Can Arkansas DFA force you to hand over your expired Arkansas driver's license when you renew it?

Plain-English summary

Representative Jimmy Gazaway told AG Leslie Rutledge that the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) had a "widespread practice" of requiring drivers to surrender their expired Arkansas licenses when applying for a renewal. DFA pointed at Ark. Code Ann. § 27-16-602(b)(1), which says: "No person shall receive a driver's license unless and until he or she surrenders to the Office of Driver Services all valid driver's licenses in his or her possession issued to him or her by any other jurisdiction." Gazaway asked whether the statute really supported what DFA was doing.

The AG declined to make findings about DFA's actual practices, because she was not a factfinder and the request did not include DFA documentation of the practice. But she answered the underlying legal question: Ark. Code Ann. § 27-16-602(b)(1) is not a basis for requiring surrender of an expired Arkansas license.

She read the statute three ways and got the same answer each time.

First, "any other jurisdiction" in subsection (b)(1) means a jurisdiction other than Arkansas. The phrase paired with the chapter's grant of driving privileges "upon all streets and highways in this state" (Ark. Code Ann. § 27-16-602(d)). The statute is talking about non-Arkansas licenses.

Second, subsection (b)(2) says surrendered licenses "shall be returned by the office to the issuing department together with information that the licensee is now licensed in the new jurisdiction." That subsection treats Arkansas as the "new jurisdiction," meaning the licenses being surrendered came from somewhere else.

Third, subsection (b)(1) only requires surrender of "valid" licenses. An expired license is not valid, so subsection (b)(1) does not reach it. (The chapter even hints at this elsewhere by allowing a person to obtain an Arkansas license using a license from another state or armed-services branch that is "either valid or expired not more than 31 days." Ark. Code Ann. § 27-16-807.)

The AG's bottom line: subsection (b)(1) requires surrender of a valid out-of-state license as a precondition to receiving an Arkansas license. It is not a basis for requiring surrender of an expired Arkansas license.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2020. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Did the AG actually look at what DFA was doing?
No. She made that explicit. She is not a factfinder when issuing official opinions, and the opinion request did not include DFA documents establishing the practice. She limited her opinion to a reading of the statute the practice was based on.

Why didn't the AG just say DFA's practice was unlawful?
Two reasons. First, she could not opine on practice without seeing it. Second, her job is to interpret state law, not to police agency conduct. She concluded the statute did not support the practice, but she stopped short of declaring the practice itself unlawful, leaving room for DFA to explain whether some other authority justified it.

What was the textual hook the AG relied on?
Three textual hooks: "any other jurisdiction" (meaning not Arkansas), "the new jurisdiction" in subsection (b)(2) (Arkansas as the destination), and "valid" (excluding expired licenses).

Did the AG say what DFA could do?
She said only what subsection (b)(1) was not a basis for. She did not address whether DFA had separate statutory authority to require surrender of an expired Arkansas license under some other provision.

Background and statutory framework

Ark. Code Ann. § 27-16-602 sits in the Motor Vehicle Driver's License Act. Subsection (b)(1) addresses the surrender of out-of-state licenses; subsection (b)(2) covers what Driver Services does with surrendered licenses; subsection (d) explains the geographic scope of an Arkansas-issued license. Read together, the statute treats Arkansas as the destination jurisdiction and other states as origin jurisdictions whose licenses must be surrendered before Arkansas issues a new one.

The AG drew on standard Arkansas canons of statutory interpretation. Weiss v. McFadden, 353 Ark. 868, 120 S.W.3d 545 (2003), supplied the rule that words get their ordinary common-language meaning. Brock v. Townsell, 2009 Ark. 224, 309 S.W.3d 179, supplied the rule that clear-language statutes do not need construction aids. Thompson v. Younts, 282 Ark. 524, 669 S.W.2d 471 (1984), supplied the rule that courts will not strain plain meaning to expand or restrict a statute.

