North Dakota Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in North Dakota, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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Can the North Dakota Tax Commissioner refuse to confirm whether a specific business holds a sales-tax permit?
Yes. The AG concluded that whether a business has a sales-tax permit is confidential taxpayer information under N.D.C.C. § 57-39.2-23(1)(a). Confirming or denying permit status would reveal the busine…
If I ask a North Dakota county for records and the records are actually held by a separate housing authority that the county appoints board members for, does the county have to track down those records for me?
No. North Dakota's open records law only requires a public entity to provide records that it actually possesses or has custody of. A housing authority is a separate public entity under N.D.C.C. § 23-1…
Can the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services refuse to release records it sent to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services about a hospital complaint?
Yes. The AG concluded DHHS substantially complied with North Dakota's open records law by refusing to release the EMTALA complaint records, because the state's 1985 agreement with the federal HHS Secr…
Can a North Dakota county make a person sign an acknowledgment as a condition of receiving copies of public records?
No. The AG concluded the Ransom County Commission violated the open records law by requiring the requester to sign an acknowledgment of receipt before getting county-commission minutes. The law does n…
Does a North Dakota school district violate the open records law by giving a requester redacted documents and explaining the redactions verbally instead of in writing?
Not necessarily. The AG concluded the Williston Basin School District substantially complied with the open records law. The district provided records the day after they were requested, and verbally ex…
If a North Dakota school district can't find old bid records because the project was finished by a predecessor district before reorganization, did it violate the open records law?
No. North Dakota's open records law only requires a public entity to provide records it actually possesses. AG Wrigley concluded that Williston Basin School District #7 complied with N.D.C.C. § 44-04-…
Did a North Dakota rural ambulance district violate the open meetings or open records laws when its email notice to the official newspaper got stuck in an outbox, and when it took 80 days to release a severance agreement?
Mostly no on the meeting notice (the email failure was a technical glitch and the AG found substantial compliance for both meetings), but yes on the records side. The 80-day delay in releasing a sever…
Can a North Dakota state's attorney refuse to release records of a child-sexual-abuse investigation to the convicted defendant, and how long can the office take to respond?
Yes on the substance: state's attorneys can withhold records that fall within the active-criminal-investigation exemption, juvenile-records confidentiality, child-abuse-report confidentiality, and chi…
If a state agency deletes a meeting video on a records-retention schedule and a journalist asks for it later, is that a violation of the open records law?
No. A public entity does not violate the open records law by failing to provide a record that no longer exists, when the record was deleted in accordance with a published retention schedule. The agenc…
Can the public get a list of which specific companies and how much money each individual investment manager has put the North Dakota Legacy Fund into?
No. Manager-specific position information is confidential commercial and financial information under N.D.C.C. § 44-04-18.4. The Retirement and Investment Office must publish aggregate Legacy Fund hold…
When someone asks a North Dakota sheriff's office for records about a victim or witness in a criminal case, must the sheriff release them?
Records that could be used to locate a victim or witness are exempt and protected. But the sheriff cannot deny the entire records request just because some pages contain protected information. The she…
Can a North Dakota city charge for record copies before sending them, and can it deny a records request just because the records contain some confidential information?
Yes on the fee (cities may charge up to 25 cents per page, plus actual postage, and may require payment in advance). No on the blanket denial: the city must redact the confidential bits and release th…
Can a private school bus company be forced to give up its bus routes under North Dakota's open records law?
No, not by the company itself. A private contractor that provides services to a school district at fair market value is not a 'public entity' under N.D.C.C. § 44-04-17.1(13). Records held by the contr…
If a North Dakota airport authority misspells the email when notifying the city auditor of a special meeting, has it given valid notice?
No. Posting a notice at both terminals on the day of the meeting was not enough. A typo that prevented the city auditor from receiving the notice, plus failure to alert the official newspaper, was not…
If a city's online complaint form silently routes my records request to the wrong inbox, is that my fault or the city's?
It is the city's. Mandan took two months to answer a request submitted through its 'Report a Concern' form because the request was misrouted and apparently deleted. The AG ruled the delay was unreason…
What can a North Dakota school district legally charge for fulfilling an open records request, and what fees are off-limits?
A North Dakota school district can charge up to $25 per hour for locating records and excising confidential information, but only after the first hour of each. It cannot charge for mileage, travel tim…
If a North Dakota township posts its meeting notice in the newspaper and on its website but not at the meeting site, is the meeting still validly noticed?
