Maryland Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Maryland, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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Did the Supreme Court's Hafer v. Melo decision expose Maryland prosecutors to new personal liability for doing their jobs?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Hafer v. Melo, which allowed state officials to be personally sued under Section 1983 for actions taken in their officia…
Could a Maryland county pass its own law requiring gun owners to store firearms safely away from children, or did state law preempt that kind of local rule?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that Montgomery County could enact a proposed ordinance requiring gun owners to keep loaded firearms away from unsupervised minors, because the state's ge…
Could a Maryland school system investigate its own employee for suspected child abuse separately from the police or social services investigation?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that a local school board could conduct its own personnel investigation of an employee accused of child abuse, separate from the mandatory investigation b…
Can a Maryland family get a hearing to challenge a medical examiner's ruling on how a relative died?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that a family member disputing the Chief Medical Examiner's determination of a relative's cause or manner of death had no right to a formal hearing under …
Who is legally responsible if a Maryland prison inmate working on a private contractor's asbestos removal job gets hurt or injures someone else, and does that inmate have to be paid minimum wage?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that an inmate injured while working for a private contractor on a prison asbestos abatement project would have to seek recovery through the Sundry Claims…
Under Maryland's 1991 child safety seat law, does a child need to be both 4 years old AND over 40 pounds before switching to a seat belt?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that under TR §22-412.2(d), a child must be both four years of age or older and weigh more than 40 pounds before a person may use a seat belt instead of a…
Can a Maryland county pay its own money to top up the salaries of local social services employees who are technically state workers?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that county governments may supplement the state salaries of local department of social services employees out of county appropriations, and because those…
Can a Maryland state agency sign a contract or accept goods and services when it doesn't currently have a budget appropriation to pay for them?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded that a state agency generally may enter into a contract even when no appropriation currently exists to pay for it, since the constitutional requirement that money…
Did Maryland's Health Department need to adopt formal regulations before charging the Kidney Disease Program fee the legislature had already set by statute?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded that the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene did not need to adopt a regulation before applying the Kidney Disease Program's statutory fee formula, because th…
Could a Maryland county let nonlawyers represent public employees in formal grievance hearings without state legislation?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded that Howard County could not, on its own, allow nonlawyers to represent public employees in formal grievance hearings before the County Personnel Board, because t…
If Maryland's public defender runs out of money for conflict cases, who pays for the defendant's lawyer?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that the Public Defender's office was right to decline representation once its budget for panel attorneys ran out, that a court could then appoint private…
Does Maryland's rule forcing circuit court masters to retire at age 70 violate the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded that the mandatory retirement provision in Rule 2-541, requiring standing masters to retire at age 70, conflicted with the federal Age Discrimination in Employmen…
Can a Maryland town bar its commissioners from running again right after serving two consecutive terms?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that a proposed charter amendment barring a Poolesville commissioner from running again immediately after two or more consecutive terms, including partial…
Can Maryland abolish a state employee's job through the budget process instead of a formal layoff?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that when the Governor, the General Assembly, or the Governor and Board of Public Works together eliminated the funding for a specifically identifiable st…
Could Maryland justify unequal population sizes among Baltimore City's state legislative districts because of a census undercount or a desire to keep the city's boundaries intact?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that the Baltimore City census undercount alone could not justify legislative district population deviations above the usual 10% threshold, but that a leg…
Does Maryland have to pay higher social security contributions when a school system reclassifies a whole category of jobs to a higher pay grade?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded that Section 9 of the 1991 Budget Reconciliation Act barred the State from paying increased employer social security contributions caused by reclassifying an enti…
Could the Maryland General Assembly use statistically adjusted census numbers instead of the official 1990 head count to redraw legislative districts?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that the General Assembly was not required to use the official 1990 census head count for legislative redistricting, but could use statistically adjusted …
Can Maryland's Governor require legislators to sign letters of support before the Board of Public Works or a state agency approves capital project funding?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded that no statute required legislators to write letters of support for capital projects, but the Governor's practice of asking for such letters was not itself unlaw…
Can Maryland ban liquor licenses within 300 feet of a church's property line, and does that cover a church hall or parsonage?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded that Somerset County's 300-foot buffer between certain liquor licenses and church property does not violate the First Amendment, that the distance is measured fro…
Can a Maryland state employee deduct attorney's fees before repaying the state for accident leave pay?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that a state employee who was paid accident leave for an on-the-job injury, and who then recovered damages from the person who caused it, could withhold a…
