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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When could a mentally ill person be detained in a Texas county jail, and did mental-health detention limits apply to criminal defendants undergoing competency or insanity proceedings?
JM-360 said the later Mental Health Code controlled emergency civil detention and allowed jail placement only in an extreme emergency, with separation from criminal inmates. Those civil limits did not…
Could a Texas county clerk issue a marriage license without parental consent or a court order to an applicant under 18 who had previously been married?
No. JM-359 said a prior marriage gave the person adult contractual capacity but did not override the Family Code's specific age requirement for a new marriage license. An applicant under 18 still need…
Did a district clerk have to create a separate criminal docket sheet when the same case history was safely maintained on the case file jacket?
No. JM-358 said a clerk could use the case file jacket as the file docket and did not have to duplicate the same information on a separate sheet inside the jacket.
What had to appear on a going-out-of-business sale permit, could the county clerk charge fees beyond $20, and how were the filed inventories retained?
JM-357 left the permit's design to the clerk but required enough information to show that the sale was regulated. The single $20 fee covered all clerk services, and inventories had to be retained unle…
Did the new general law on postmortem organ and tissue removal impliedly repeal the older statute specifically governing removal of corneal tissue?
No. JM-356 concluded that the Legislature intended the new organ-removal law to supplement, not replace, the existing corneal-tissue statute, so both remained effective.
What did Parmer County commissioners have to verify before distributing permanent school funds, could a district temporarily reinvest its share, and who determined each district's scholastic population?
JM-355 required commissioners, as trustees, to investigate the proposed permanent improvements and ensure the money would be used for a constitutional purpose within a reasonable time. Temporary reinv…
Did the forestry-commodity exception to Texas's vehicle-loading weight law cover logs or pulpwood hauled from a wood yard to a lumber or paper mill?
No. JM-354 treated logs and pulpwood leaving a wood yard as already processed because they had been prepared for market through trimming, sorting, reloading, inspection, or cutting to length. The pre-…
Could the Texas Public Utility Commission require a qualifying cogenerator making retail electricity sales to obtain a certificate of convenience and necessity?
Yes. JM-353 concluded that excluding qualifying cogenerators from PURA's general definition of public utility did not exclude them from the separate article VII definition of retail public utility whe…
Could a Texas public university appoint religious-studies faculty who were nominated or paid by religious denominations?
JM-352 said no. Under the Establishment Clause doctrine applied in 1985, denominational nomination or salary control created excessive church-state entanglement and the appearance of endorsing religio…
Did the Texas Open Meetings Act require a county commissioners court to let a member of the public videotape an open meeting?
JM-351 said no under the 1985 statute. The act expressly protected sonic recording but did not expressly protect video, so a commissioners court could prohibit videotaping, although it could choose to…
Could a county pay travel expenses for commissioners and witnesses to appear before the Alcoholic Beverage Commission and oppose a private-club permit?
Yes. JM-350 said a commissioners court could spend county travel funds to present its opposition in person when it acted in good faith and considered the expenditure to be in the county's interest.
Were members of the State Property Tax Board entitled to the $30 compensatory per diem provided for state board and commission members in the appropriations act?
No. JM-349 said the Tax Code specifically prohibited compensation for Board service and allowed only reimbursement of actual necessary travel expenses. The general per-diem statute did not override th…
Could the Texas accountancy board require CPA applicants to provide character references from people who lived in Texas?
Not without a substantial justification closely related to the discrimination. JM-348 said the facially neutral Texas-resident reference rule burdened nonresidents and could not survive the Privileges…
Did Texas land acquired at old property-tax foreclosure sales become part of the permanent school fund, and who could resell it?
No. JM-347 concluded that land bought in by the state as a taxing unit was held for resale to collect delinquent taxes, not as permanent-school-fund land, and the School Land Board could not sell it.
Could a Texas county clerk charge defendants separate filing fees for answers and discovery responses in a contested probate case?