Yes. Substantial compliance is enough. Posting in the newspaper and on the website covered the requirement, even though no notice was posted at the school where the meeting was held. But the same town…
How long can a North Dakota township take to respond to an open records request before the delay becomes a violation?
Reasonable response is usually measured in hours or days, not weeks. A six-week delay was unreasonable, even when the township blamed the unexpected resignation of the treasurer who managed its email …
Is a county historical society subject to North Dakota open meetings law, and what counts as proper meeting minutes?
Yes, the Emmons County Historical Society is a public entity because it receives Emmons County funding and is recognized under N.D.C.C. § 11-11-53. The president's 'personal notes' from three monthly …
Can a North Dakota agency refuse to give me records because of an old unpaid invoice if I've already sent them a check that they didn't cash?
No. The Mandan Park District tried to deny S. Paul Jordan's records request because he had a $25 outstanding invoice from a prior request. He had already mailed a personal check for $25 with 'theft if…
If a public agency in North Dakota tells me they don't have any more records and I think they're holding back, what can I do?
The Stanley Rural Ambulance District turned over a screenshot and a link, then repeatedly told Adam Buss there were no other responsive records. The AG concluded that's compliance with open records la…
Can a North Dakota public body call a special meeting on five minutes' notice and still comply with open meetings law?
Yes. The Stanley Rural Ambulance District announced a special meeting only five minutes before it started, but it met the notice requirements because the public and the local newspaper were notified a…
Is a North Dakota critical access hospital that gets some public funding (mill levy money, city sales tax) subject to the open records law?
Yes, but only as to records related to its use of public funds and its government-agency activities. Southwest Healthcare Services received mill levy money, applied for City of Bowman healthcare sales…
Can a North Dakota professional licensing board withhold a licensee's response in a disciplinary case as 'confidential' even when no peer review committee has been formed?
The Board of Chiropractic Examiners' decision to withhold a licensee's disciplinary response was reasonable given the unclear statute, but technically incorrect. N.D.C.C. § 43-06-14.1(7)'s confidentia…
Is the personal water bill of a North Dakota fire chief a public record subject to disclosure under the open records law?
No. The Mandan Fire Department did not violate the open records law by denying a request for the Fire Chief's personal water bill. A public official's personal water bill is not a record of the public…
Does a North Dakota county board violate the open records law just by overlooking a records request and never responding?
Yes. The Morton County Board of Equalization violated the open records law when it failed to respond at all to a 2022 request for the Board's annual meeting publication notices. 'It got overlooked' is…
If a North Dakota public agency does not have a record I asked for, does it have to tell me, or can it just stay silent?
The Morton County Sheriff's Office did not violate the open records law by not producing a record that did not exist, but it did violate the law by not telling the requester that the record did not ex…
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?
No. Three state entities did not violate the open-records law when they failed to respond to emailed records requests they never received: the emails were quarantined by state IT security filters as s…
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 City…
How long can a North Dakota agency take to respond to an open-records request before it counts as an unreasonable delay?
Twenty-one days from request to delivery was reasonable here, because the records were exempt (requiring a board vote to release with redactions), the request fell across the Christmas and New Year ho…
How long can a North Dakota city take to respond to a public records request before it's considered an unreasonable delay?
Hours or days, not weeks. The AG concluded Fargo violated the open records law by taking nearly four weeks to provide 59 pages of records without explaining the delay to the requester.
Can a North Dakota law enforcement agency refuse to release 911 transcripts because they're part of an active criminal investigation?
Refusing to release a 911 transcript outright violates open records law. The ND AG concluded the Highway Patrol and State Radio violated N.D.C.C. § 44-04-18 when they refused The Forum's request for a…
Can a North Dakota township refuse an open-records request by pointing to a lawsuit that has already been decided and not appealed?
The AG concluded the Township was wrong to deny. North Dakota's litigation exception under § 44-04-18(6) only blocks open-records requests from a litigant when there are still discovery procedures ava…
Is North Dakota's physician impairment program (NDPHP) subject to open records and meetings laws even though it's run by a nonprofit contractor?
Yes. The North Dakota AG concluded the North Dakota Professional Health Program (NDPHP) is a public entity under N.D.C.C. § 44-04-17.1(13) and subject to open records and meetings laws. The NDPHP was …
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Attorney general opinions in North Dakota are written by the North Dakota 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.