Texas Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Texas, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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Can Texas appellate courts be required to follow the state's employment-discrimination audit law?
The Attorney General concluded that Labor Code sections 21.451 through 21.456, which require the Texas Commission on Human Rights to audit state agencies' employment policies (including those of the a…
Does a Texas city official have to resign to run for a political party precinct chair?
The Attorney General concluded no. The 'resign-to-run' rule in article XI, section 11 (and article XVI, section 65) of the Texas Constitution applies only when an officer becomes a candidate for anoth…
Can Texas require early childhood intervention providers to hand over children's personal information?
The Attorney General concluded that the Texas Interagency Council on Early Childhood Intervention is authorized by state and federal law to require its contracted local service providers to collect an…
Can a company be penalized for filing frivolous confidentiality claims to block a Texas public records request?
The Attorney General concluded no. The Texas Public Information Act lets a third party (such as a business whose records a governmental body holds) ask the AG to withhold information on privacy or tra…
Can the Texas Department of Insurance examine a physician group's records when it provides only medical care under a contract with an HMO?
The Attorney General concluded yes. A nonprofit health corporation certified by the Board of Medical Examiners counts as a physician under the HMO Act, and when it has a contract with a health mainten…
Can a Texas city commissioner take part in discussing a merit raise for a sibling who works for the city?
The Attorney General concluded no. Under the continuous-employment part of the nepotism statute, a city commissioner whose sibling keeps a city job may not participate in any deliberation or vote on t…
Can a Texas school board trustee also serve on the board of a small groundwater conservation district?
The Attorney General concluded the trustee could not, on the facts described. The Water Code rule that disqualifies a member of one political subdivision's governing body from serving as a groundwater…
Does a Texas water or special utility district need county or city permission to lay water lines in road right-of-way?
The Attorney General drew a line between counties and cities. A water district or water supply corporation has statutory rights-of-way in public roads, but when it lays water system facilities it must…
Is the medical information I submit to get disability accommodations on a Texas licensing exam kept confidential?
The Attorney General concluded that it depends on who supplies the information. When a physician fills out the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners' disability assessment form, the diagnosis, evalua…
Can a towing company give a parking lot or apartment complex free services in exchange for the towing contract?
The Attorney General concluded no. Chapter 684 of the Transportation Code bars a towing company from giving a parking facility owner 'anything of value' in connection with removing vehicles, and free …
Does a Texas city get to approve how its economic development corporation winds down and sells off assets?
The Attorney General concluded yes on review, with a limit. A city that created a section 4A economic development corporation has general authority to supervise and control it, so the corporation's di…
Does a Texas county have to register exotic or dangerous wild animals, and can residents force it to?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Under subchapter E of chapter 822 of the Health and Safety Code, added by House Bill 1362, every county that has not entirely banned the ownership, possession, conf…
When Texas law lets a city restrict trucks to 'two designated lanes,' does that mean exactly two or two or more?
The Attorney General concluded it means exactly two. Section 545.0651(b) of the Transportation Code lets a municipality restrict, by class of vehicle, through traffic to 'two designated lanes' of a qu…
Does a Texas nonprofit cemetery or a crematory have to register with the Funeral Service Commission?
The Attorney General reached four conclusions about the Texas Funeral Service Commission's authority over cemeteries and crematories under chapter 651 of the Occupations Code, as expanded in 2001. Fir…
Is it constitutional for Texas to give big counties less time than small counties to appoint a lawyer for indigent defendants?
The Attorney General concluded that a court would likely uphold both rules. Article 1.051(c) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as amended by the 2001 Texas Fair Defense Act (Senate Bill 7), requires …
Does a retired Texas state park peace officer have to take continuing education to keep an active peace-officer license?
The Attorney General concluded that a peace officer who retired from the State Park Law Enforcement Program is a 'retired state employee' under section 1701.356 of the Occupations Code. A qualifying r…
Can a Texas mayor serve as both a board member and the paid executive director of his city's industrial development corporation?
The Attorney General concluded there was no legal bar to a mayor serving simultaneously as a board member and salaried executive director of an industrial development corporation his city created unde…
Can a city promote a longtime police officer whose parent was recently elected to the city council, despite nepotism rules?
The Attorney General concluded the promotion was permissible. An Azle police lieutenant had served continuously since 1997, and his mother was elected to the city council in 2001; the city manager the…
Does Texas have to let a hospital review its data before the state releases hospital-specific information to the public or a legislator?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Under chapter 108 of the Health and Safety Code, when the Texas Health Care Information Council got a request for public use data about a specific hospital, it had …
Can a small Texas city council create a 'city administrator' and give that person the mayor's or a city manager's statutory powers?
The Attorney General concluded it cannot. General-law cities have only the powers the Legislature grants them. The Legislature made the mayor the budget officer of a general-law city (unless the city …
If a Texas county underpaid the statutory salary owed to its county court-at-law judges, must it pay the difference?