No. JM-346 concluded that the statute authorized only the initial $25 fee paid by the party starting the probate adverse action, not additional fees for defendants' pleadings or discovery papers.
Could Nueces County require a paid annual permit to park a vehicle on Gulf Coast beaches outside city limits?
No. JM-345 concluded that Texas law let the county regulate and restrict beach parking but did not authorize an annual fee for parking vehicles on the beach.
Did Texas's vocational-nurse licensing law require an approved training course to provide a full twelve months of instruction?
Yes. JM-344 read the statute literally to require at least twelve months of vocational-nursing instruction and said the licensing board could neither waive the minimum nor create exceptions.
Which Texas state employees had to file financial disclosures before agency contract funds could be obligated under the 1985 appropriations rider?
JM-343 limited the rider to employees already covered by article 6252-9b who also entered into agency contracts or approved contract expenditures, because an appropriations rider could not expand or c…
Did advertisements mailed into Texas for legal lotteries in Germany or Canada violate Texas gambling law?
JM-341 did not give a categorical answer. It said a foreign lottery might violate Texas Penal Code §47.03(a)(5) by promoting or offering tickets in Texas, but the advertisements alone did not establis…
Did Texas's Open Meetings Act require an Alamo Community College employee-grievance committee to let student reporters attend its hearing?
No. JM-340 concluded that the ad hoc grievance committee was not a statutory governmental body, so its hearing was not subject to the Open Meetings Act.
Could a Texas general-law city add a flat monthly fee to every homeowner's and business owner's utility bill to fund its police department?
No. JM-338 treated the revenue-raising charge as a tax and found no statutory authority for a general-law city to impose that form of taxation.
Did Texas state law or the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act entitle a male state employee to six weeks of paid paternity leave after a child's birth?
No. JM-337 found that the six-week pregnancy-leave provision covered the pregnant employee's recovery, not a male employee's paternity leave, and that federal law did not require the same leave for ma…
Could a Texas city-county public health district issue licenses, charge fees, and fine people for violating district rules?
Only in part. JM-336 found that a public health district could charge fees for public health services within section 4.08's limits, but lacked specific authority to issue licenses or impose fines for …
Did a veterinarian working for a Texas government agency need a state veterinary license if the agency, rather than the public, paid for the services?
Yes, if the employee practiced, offered, or attempted to practice veterinary medicine as the statute defined it. JM-339 found no government-employment exception based only on the source of compensatio…
Did Texas's 1985 child-abuse law require a minister to report abuse disclosed confidentially by a parishioner, and could the minister be made to testify?
Yes. JM-342 concluded that the reporting statute covered clergy, that child-abuse proceedings displaced the clergy communication privilege, and that applying the reporting duty did not violate the Fre…
Did Kleberg County have to sell its county hospital at public auction after following the hospital-sale statutes?
No. JM-335 concluded that article 1577's general public-auction procedure did not apply when a county sold a hospital under the more specific authority of article 4494l or article 4437e-2.
Could Bastrop County maintain a privately owned road that subdivision residents used as their only access to a county road?
No, not on the stated facts. JM-334 found no general county authority to maintain private roads and no public interest in this road through purchase, condemnation, qualifying dedication, or adverse po…
Could the Alice municipal judge keep serving after becoming Jim Wells County auditor if the judge refused the municipal salary?
No. JM-333 concluded that both positions were civil offices of emolument, so accepting and qualifying as county auditor vacated the municipal judgeship, and refusing its salary did not change that res…
Did the Texas Office of Public Utility Counsel's volunteer citizens advisory panel have to hold publicly noticed meetings?
No, based on the described facts. JM-331 concluded that the panel was purely advisory and did not supervise or control public business, so its meetings were outside the Open Meetings Act.
Could Texas let a heavily state-funded private nonprofit use the state telecommunications system to lower its long-distance costs?
