined to certify Steven Nichols's proposed Arkansas Reproductive Healthcare Amendment because of multiple ambiguities: unclear 'access to abortion' language, undefined 'health,'…
Can a Mississippi county board of supervisors retroactively raise a county court judge's salary for a previous year if it failed to do so at the time?
No. As long as the salary already met the statutory minimum for that year, the Board cannot retroactively increase it. Section 96 of the Mississippi Constitution prohibits extra compensation after…
Can a Mississippi board of supervisors raise its salary based on a higher valuation tier and ALSO take the $2,000 boost in the same fiscal year?
No. If a board of supervisors approves a salary increase under Miss. Code Ann. § 25-3-13(2) effective during a fiscal year, board members 'are not eligible for any additional salary increases for…
Can a Mississippi city give a certified farmers' market free use of a city-owned parking lot, instead of charging rent?
Yes. Miss. Code Ann. § 21-19-69 allows a Mississippi municipality to donate funds to a certified farmers' market operating in the city, up to the equivalent of a one-fourth (¼) mill ad valorem tax…
When a Mississippi rural water association tears up a paved county road to fix a water line underneath, who pays to repair the road?
Rural water associations may access their water lines under county roads, but Miss. Code Ann. § 11-27-47 makes them responsible for any damage they cause. The county cannot pay for that damage but…
Can a Mississippi community college let an elected official use its facilities for free to host a college and career fair?
Yes. Mississippi community college boards of trustees have broad authority over the operation of the college under Miss. Code Ann. § 37-29-67. The board may, in its discretion, allow an elected…
If a Mississippi city's only bidder on a road project comes in over budget by more than 10%, can the city negotiate the price down?
No. Miss. Code Ann. § 31-7-13(d)(iv) only allows negotiation with the lowest bidder if the bid is not more than ten percent above the funds allocated for the project. The Mississippi Supreme Court…
Did Missouri's Attorney General approve the legal content and form of a proposed ballot summary about an Osage River gambling boat?
Yes. The Attorney General approved the legal content and form of a proposed ballot summary for petition 2024-165. The question covered one additional Osage River gambling boat license and directed…
Did Missouri approve ballot wording for an Osage River gambling boat license funding public pre-K?
Yes. The Attorney General approved the legal content and form of a proposed summary statement for petition 2024-164. It asked about one additional Osage River gambling boat license and directing…
Did Missouri's AG approve the ballot summary for initiative petition 2024-163, and what would it have described?
Yes. The AG approved the legal content and form of the Secretary of State's proposed summary for petition 2024-163. The summary described one additional Osage River gambling boat license and…
Did Missouri's AG approve the ballot summary for initiative petition 2024-162, and what would it have described?
Yes. The AG approved the legal content and form of the Secretary of State's proposed summary for petition 2024-162. The summary described one additional Osage River gambling boat license and…
Did Missouri's AG approval of the form of initiative petition 2024-170 make the petition valid or endorse its substance?
No. The AG approved petition 2024-170 only as to form. The letter said the Secretary of State retained final authority to approve or reject it, and the AG made no determination about the petition's…
Can a Kentucky agency email a hearing officer's recommended order to the parties instead of mailing it?
Only with the party's consent. The Attorney General read KRS 13B.110(4) to require a hearing officer's recommended order in an administrative case to be served on the parties by U.S. Mail, because…
Can a city redact a former police officer's records with whiteout, and can it withhold his termination letter and administrative-leave letter under FOIA?
The decisions were only partly consistent with FOIA. The AG approved the planned disclosures, the content of the privacy redactions, and most withholdings. The termination memo and non-disciplinary…
After Dobbs, can Oklahoma prosecute a pregnant woman as a criminal for performing or inducing an abortion on herself?
No. Section 1-733 (which says no woman shall self-induce an abortion except under physician supervision) does not impose any criminal penalty. The only statute that ever permitted misdemeanor…
Can the Arkansas Department of Education force the Pine Bluff School District (or any state-controlled district) to sell or lease unused buildings to a charter or private school?
ADE's Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation can declare a facility 'unused or underutilized,' subject to district appeal. While a district is in Level 5, Intensive support…
Under the 2023 amendment to Virginia's judicial-misconduct disclosure statute, when does the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission have to publicly name a judge it has investigated, and what counts as 'disciplinary action' that triggers naming?
JIRC must publicly name a judge in its annual report only when both (a) it concluded the judge breached the Canons of Judicial Conduct and (b) it took disciplinary action because of that conclusion.…
Does a North Dakota agency violate the open-records law if a citizen's email request never reached the agency because it was filtered out as spam?
The AG found no violation by the three entities because they had not received these emailed requests. After the complaint brought the requests to their attention, they searched for records; NDIT…
Can a citizen use North Dakota's open-records law to demand a public official's personal utility bill from the official's office?
No. The Morton County State's Attorney's personal home water bill is not a record of his office, so denying a request for it under the open-records law was proper. The same record, if held by the…
How long can a North Dakota agency take to respond to an open-records request before it counts as an unreasonable delay?