The Attorney General concluded that, on the facts presented, Angelina County had not complied with either path the law gives a county that collects the special court fees under section 51.702 of the G…
Can a Texas prosecutor keep an autopsy report secret during a murder investigation if a justice of the peace holds it?
The Attorney General concluded that an autopsy report held by a justice of the peace as part of an inquest is open to public inspection under section 27.004 of the Government Code, and that no statute…
Can a Texas sheriff post a list of preapproved bail bondsmen in the county jail if the county has no bail bond board?
The Attorney General concluded that a sheriff in a county without a bail bond board has no authority to post a list of preapproved bondsmen in the county jail. In those counties, bail is governed by c…
Can a Texas bank scan the magnetic stripe on a customer's driver's license to verify identity?
The Attorney General concluded no. Section 521.126 of the Transportation Code limits the use of the electronically readable (magnetic stripe) information on a Texas driver's license to law enforcement…
Is it a crime in Texas to slaughter horses and export the meat for people to eat overseas?
The Attorney General concluded yes, assuming the operator had the required intent or knowledge. Chapter 149 of the Agriculture Code makes it a crime to sell, possess for sale, or transfer horse-meat a…
Can a parent see their child's school counseling records in Texas?
The Attorney General concluded that, generally, all of a student's school records are available to the parent, and counseling records may be withheld only under very narrow and unusual circumstances. …
Can a Texas school board trustee also serve as a political party county chair?
The Attorney General concluded yes. To be a county or precinct chair of a political party, Election Code section 161.005 says a person may not hold an elective office of the federal, state, or county …
Can a Texas accounting firm with non-CPA owners incorporate as a regular business corporation or LLC?
The Attorney General concluded yes. A 2001 law (Senate Bill 1358) amended the Public Accountancy Act so an accounting firm could be licensed even though some of its owners are not certified public acc…
Can someone ordained online claim the clergy exemption from Texas psychologist licensing?
The Attorney General concluded the State Board of Examiners of Psychologists may consider the fact that a person was ordained for a fee over the internet or by mail when deciding whether that person i…
Can a grandfathered felon employee keep working at a bail bond business after it's sold to a relative?
The Attorney General concluded yes. A 2001 law (Senate Bill 1119) barred bail bond businesses from employing anyone convicted of a felony or a moral-turpitude misdemeanor within the past ten years, bu…
Do the 2001 retirement benefit increases for Texas visiting judges apply to judges who already retired?
The Attorney General concluded no. In 2001 the Legislature added a 10 percent increase to the retirement annuity of certain judges who had recently served as visiting judges, codified at Government Co…
Can a Texas city police officer make traffic stops in the county under a mutual aid agreement?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Two parts of Local Government Code section 362.002 work independently. Subsection (a) lets one local government unilaterally send its officers to help another, but …
Is Texas's law requiring country-of-origin labels on imported meat constitutional?
The Attorney General concluded the two halves of the imported-meat chapter fared differently. Subchapter A, which required wholesalers and retailers to label imported fresh meat with its country of or…
Can a city officer working as a drainage-district peace officer write traffic tickets in the district?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Section 49.216 of the Water Code lets a water district contract for or employ its own peace officers, with power to make arrests for any offense against the laws of…
Can a Texas county civil-service commission award back pay when it reverses an employee's discipline?
The Attorney General concluded yes. A county civil-service commission under chapter 158, subchapter A, and a sheriff's department civil-service commission under subchapter B, each have broad statutory…
Can a Texas bail bondsman collect an attorney's legal fee from a bail bond client and pass it to the lawyer?
The Attorney General concluded no. Section 1704.252(9) of the Occupations Code lets a county bail bond board revoke or suspend a surety's license if the holder pays or divides fees with a person not l…
Can the University of Texas charge students a mandatory infrastructure fee without new legislative authority?
The Attorney General concluded the answer turns on the fee's purpose. Section 55.16 of the Education Code lets a university board fix and collect charges from students for the occupancy, use, and avai…
Where in Texas do I file a UCC financing statement, with the county clerk or the Secretary of State?
The Attorney General concluded that after the 1999 revision of Business and Commerce Code chapter 9 took effect on July 1, 2001, a county clerk must accept financing statements that perfect security i…
Can an unlicensed in-house engineer in Texas put 'Engineer' on a business card?
The Attorney General concluded no. Under the Texas Engineering Practice Act, only a licensed engineer may call himself or herself an 'engineer' or use that term as a professional or business identific…
Can a Texas county commissioners court reject or cut the presiding administrative judge's budget request?
The Attorney General concluded no. Under section 74.043 of the Government Code, the counties that make up one of Texas's nine administrative judicial regions must pay, out of their general funds, the …
Can the Texas Public Finance Authority issue bonds for the Texas State Technical College System?