Citations

Statutes:

• Ark. Code Ann. § 27-16-602(b)(1) (Repl. 2014) (surrender of out-of-state licenses)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 27-16-602(b)(2) (Repl. 2014) (return of surrendered licenses)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 27-16-602(d) (Repl. 2014) (geographic scope of Arkansas licenses)
• Ark. Code Ann. § 27-16-807 (Repl. 2014) (acceptance of licenses expired not more than 31 days)

Cases:

• Weiss v. McFadden, 353 Ark. 868, 120 S.W.3d 545 (2003)
• Brock v. Townsell, 2009 Ark. 224, 309 S.W.3d 179
• Thompson v. Younts, 282 Ark. 524, 669 S.W.2d 471 (1984)

Prior opinions referenced:

• Op. Att'y Gen. 2016-117 (AG is not a factfinder when issuing official opinions)

Other authority:

• Black's Law Dictionary 1017, 1864 (11th ed. 2019) (definitions of "jurisdiction" and "valid")

Source

• Landing page: https://arkansasag.gov/divisions/opinions-foia/attorney-general-opinions-search/

Original opinion text

STATE OF ARKANSAS
ATTORNEY GENERAL
LESLIE RUTLEDGE

Opinion No. 2020-006
May 8, 2020

The Honorable Jimmy Gazaway
State Representative
800 West Court Street
Paragould, AR 72450-5952

Dear Representative Gazaway:

This is in response to your request for an opinion regarding the surrender of an expired Arkansas driver's license. In this regard, you have provided the following background information:

[T]he Department of Finance and Administration, hereafter referred to as DFA, has a widespread practice of requiring the surrender of an expired license when an applicant applies for renewal. DFA bases its practice upon a requirement authorized by Ark. Code Ann. § 27-16-602, which says in pertinent part:

(b)(1) No person shall receive a driver's license unless and until he or she surrenders to the Office of Driver Services all valid driver's licenses in his or her possession issued to him or her by any other jurisdiction. (Emphases added).

In light of the foregoing background information, you ask the following question:

May the Department of Finance and Administration lawfully require a citizen to surrender his or her expired Arkansas driver's license in order to issue or renew an Arkansas driver's license?

RESPONSE

I am unfamiliar with the practices you report involving the Department of Finance and Administration (DFA), and your opinion request does not cite any DFA documentation supporting the existence of these practices. Because I am not a factfinder in issuing official Attorney General opinions, those practices are not the subject of this opinion. This opinion must be limited, instead, to a review of the state law you have asked about. In my opinion, Ark. Code Ann. § 27-16-602(b)(1) is not a basis for requiring the surrender of an expired driver's license that was issued by the State of Arkansas.

DISCUSSION

Based on established rules of statutory interpretation, it is my opinion that Ark. Code Ann. § 27-16-602(b)(1) does not require a person to surrender an expired Arkansas driver's license to DFA's Office of Driver Services (Driver Services) in order to receive a new license.

Subdivision 27-16-602(b)(1) provides, as you quoted above: "No person shall receive a driver's license unless and until he or she surrenders to the Office of Driver Services all valid driver's licenses in his or her possession issued to him or her by any other jurisdiction." Although "jurisdiction" is not defined in this chapter, the term is commonly understood to mean "[a] geographic area within which political or judicial authority may be exercised" or "[a] political or judicial subdivision within such an area." A license conferred under the Motor Vehicle Driver's License Act, of which Section 27-16-602 is a part, grants a person the privilege of driving "upon all streets and highways in this state", i.e., in this jurisdiction. The reference to "any other jurisdiction," therefore, must be understood to mean a jurisdiction that issues driver's licenses other than the State of Arkansas.

This interpretation of Ark. Code Ann. § 27-16-602(b)(1) is bolstered by subdivision 27-16-602(b)(2), which requires that "[a]ll surrendered licenses shall be returned by the office to the issuing department together with information that the licensee is now licensed in the new jurisdiction." By referring here to Arkansas as "the new jurisdiction," this subdivision clearly indicates that the surrendered licenses are not licenses issued by the State of Arkansas.

Furthermore, subdivision 27-16-602(b)(1) describes the licenses to be surrendered as "valid" driver's licenses. Given that an expired driver's license is not valid, the statute's inclusion of this descriptor prevents an expired license from falling within the purview of Ark. Code Ann. § 27-16-602.

In sum, the plain language of Ark. Code Ann. § 27-16-602(b)(1) requires that as a precondition to receiving an Arkansas driver's license, a person must surrender any valid driver's license issued by another jurisdiction. In my opinion, this statute is not a basis for requiring the surrender of an expired driver's license that was issued by the State of Arkansas.

Sincerely,

LESLIE RUTLEDGE
Attorney General