The AG found the Board's response reasonable, describing it as a twenty-one-day delay. The records required a discretionary release decision, the request crossed the Christmas and New Year holidays,…
When does a long-staying hotel or motel guest become a tenant with eviction protections in South Carolina?
It depends on length of stay and whether a rental contract exists. Under § 27-40-120(4), the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act does not cover transient hotel/motel occupancy that is subject to the…
Does a North Dakota county have to pre-qualify auction bidders or have a contract-for-deed template ready before a tax lien foreclosure sale?
No. A North Dakota county does not have to pre-qualify bidders before a tax lien foreclosure auction; the qualification check kicks in once a high bidder is identified. The county also does not have…
Did the AG opine on what local-government powers remain over digital asset mining under Arkansas's Data Centers Act?
Declined. The AG declined to opine on six questions about how the Arkansas Data Centers Act of 2023 affects local zoning authority, sound regulation, and what counts as an electric utility's…
Can an Arkansas city or county ban cryptocurrency or digital asset mining operations within its borders?
No. Under the Arkansas Data Centers Act of 2023 (A.C.A. §§ 14-1-601 to 14-1-605), cities and counties cannot pass ordinances banning new digital asset mining operations. They can enforce general…
Does the Texas chiropractic board have to revoke a chiropractor's license after certain criminal convictions, or can it choose not to?
It has to, for the offenses listed in Occupations Code section 201.5065. That statute says the Board 'shall suspend' a chiropractor's license on an initial conviction (or initial finding of guilt)…
Can a West Virginia public school refuse to enroll a student, mark the student truant, or ban the student from a private after-school program just because the family is using dual enrollment to qualify for the Hope Scholarship?
No on every count. A West Virginia public school cannot bar a student who is meeting attendance and academic requirements just because the student is also enrolled in a private program, and cannot…
Can the Washington County Quorum Court require the county clerk to publish ordinances, resolutions, and contracts on the county website?
Yes. Under Ark. Const. amend. 55 § 1(a) and A.C.A. § 14-14-902(a)(3)(C), the county clerk is the default secretary of the quorum court and must perform additional duties the quorum court assigns by…
Is a retired Arkansas mayor's pension calculated using the salary he earned as mayor, or the salary the current mayor earns when he starts collecting?
The retired mayor's salary at the end of his last term as mayor is the basis for calculating his retirement benefit, regardless of when he begins receiving payments. Although the codified statute…
Is the Arkansas statute that conditions property tax exemption for school-leased property on a no-profit showing constitutional?
Yes. A.C.A. § 6-21-118, which conditions the property tax exemption for property leased to public school districts and open-enrollment public charter schools on the lessor proving the lease is not…
Can a Rapides Parish school-board member also serve on Louisiana's dentistry board?
Yes under the state's dual officeholding law as applied here. The AG classified the elected school-board seat and part-time appointed dentistry-board seat as a combination La. R.S. 42:63(D) did not…
Can a city withhold a former police officer's entire personnel file because his termination was 'unrelated to acts that gave rise to a suspension or termination'?
No. A records custodian cannot withhold an entire former police officer's personnel file based on the conclusion that his termination was 'unrelated' to disciplinary acts. The FOIA requires the…
Can an Arkansas state agency moderate or block users on its official social media accounts without violating the First Amendment?
ARDOT may limit or remove comments on the interactive portions of its official social-media accounts if its rules are reasonable, viewpoint-neutral, and consistently enforced. The AG did not decide…
Can the AG certify a ballot title when the proposed initiated act is written as a narrative explanation rather than as legislation?
Rejected. The revised text included an enacting clause but used it before a narrative description and partial statute quotations, leaving the AG unable to determine what was actually being enacted.…
Can a Minnesota education district buy a shopping mall and use most of it for special-education programs while keeping the existing commercial leases on the remaining 10 percent of the space?
Yes, if 90 percent of the building goes to educational programs, the existing commercial leases don't interfere with those programs, and the school board determines the lease terms are in the…
Can someone who lives outside Delaware use Delaware FOIA to get records from a Delaware state agency?
No. Delaware FOIA only requires Delaware agencies to respond to requests from Delaware citizens. Ian Riden, a non-Delaware resident, sent six FOIA requests to the Delaware Health Information Network…
Can a California winery owner self-obtain a criminal record check from the California DOJ and forward it to another state's alcohol regulator to satisfy that state's direct shipper licensing requirements?
No. A California winery owner or manager may not send their own DOJ criminal record check, or a notice that no record exists, to another state's alcohol regulator; the opinion says that would…
If I bundle several charges on one Virginia expungement petition and the court only grants expungement on some of them, do I get my filing fee back?
Yes. The Virginia AG read § 19.2-392.2(L) literally: as soon as the court grants expungement on any one of the charges in the petition, the clerk must refund the full filing fee. The clerk has no…
Can an Arkansas city require homeowners to hook up to private water, sewer, gas, or electric service?
