State AG Opinions
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Could Texas voters use the former Tax Code rollback election to reduce a hospital district's adopted property tax rate?
The Attorney General concluded that they could under the 1988 statute. Article IX, section 9 authorized the legislature to structure hospital-district taxation, so the statutory voter rollback did…
When could a Washington public agency consider price while choosing an architect or engineer?
The Attorney General said in 1988 that the agency had to select the most qualified firm without considering its proposed price. It could negotiate a fair and reasonable price only after that…
Could the Presidio County Hospital District fund another district's hospital improvements in exchange for indigent medical care?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the district could affiliate with a neighboring hospital district and fund construction or repairs in exchange for care for Presidio County's needy residents.
Could Idaho's endowment fund managers earn extra income by lending out the state's stocks and bonds, or by selling 'covered call' options on those securities?
The 1988 AG opinion concluded the Endowment Fund Investment Board could constitutionally enter securities lending agreements and sell covered call options if the legislature authorized those…
Could a Texas taxing unit impose the full 15 percent delinquent-tax collection penalty, pay its contract attorney less, and keep the difference?
No. The Attorney General concluded that every dollar collected under Tax Code section 33.07 had to be applied to the contract attorney's compensation. The taxing unit could set a penalty below 15…
Could Penobscot Nation members use gill nets to catch Atlantic salmon for personal food within the reservation?
Yes, on the facts presented in 1988. The AG concluded that Penobscot Nation members could use gill nets within the reservation to take about twenty Atlantic salmon for their own consumption.
Could a Texas sheriff use campaign or officeholder contributions to replace or reimburse a cash shortage in an official account?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that replacing the shortage was an ordinary and necessary expense connected with the sheriff's official duties, not a prohibited personal use of political contributions.
Can a Maryland town condemn land owned by the county to build a sewage treatment site?
In a 1988 opinion, Maryland's Attorney General concluded that the town of Berlin could not condemn a tract of county-owned land for a sewage disposal site, because the condemnation statute's use of…
Can Maryland discipline a secondary mortgage loan licensee for violating mortgage-broker conduct rules when the licensee makes a first-lien mortgage loan?
A 1988 Maryland opinion concluded that the Commissioner of Consumer Credit cannot directly enforce the mortgage banker/broker statute and Code of Conduct against a Secondary Mortgage Loan Law (SMLL)…
Did Texas cities with more than 10,000 residents have to give police officers a thirty-minute meal break?
No. The Attorney General concluded that thirty minutes was a guideline for a bona fide unpaid meal period, not a required break. A meal period counted as compensable work time if the officer was not…
Could a Texas judge require a probationer to donate to Crime Stoppers or offer a donation instead of community service?
No. The Attorney General concluded that article 42.12, section 6(e), prohibited payments not expressly authorized by statute. Crime Stoppers donations were not an authorized probation payment and…
Did San Marcos city council members employed by Southwest Texas State University have to abstain from voting on the university's street-abandonment request?
No, not under former article 988b as recodified in Local Government Code chapter 171. The Attorney General concluded that the state university was not a statutory business entity, although other…
Could Washington’s corrections department be paid to house federal prisoners in state prisons?
Yes. The Attorney General said in 1988 that the Interstate Corrections Compact expressly allowed contracts with the federal government for prisoner confinement in state institutions, including terms…
Can a Maryland public school district let students from private religious schools use a public science center?
In a 1988 opinion, Maryland's Attorney General concluded that Prince George's County's Board of Education could constitutionally open the Howard B. Owens Science Center, including its pre- and…
Can the family of a police officer with a pre-existing heart condition still get the line-of-duty death benefit?
In a 1988 opinion, Maryland's Attorney General concluded that the $25,000 statutory death benefit for a law enforcement officer who 'is killed or dies in the performance of duties' was payable even…
Did Texas Medicaid and adult protective services records become public after the person named in them died?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the statutory confidentiality provisions continued after death because the statutes contained no lifetime limit. The Department of Human Resources therefore…
Did Texas's ten-percent single-risk exposure limit apply to a casualty or surety insurer authorized to write fire insurance but not actually writing it?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that authorization to write fire and allied lines triggered the limit, whether or not the company had used that authority. The ten-percent cap applied to…
Could Maine condemn an unsafe or unreliable private rail line and transfer its operation to another railroad?
The AG found no general federal constitutional barrier to Maine condemning an unsafe, unreliable, or inefficient rail line. To reduce Fifth Amendment public-use concerns, the opinion suggested that…
Can dealers at a charity casino night legally keep tips from players in Maryland?
In a 1988 opinion, Maryland's Attorney General concluded that dealers and other attendants at nonprofit-run casino nights in Prince George's County could not accept tips from patrons, because doing…
Did Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 45 and its pleading paper-size requirement apply to criminal cases?
No. The Attorney General concluded that Rule 45 applied only to civil actions. Criminal pleadings were governed by the Code of Criminal Procedure rather than the Rules of Civil Procedure.
Could a Washington school district open or fund an adolescent health clinic under 1988 law?