The Attorney General concluded no. Section 1232.101 of the Government Code, part of the Texas Public Finance Authority Act, gives the Authority 'exclusive' authority to issue bonds only for a specific…
Is a Texas constable without a permanent peace officer license still a peace officer?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Article 2.12(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure lists 'constables, deputy constables, and those reserve deputy constables who hold a permanent peace officer licen…
Can a Texas county make contractors disclose their business ties to county officials?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Neither the County Purchasing Act (chapter 262 of the Local Government Code) nor the Professional Services Procurement Act expressly says a county may require this,…
Can an out-of-state student living in a hotel or dorm in Texas use that address to get a Texas commercial driver's license?
The Attorney General concluded yes, in particular cases. The Transportation Code lets the Department of Public Safety issue a commercial driver's license only to a person who has a domicile in Texas, …
Can Texas put a newly created county office on the ballot for less than four years to keep its staggered election schedule?
The Attorney General concluded no as to the term length but yes as to the schedule. A 1999 amendment deleted the staggered-term language from article XVI, section 65 of the Texas Constitution, but the…
Can a Texas city and county combine their plat and subdivision rules into one hybrid set for the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction?
The Attorney General concluded yes. In a municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction (the unincorporated strip around a city), the city and county have overlapping authority over plats and subdivisio…
Does the Texas DOT have to issue an oversize or overweight vehicle permit if the applicant meets the requirements?
The Attorney General concluded yes, the issuance is mandatory. A 1995 codification of the Transportation Code changed the permit statute's wording from the Department 'shall' issue oversize and overwe…
Can a private collection agency collect a fine a Texas justice of the peace only suggested but never ordered?
The Attorney General concluded no. Article 103.0031 of the Code of Criminal Procedure lets a county or city contract with a private attorney or collection vendor to collect debts and accounts receivab…
Can Texas environmental regulators count a company's violations from before the 2002 compliance-history rule took effect?
The Attorney General concluded yes on both counts. House Bill 2912 (the 2001 Sunset bill continuing the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, the TNRCC) directed the Commission to adopt a un…
If a Texas constable misses the 270-day deadline to show a permanent peace officer license, does he lose his office automatically?
The Attorney General concluded the office is forfeited by operation of law but the constable is not automatically removed. Under Local Government Code section 86.0021(b), a constable who fails to give…
Does the Texas plain-language loan contract rule apply to bank and credit union loans, or only to Consumer Credit Commissioner loans?
The Attorney General concluded the rule reaches only loans the consumer credit commissioner regulates. Finance Code section 341.502(a) requires that a contract for a Chapter 342 loan, a Chapter 348 re…
What can the Texas Funeral Service Commission regulate at cemeteries and crematories?
The Attorney General concluded that the Texas Funeral Service Commission's authority over registered cemetery and crematory owners or operators is narrow. In 2001, House Bill 3067 brought cemeteries a…
Can the Texas Health Care Information Council use confidential or non-public data to prepare its reports?
The Attorney General drew a line between using data and releasing it. The Texas Health Care Information Council collects hospital and provider data, only a stripped-down subset of which (public use da…
Can Texas require elevators to meet the current ASME safety code, or only the older adopted version?
The Attorney General concluded the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation could not require elevators, escalators, and related equipment to meet the current ASME safety codes. Health and Safety …
Does the Texas ban on hiring former water-board members apply to a board created before the law passed?
The Attorney General concluded the statute did not reach the San Antonio Water System. In 2001, the Legislature added Local Government Code section 402.909, which bars a municipality (or its water-uti…
Do Texas hospitals need patient consent before reporting their data to the Health Care Information Council?
The Attorney General concluded hospitals do not need written patient authorizations to send required data to the Texas Health Care Information Council. Chapter 108 of the Health and Safety Code requir…
Can a Texas university use a bank as its depository if a regent works for that bank?
The Attorney General reaffirmed an earlier opinion (JC-0426) and held that Texas Woman's University could not use a bank as a depository when one of its regents was an officer and employee of that ban…
Can a Texas county auditor sit in on a commissioners court's closed-session meeting with its attorney?
The Attorney General concluded a county commissioners court may let the county auditor attend a closed meeting, but only on conditions, and with a real risk attached. For a meeting closed under Govern…
Do you need a funeral director's license in Texas to sell caskets?
The Attorney General concluded a casket is "funeral merchandise" under Chapter 651 of the Occupations Code, but that selling a casket by itself, even for an imminent burial, is not an act of funeral d…
Does Texas's school 'disruptive activity' crime require intent to disrupt?
The Attorney General concluded that section 37.123 of the Education Code, the "disruptive activity" offense, requires proof that the actor intended to bring about one of the prohibited results, not ju…
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Attorney general opinions in Texas are written by the Texas 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.