Could Maryland's State Police charge a fee for medevac helicopter transfers between hospitals without losing legal immunity?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that the State Police could charge fees for medevac helicopter transfers between hospitals under the law as it then stood, but the opinion also found that…
Could a Maryland campaign treasurer let the candidate or someone else handle the campaign's money and required reports instead of doing it personally?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that a campaign treasurer under the Fair Election Practices Act could not delegate statutory duties, like receiving contributions, signing checks, or fili…
Could a Maryland county school board lease public school land to a private nonprofit school serving special-education students, like the Harbour School?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that the Anne Arundel County Board of Education could lease public school property to the Harbour School, a nonprofit special-education institution, as lo…
Does Maryland inheritance tax apply to money from a retirement plan or IRA left to someone other than a surviving spouse?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that retirement plan, IRA, and annuity proceeds are subject to Maryland inheritance tax whenever they are taxable for federal estate tax purposes, that th…
Can a Maryland public drainage association manager also hold another paid government office at the same time?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that a member of the board of managers of a public drainage association holds an 'office of profit' under Article 35 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights…
Could Maryland require its prison health care contractors to test employees for HIV and restrict what HIV-positive doctors and nurses could do?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that the state could not restrict or test HIV-positive health care providers whose jobs did not involve procedures with a real risk of blood exposure, but…
Did Maryland reimburse counties for inmates on home detention the same way it reimbursed them for inmates physically held in the local jail?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that local jurisdictions were entitled to state reimbursement under Article 27, §690 for sentenced inmates placed in a home detention program, but that th…
Does a Maryland retirement system have to accept service credit transferred from a different type of public pension system?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that a retirement system must accept a transferring member's service credit even if the member's former system was a different type (contributory or nonco…
Did a Maryland school board have to competitively bid the refinancing of a lease-purchase deal that had already funded and built a public school?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that once a school building had already been constructed under a competitively bid lease-purchase agreement, the Board of Education of Baltimore County co…
Did planning documents for a new Maryland bridge legally obligate the state to keep funding the old drawbridge next to it?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that the State was not legally obligated to keep funding maintenance of the old Kent Narrows Drawbridge, because planning statements made during construct…
Was a Maryland county legally required to fund its local election board at the staffing level the board said it needed to run elections?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that a county government could not cut a local election board's budget below the staffing level the board, with the approval of the State Administrative B…
Could Maryland's Environmental Trust keep and spend gift money without running it through the state budget and appropriations process?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded that the Maryland Environmental Trust, though a State agency and not fiscally independent like the Chesapeake Bay Trust, could still maintain and spend gift funds…
Could a Maryland minor visit the local health department for birth control or STD treatment during school hours without their parents' consent, and could the school get in trouble for not telling the parents?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that state law let minors consent on their own to treatment or advice for drug abuse, alcoholism, venereal disease, pregnancy, contraception, and rape-rel…
Could a federal bankruptcy court stop a Maryland liquor license from expiring under state law while the licensee was in bankruptcy?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded that a federal bankruptcy court had full authority to enjoin a county liquor board from letting a debtor's alcoholic beverage license expire under Maryland's aban…
Can a Maryland homeowners association or club, organized as a nonstock corporation, block members from counting toward a meeting quorum by proxy through a bylaw, or does it take a charter amendment?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that a nonstock corporation, such as a homeowners association or social club incorporated under Maryland law, could not use its bylaws alone to stop membe…
Can a Maryland homeowners association ban family day care homes with a vote of just a small quorum instead of a majority of all members?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded that a homeowners association could prohibit the operation of a family day care home only if a simple majority of all of the association's eligible voting members…
Does Maryland require a license to call yourself a 'therapist' or 'psychotherapist'?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that 'psychotherapist' and 'therapist' were not protected professional titles under Maryland law and could not be licensed or restricted the way titles li…
In Maryland, does the legislature have to wait for the governor to submit a redistricting map before it can vote on its own?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that under Article III, Section 5 of the state constitution, the General Assembly could hold hearings and prepare its own legislative redistricting plan a…
Could Baltimore City's liquor board force a Class B-D-7 licensee to keep running an actual bar or restaurant instead of just a package goods store?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded that the statute governing Baltimore City's Class B-D-7 liquor license did not clearly require licensees to maintain any minimum on-premises bar or restaurant ope…
Could a Maryland governor's cabinet agencies make the Legislative Auditor file a formal public-records request before examining agency files?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that Executive Branch agencies could not force the Legislative Auditor to file a written Public Information Act application before examining agency record…