No. The Attorney General said districts lacked express or implied authority to establish the clinics described in two unenacted bills, spend district funds on them, or contract for them. Because…
Must a proposed Maine Public Utilities Commission member recuse from cases in which he previously worked as a utility consultant?
Yes, for proceedings tied directly to his prior consulting work. The AG concluded that the proposed commissioner had to recuse from the pending Hydro-Quebec and telephone-cost matters, plus certain…
Did Washington’s 1987 school enhancement grants count as levy reduction funds?
Yes. The Attorney General said in 1988 that the Local Education Program Enhancement Funds were statewide block-grant funds within the amended levy law, so they counted as levy reduction funds. An…
Can a state agency adopt a technical handbook as a regulation without printing the whole document in the Maryland Register?
In a 1988 opinion, Maryland's Attorney General concluded that a technical handbook adopted to set soil-erosion and sediment-control standards was itself a 'regulation' under the Administrative…
Could E-1 visa holders or NATO Status of Forces personnel establish Texas residency for in-state university tuition?
Not based solely on those statuses. The Attorney General modified JM-241 after federal immigration officials concluded that E-1 traders and investors and NATO Status of Forces personnel were not…
Could a Texas legislator be paid by the highway department for serving as a special commissioner in an eminent-domain case?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that a one-case appointment as a condemnation special commissioner was neither another office or position of profit nor a prohibited state contract, although…
Would Maine's proposed farmland registration and setback bill create an unconstitutional taking of neighboring property?
Probably not. The Maine Attorney General's Office viewed the proposed registration and setback system as a land-use regulation, not a transfer of property rights, and said a taking would generally…
Can a Maryland Class D liquor license holder run the bar in one building and a package goods store in a separate building on the same property?
In a 1988 opinion, Maryland's Attorney General concluded that a Class D beer, wine, and liquor license authorized package goods sales only in the same building as the licensed bar or restaurant, so…
Who has the power to postpone an election if a snowstorm keeps the polls from opening?
In a 1988 opinion, Maryland's Attorney General concluded that no election official could move an election date because of bad weather, but the Governor could declare a weather emergency and suspend…
Could a city council member with a substantial interest in a vendor vote to pay its bills or buy sole-source goods from it?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the member had to file an affidavit and abstain from both the vendor's periodic bill payments and a sole-source purchase. The only stated exception applied…
Could an immigrant with conditional permanent residence qualify for Texas resident tuition before the condition was removed?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that federal law still classified the person as lawfully admitted for permanent residence. Conditional residents could therefore seek Texas resident tuition if…
Could a Texas bingo operator award a door prize during the required 30-minute break between bingo games?
Generally no. The Attorney General concluded that a bingo occasion included the time before, during, between, and after games while people were gathered to play, so the intermission was likely part…
Could a Texas school district write school-bus specifications so narrowly that only one manufacturer's product qualified?
No. The Attorney General concluded that Foundation School Program bus purchases were governed by the Education Code's competitive-bidding rules, not the general proprietary-purchase procedure in…
Did Maine's Student Educational Enhancement Deposit Plan need separate incorporation, and did its contracts require competitive bidding?
The SEED Plan's corporate status was self-implementing, so it did not need a filing with the Secretary of State. Because it was also a state agency, its goods and services contracts were subject to…
Did Texas's 1985 amendment on public interests in private roads apply retroactively to interests a county acquired before the statute took effect?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the 1985 amendment did not make article 6812h retroactive to a county public interest acquired before the statute's effective date, but the opinion did not…
Does Maryland's Domestic Violence Act still protect a victim if the abuser has since moved out of the house?
In a 1988 opinion, Maryland's Attorney General concluded that a spouse, parent, stepparent, child, stepchild, or blood relative who abused another such relative while living together qualified as a…
Did Texas university police have to give abandoned and unclaimed property to the county purchasing agent?
No, if the university's governing board had adopted property-disposition rules under the Education Code. The Attorney General concluded that the campus-specific statute controlled over article…
Could the Milam County Commissioners Court cut the elected county attorney's salary after approving it in the annual budget?
No. The commissioners court could not reduce the county attorney's approved salary during that budget year, although it could decide at a later regular annual budget hearing whether to continue…
Can the Division of Motor Vehicles use its motor-carrier safety regulations to inspect and regulate a privately owned bus that is not being used to carry passengers for a fee?
No. The NC AG concluded that the Division of Motor Vehicles' authority under Article 17 of Chapter 20 extends only to for-hire transportation of passengers (common carriers, contract carriers,…
Can the NC DMV refuse to accept any proof of a name change for a driver's license except a court order or register-of-deeds filing, or does common-law name change still count?
The AG’s 1988 opinion says the DMV lacked authority to make a register-of-deeds record or court document the only acceptable proof of a name change. It says other satisfactory proof should be…
Could a city psychologist give a police chief an officer's psychological evaluation results without the officer's signed release?
Generally no. The Attorney General concluded that medical and mental-health confidentiality statutes required a written release, despite the city's collective bargaining agreement, unless a…
How much discretion did Maryland's Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Commission have to interpret its own local program criteria?
In a 1988 opinion, Maryland's Attorney General concluded that the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Commission had no discretion to vary from criteria written in mandatory terms like "shall" or "may…
How detailed did a Texas governmental body's certified agenda for a closed meeting have to be?