Probably not for the privately or cooperatively owned utilities addressed here. The AG said a city mandate could conflict with state-approved utility service areas or lack a genuine necessity. He…
Can a Delaware journalist FOIA a state employee's attendance, performance, and discipline records, and how generic can the agency's denial affidavit be?
It depends on the type of record. The opinion holds that attendance and leave records with generic descriptors like 'sick' or 'vacation' are not exempt; the AG recommended release after appropriate…
Can the South Carolina High School League put private and charter schools in their own athletic class or playoff?
Probably risky. FY 2023-24 Budget Proviso 1.50 doesn't mention athletic classifications, but it bars any interscholastic association the public schools fund from restricting a private or charter…
Can a Kansas register of deeds refuse to record a land survey unless the surveyor certifies it meets local zoning rules?
No. The Attorney General concluded that a register of deeds cannot require the land surveyor who submits a survey plat to personally certify that it complies with local zoning ordinances. K.S.A.…
Can a South Carolina clerk of court use child-support Title IV-D funds to supplement staff or their own salary?
A clerk of court may use Title IV-D child-support funds to supplement the salaries of office staff who perform Title IV-D work, without county council's prior approval, as long as the funds go only…
Can I get an Arkansas State Police incident report or dashcam video that shows a juvenile who was stopped, arrested, or just a passenger?
If the juvenile was arrested or detained, all records of that arrest or detention (incident reports, dashcam) must be withheld unless an exception applies. If the juvenile was only a passenger or…
Can a part-time Louisiana Senate aide also consult for a private airport managers' nonprofit?
The Louisiana AG said the Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Law does not prohibit the described combination. The aide's other role was a contract consultant for a private nonprofit; the opinion…
Did Louisiana's AG find Plaquemine's proposed charter changes for appointing city officers lawful?
Yes. The AG reviewed Plaquemine's proposed amendments on selection and duties of city officers, including its city attorney and prosecutor, and found them consistent with state and federal law under…
Was St. Martinville's charter amendment dividing secretary-treasurer duties between a clerk and finance officer lawful?
The Louisiana AG found the proposed special-charter amendment consistent with state and federal law. It would assign council recordkeeping to a city clerk and treasury, accounting and tax-collection…
Can a Mississippi city pay back a homeowners' association that mistakenly paid electric bills for a sewer pump station the city actually owns?
Yes, if the city makes the right factual findings. A Mississippi municipality can pay a settlement under Miss. Code Ann. § 25-1-47 if the claim is bona fide and just and the municipality determines…
If a Mississippi county finds out it has been underpaying its justice court judges for years, how far back can it go to make them whole?
Three years generally. Mississippi's three-year statute of limitations under Miss. Code Ann. § 15-1-49 applies to unpaid-compensation claims against a county. The clock starts when the plaintiff…
Can a Mississippi school district hire a contractor whose brother is the district's business manager?
Yes, but watch the conflict-of-interest rules. Mississippi's general nepotism statute (§ 25-1-53) is not violated because the contractor's position (concrete work) is not a 'prohibited position'…
In Mississippi, does a misdemeanor traffic ticket need a separate general affidavit to start a criminal case, or is the ticket itself enough?
A traffic ticket is enough. Mississippi law treats a sworn traffic ticket as a 'sworn affidavit' satisfying § 21-23-7(1)'s requirement that criminal proceedings be brought by sworn complaint. The…
Can Mississippi voters use electronic signatures on a written protest against a municipal bond, or do they have to sign by hand?
No. Electronic signatures cannot be used on the written protest required by Miss. Code Ann. § 21-33-307 to force a bond election. § 1-3-61 generally requires handwritten signatures unless another…
When a Mississippi alderman buys a house outside their district, do they automatically lose their seat, or can they stay until they change their homestead exemption?
An alderman vacates the office when they abandon their municipal residence for another residence outside the district with no intent to return. Just buying a home outside the district doesn't…
Can a Mississippi city repave a street with public money and then close the street so a private business gets the property?
No. A Mississippi city cannot expend public funds to improve a street and then vacate it so the property reverts to a private landowner. That sequence converts the public expenditure into a benefit…
Does Mississippi's ban on employing people convicted of embezzling public funds also bar contracts with companies they own?
No. Miss. Code Ann. § 25-1-113 bars specified public employment, but the AG says it does not prohibit a county from contracting with a corporation or LLC controlled or wholly owned by someone…
In Mississippi, do state legislators and other state district officers face a runoff election if no candidate gets a majority, or does that rule only apply to statewide officers?
Only statewide elected officials. The phrase 'the state officers' in Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-193 refers to the eight statewide offices in Section 140 of the Mississippi Constitution: Governor,…
Which of the new misdemeanor crimes the Georgia legislature created in 2023 (and certain prior misdemeanors GCIC flagged) should require fingerprinting at arrest?
The AG designated 6 of 11 reviewed misdemeanors: three catalytic-converter offenses, the recycler restriction on redeeming or cashing sellers' checks or electronic funds transfers, and two offenses…
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