If a Maryland county appropriated more than required for its public schools one year, does that whole higher amount become the mandatory minimum funding floor for the next year?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that a county's entire prior-year school operating budget appropriation, not just narrowly defined "basic current expenses," sets the baseline for the fol…
Can a Maryland orphans' court judge appoint himself, or a fellow judge on that same court, to fill a vacancy as register of wills?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that a common law rule against self-appointment barred an orphans' court from naming one of its own judges to fill a vacancy in the register of wills offi…
Can Maryland cap future state pension benefits without violating employees' contract rights?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that legislation applying the federal tax code's benefit accrual limits, IRC §415, prospectively to the state retirement and pension systems would not vio…
Do Maryland waterfront owners need a state permit to install erosion-control 'beach beams' on tidal land?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that installing a 'beach beam' erosion-control structure in tidal wetlands counted as regulated filling under the Wetlands Act of 1970, so a riparian owne…
If a Maryland will splits the residuary estate among heirs taxed at different inheritance tax rates, how is the tax calculated?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that inheritance tax on a residuary estate should generally be computed separately for each legatee at that legatee's own tax rate rather than deducted of…
Could a Maryland local school board let a private day care company build its own new building on public school land?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that a local board of education's authority to let a private day care provider construct its own building on public school land was doubtful under the sta…
If a new federal tax law cuts a high earner's itemized deductions, does Maryland cut that person's state itemized deductions too?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that when a 1990 federal tax law required certain high-income taxpayers to reduce their total itemized deductions, those taxpayers had to use the same red…
If a Maryland court orders a body disinterred and reburied, does the State's Attorney still have to separately approve it?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that a person generally still needs the county State's Attorney's consent to disinter a body, overruling a 1954 opinion that had said this requirement was…
Could Maryland's Physical Therapy Board decide by regulation that spinal manipulation was within the scope of physical therapy, not just chiropractic?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded that the General Assembly had not itself decided whether spinal manipulation and mobilization fell within the scope of physical therapy, so the Physical Therapy B…
Can a Maryland bill that amends 113 old bond laws the same way just print the new text once instead of 113 times?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that a bill amending 113 prior Baltimore City bond authorizations with the exact same new refunding provision does not have to repeat that text 113 times;…
Could a Maryland county's Human Relations Department order an employer to reinstate a worker and pay back pay for discrimination without a specific state law allowing it?
Maryland's Attorney General concluded in 1991 that Frederick County's commissioners could not lawfully authorize the county's Human Relations Commission or Department to impose remedies such as reinst…
Do blind vendors have priority to run vending machines in Maryland state and local government buildings?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that Maryland's blind vendor licensing law, ED §21-303(c), let the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation license blind people to run vending facilities, includin…
Who could ask Maryland's Interdepartmental Committee on Mandated Health Insurance Benefits to review a proposed coverage change?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that the Interdepartmental Committee on Mandated Health Insurance Benefits could review a legislative proposal only at the request of the Governor or the Legisla…
Did already-licensed Maryland nursing home administrators have to get a college degree to renew their licenses after the 1990 law?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that the new statutory education requirements for nursing home administrators in HO §8-302(d) were likely not intended to apply to people who were already proper…
Can businesses use the Maryland flag in a state promotional logo without violating the flag desecration law?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that the state's 'Maryland With Pride' promotional logo, which uses a stylized version of the Maryland flag, does not violate the law against commercial misuse o…
In Maryland, does an interior designer need an architect's license to redesign the layout of non-loadbearing interior walls in a public building?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that preparing design plans for a significant movement of non-loadbearing interior walls in a building intended for public use constitutes the practice of archit…
Does Maryland have to follow its normal layoff notice and seniority rules when a state employee's position loses its funding?
No. The Attorney General concluded that Maryland's layoff statute and its 90-day notice regulation do not apply when a position is lost simply because no money was appropriated to pay the salary; thos…
Could an out-of-state dealer sell a handgun that was not on Maryland's handgun roster to a Maryland buyer?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that Maryland's handgun roster law, Article 27, §36-1(b), prohibited selling an unapproved handgun whenever the buyer took physical delivery in Maryland, no matt…
Does a Baltimore City employee who left for military service after the draft ended in 1973 still get pension credit for that time under federal law?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that regardless of how Maryland's own veterans-benefit statute is read, the federal Veterans Reemployment Rights Act independently guarantees pension and retirement…
Can Baltimore's light rail trolleys use white signal lights instead of the standard red, yellow, and green traffic lights?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the Mass Transit Administration's plan to guide light rail trolleys through downtown Baltimore intersections with a separate white bar signal, instead of the s…
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Attorney general opinions in Maryland are written by the Maryland Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.