No. JM-330 concluded that article 601b, section 10.07, limited access to governmental entities of the listed class, and a private nonprofit did not become such an agency merely by receiving public fun…
Could Houston use a weighted-average wage study instead of determining the general prevailing wage for each public-works craft?
Not if weighted average and prevailing wage were different standards. JM-329 concluded that article 5159a required Houston to determine the actual predominant local wage for each craft and state it as…
Did Texas county floodplain rules required by the National Flood Insurance Program amount to an unconstitutional taking or equal-protection violation?
Not on their face. JM-328 concluded that county rules tracking the federal floodway standard did not facially take property and that phased enforcement in designated areas did not facially deny equal …
Could a Texas county use general county money to pay Hospital Project Financing Act bonds or operate the hospital built with those bonds?
No. JM-327 concluded that article 4437e-2 limited bond payments and hospital-project operating costs to bond proceeds, project revenue, or revenue provided by a nonprofit corporation.
Could Wichita County reduce the county attorney's salary after adopting the annual budget, and did accepting the lower pay waive the difference?
No on both questions. JM-326 concluded that the elected county attorney's salary could not be reduced until the next fiscal year's budget process, and accepting less did not waive the salary fixed by …
Could Cleburne remove police-dispatcher jobs from its civil service system without taking protection away from current dispatchers?
Yes, prospectively. JM-325 concluded that Cleburne could remove the dispatcher position from future civil-service coverage in good faith, but could not strip protection already fixed for current emplo…
Could Nueces County pay a nonprofit to run anti-litter education, organize cleanups, and distribute trash receptacles?
Yes, through a controlled contract rather than an unrestricted grant. JM-324 concluded that the county could pay a nonprofit for litter-abatement work if the agreement secured an adequate return that …
How could Rusk County dispose of abandoned road rights-of-way when county records did not show how the land was originally acquired?
After a lawful abandonment, JM-332 concluded that county-owned right-of-way property had to be disposed of through article 1577's procedure, even when records did not reveal the original acquisition m…
Could Texas appropriate interest earned on non-constitutionally dedicated money in the State Highway Fund for general revenue purposes?
Yes. JM-323 concluded that interest on statutory highway-fund money could be severed into general revenue, while interest on constitutionally dedicated revenue and trust funds had to remain with those…
Did the state's FICA contribution for a Galveston County district judge count as salary when calculating county court and probate judge pay?
No. JM-322 concluded that article 695h expressly excluded state Social Security contributions from compensation, so they were not part of the district-judge salary base used for local judicial salarie…
Could Texas divert interest earned on constitutionally dedicated highway funds into general revenue by an appropriations rider or statute?
No. JM-321 concluded that interest followed the constitutionally dedicated highway principal and could not be diverted to general revenue by either an appropriations rider or an ordinary statute.
Could Texas Parks and Wildlife cite a sailboard user under section 31.073 for not carrying a Coast Guard-approved life jacket?
No. JM-320 concluded that a sailboard was not a sailboat for section 31.073, so the department could not use that provision to cite a sailboard user for lacking an onboard lifesaving device.
Did Cass County have to supplement its criminal district attorney's state salary for civil work normally performed by a county attorney?
No. JM-319 concluded that the commissioners court could refuse a supplement, but if it chose to pay one, the amount could not be less than the county compensation paid to its highest-paid district jud…
Did Dallas County need a separate filing system for civil cases appealed from justice courts to county courts at law?
No. JM-318 concluded that justice-court appeals had to be numbered consecutively with other filings and assigned among Dallas County courts at law in the same rotation.
Could a Texas commissioners court approve a subdivision plat and maintain its roads when some landowners had not signed the dedication?
Not on the unsigned plat alone. JM-317 concluded that all owners had to acknowledge the plat, but missing owners could separately evidence an intent to dedicate and the court could then accept the roa…
Could a Texas municipal court try a 15- or 16-year-old for a nontraffic Class C misdemeanor when the child had fewer than three prior convictions?
