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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Can Maryland require divorced or unmarried parents to keep paying child support while their adult child is in college, without violating equal protection?
The opinion concluded that a proposed bill letting courts order child support for college-age children of separated or divorced parents, until age 23, would not violate the Equal Protection Clause, be…
Did Maryland's 1970 school staffing integration rule require racial hiring quotas, and was it still valid?
The Attorney General concluded in 2014 that Maryland's Integration Rule did not require racial quotas or preferences in individual school employment decisions. It remained valid when read as an aspira…
Can the Maryland legislature give medical malpractice defendants an automatic right to move their case to a different court?
The opinion concluded that the Maryland Constitution, as it then stood, barred the General Assembly from giving medical malpractice defendants an automatic right to move their case to a different cour…
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…
Could Maryland deny Medicaid and state medical assistance to people incarcerated in jails and prisons?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that Maryland's policy of excluding people incarcerated in detention centers from Medical Assistance Program coverage was authorized by both federal and state la…
Could a Maryland court legally alternate hiring between Black and white applicants to make up for past discrimination in its workforce?
In a 1989 opinion, Maryland's Attorney General concluded that the Circuit Court for Baltimore City's 1976 policy of alternately hiring qualified Black and white applicants was an unconstitutional raci…
Could Maryland give owner-occupied homes a property tax break without violating the Constitution's equal protection guarantee?
In a 1989 opinion, Maryland's Attorney General concluded that a proposed constitutional amendment authorizing property tax credits limited to owner-occupied residential property would not violate the …
Did the Supreme Court's Croson decision strike down Maryland's minority business set-aside program for state contracts too?
In a 1989 opinion, Maryland's Attorney General concluded that the state's Minority Business Enterprise contracting program remained constitutional after the U.S. Supreme Court's Croson decision, becau…
Can a state require someone to live there for a year before letting them become a notary public?
In this 1987 opinion, the Attorney General concluded that Maryland's one-year residency requirement for notaries public was constitutional, holding that it survived rational-basis review under the Equ…
Can a state legally impose a one-time tax on every licensed attorney to fund a mandatory legal malpractice insurance program?
In this 1986 opinion, the Attorney General approved Senate Bill 753 for constitutionality, concluding that a one-time $150 tax on every Maryland attorney to fund the initial surplus of a new mandatory…
Could Maryland reduce a retired state judge's pension when he was appointed to the federal bench and kept drawing a federal salary?
In this 1984 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that a state statute reducing judicial pensions for retired judges who accept other government-paid employment applied to a retired Maryla…
Can Maryland bar drug users from state jobs, or would that violate federal disability discrimination law?
In this 1982 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that the Secretary of Personnel had authority to screen State job applicants for illegal drug use and adopt a rule barring current drug ab…
Can a Maryland county give one sport a much lower amusement tax rate than every other sport without violating equal protection?
In this 1982 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that a proposed Prince George's County ordinance temporarily taxing professional hockey admissions at 0.5% while keeping a 10% rate for vi…
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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.