It did not have to be a verbatim transcript, but it had to summarize every specific subject actually discussed. Broad labels such as 'personnel' or 'litigation' were not enough, and greater detail…
If new units in an expandable North Carolina condominium were built according to plans already recorded, must those same plans be filed again?
No, if the newly added units were built according to condominium plans already recorded and those plans otherwise meet statutory requirements. The new filing may identify the earlier plans by…
Can the South Dakota State Board of Medical and Osteopathic Examiners discipline a physician for sexually harassing prospective employees and having sex with a patient, even though SDCL 36-4-30 does not specifically list those behaviors? And can the Board's investigators access patient medical records under SDCL 36-4-22.1, which only specifically mentions drug records?
Yes to both. SDCL 36-4-29's general grant of authority over 'unprofessional or dishonorable conduct' is not limited by the specific list in SDCL 36-4-30; the listed examples are illustrative, not…
Could Maine make a Tri-State Lottery number limit effective only if New Hampshire and Vermont passed matching laws?
Yes. The Maine Attorney General concluded that conditioning the lottery amendment on matching legislation in New Hampshire and Vermont did not delegate Maine's legislative power because the other…
When a South Dakota auditor catches the Department of Revenue applying tax laws inconsistently or retroactively, what can the auditor do? Who actually has the legal authority to adjust or write off taxes, and is the Secretary of Revenue required to write down the reasons for changing a tax assessment? Can tax laws even be applied retroactively?
The Secretary of Revenue and the Director of the Audit Division of the Department of Revenue had broad statutory authority to adjust tax audit amounts based on their interpretation of the law,…
Can a Maryland town remove part of its own territory through a charter amendment?
In this 1987 opinion, the Attorney General concluded that a Maryland municipality most likely has authority under the Municipal Home Rule Amendment to detach part of its own territory by amending…
In South Dakota, can the public hunt on a section line where the farmer has planted crops? Can they drive on unimproved section lines? When does a section line count as 'improved' enough to allow hunting? And if a landowner fences off a section line, what can a frustrated hunter or traveler actually do about it?
The public can drive on any section line that has not been formally vacated, even if the farmer has crops on it. The public can hunt on a section line if it has been 'improved' (anything done to…
Could artificial or tube feeding be withheld under a Texas patient's directive against life-sustaining procedures?
Potentially yes. The Attorney General concluded that artificial or tube feeding could qualify as a life-sustaining procedure, but whether it merely prolonged the moment of death depended on medical…
Could DC's Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs fine another District agency under the 1985 Civil Infractions Act?
No, under the 1987 opinion's available text. It reaffirmed an earlier conclusion that the Civil Infractions Act did not authorize DCRA to issue notices of infraction or collect fines from other…
Could a Texas municipal utility district tax only part of the district to repay bonds for improvements benefiting that area?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that a defined-area tax met the constitution's equal-distribution requirement when it was fairly proportioned to the benefit received by the taxed property.
Were Texas school-district tax rollback elections constitutional under Tax Code sections 26.08 and 26.085?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the school-tax rollback provisions were constitutional because school-district taxing authority was subject to legislative control, and the elections imposed…
Could North Carolina pass a law or rule allowing window tint as dark as 35% light transmittance on passenger car windows when federal safety standards require 70%?
No. The AG concluded that a state rule permitting 35% light transmittance would conflict with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 205 and be preempted under 15 U.S.C. § 1392(d). As described…
In 1987, did a juvenile offense bar a Washington handgun permit, and were concealed-weapon applications public?
The 1987 AG said a juvenile-court offense finding was not the conviction that triggered the cited handgun bar, though separate age limits still applied. It also said an announced plan to commit a…
Did Texas's open-beach property disclosure law apply when coastal property was sold through a nonjudicial foreclosure?
Yes, when the foreclosure conveyed a covered real-property interest. The trustee had to give the statutory notice to the actual purchaser for each foreclosure, but the opinion concluded that section…
Could a Washington county discount unpaid property taxes to help a city sell land acquired through assessment foreclosure?
The 1987 AG said no in the context of a city sale under RCW 35.53.030. The county could not accept less than the full outstanding taxes, interest, and penalties from the purchaser merely to return…
Can a public library charge fees for things like computer searches, video rentals, or overdue books?
In this 1987 opinion, the Attorney General concluded that Maryland public libraries generally had to provide free access to their information resources no matter the format (books, videocassettes,…
Which Department of Correction employees qualify for the Salary Continuation Plan when injured on the job?
The AG concluded an employee qualifies for the Salary Continuation Plan in G.S. 143-166.13 only if (1) the position requires certification by the Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards…
Could Texas voters transfer a county tax assessor-collector's assessment and collection duties to an appraisal district or another taxing unit?
Generally no. The Attorney General concluded that the legislature could not let voters divest the elected county tax assessor-collector of assessment and collection duties, except for the…
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Two states are not listed and are not pending: New Hampshire publishes its opinions on a page that automated retrieval cannot read, and Rhode Island publishes no complete full-text archive at all. We will add them if that changes.