No. JM-316 concluded that the municipal court had to transfer the case to juvenile court under Family Code section 51.08 unless juvenile-court jurisdiction had been waived.
Did Texas's 1984 increase in financial-responsibility minimums automatically raise the liability limits in auto policies already in force?
No. JM-315 concluded that the new minimums did not rewrite an existing policy's liability limits. A previously adequate policy continued to count as proof of financial responsibility until it ended or…
Could the Texas Department of Corrections classify a returned parole or mandatory-supervision violator as a trusty so the inmate could earn good-conduct time?
Yes. JM-314 concluded that article 6184f restricted outside-prison trusty status after a trusty violated that trust, but did not bar a returned parole or mandatory-supervision violator from a trusty c…
What could a Texas prosecutor pay from an article 53.08 hot-check fund, and did the commissioners court have to approve each expense?
JM-313 concluded that the prosecutor did not need commissioners-court approval and could use the fund for reasonable salaries and expenses of the whole office, not just bad-check work. It barred retro…
Did Texas have to appoint a lawyer for every indigent person charged with a misdemeanor, including a fine-only case in justice court?
No. JM-312 concluded that neither the Constitution nor Code of Criminal Procedure article 26.04 required appointed counsel when the proceeding carried no possible loss of liberty. It did not decide wh…
Could the Texas Legislature create a temporary amnesty that erased accrued penalties on delinquent property and local sales taxes paid in full?
Yes. JM-311 concluded that House Bill 1751 could extinguish accrued tax penalties during a general amnesty period without violating the cited constitutional bars on releasing taxes or public debts, so…
Could a Texas county clerk own part of a title company and manage it part-time without creating a prohibited conflict of interest?
Yes, on the facts presented. JM-310 concluded that the clerk could hold and manage the interest because he would not act for the company in county business or make county contracting decisions, but he…
Could a Texas public university charge an F-1 international student more tuition than Texas residents or other nonresident students?
Texas could charge an F-1 student the nonresident rate because the visa conditions prevented establishing Texas domicile. JM-309 concluded, however, that the state could not charge F-1 students more t…
Could Texas require a public-housing tenant to serve on the local housing-authority board without creating an automatic conflict of interest?
Yes. JM-308 concluded that the Legislature could require a tenant commissioner and that living in an authority project was not an interest in a business entity under article 988b, so residency alone d…
Could a Texas judge require a probationer to donate money to Crime Stoppers or repay rewards connected with the probationer's case?
For felony and ordinary misdemeanor probation, JM-307 allowed an individualized donation or case-related reimbursement when reasonably tied to rehabilitation and public protection. It concluded that m…
Did interest earned on Texas's Unemployment Compensation Fund belong to that fund or to the state's General Revenue Fund?
The interest belonged to the Unemployment Compensation Fund. JM-306 concluded that the fund was an out-of-treasury trust held for employees, so the general statute sending depository interest to Gener…
Was cotton-gin trash exempt from Texas commercial-feed registration, labeling, and inspection rules when a gin sold it for farmers?
Only if the farmer still owned the gin trash and the gin sold it as the farmer's agent. JM-305 concluded that the exemption ended if title passed to the ginner, while trash handled by a farmers' coope…
Could a Texas physician charge a patient separately for drugs supplied for self-medication without operating a licensed retail pharmacy?
Generally no. JM-304 concluded that a physician supplying drugs under section 5.09(a) could not charge separately for their cost because that would be retailing drugs. Section 5.09(b) created a narrow…
Did federal special-allowance payments on Texas student loans count as interest that had to flow through the bond interest and sinking fund?
Yes. JM-303 concluded that the federal lender's special allowance was compensation for use of the loan money and therefore counted as interest under Education Code section 52.17.
Could Texas make out-of-state college students wait more than one year for resident tuition or permanently classify them as nonresidents?
JM-302 said one-year tuition-residency requirements had been upheld, but a longer period raised unresolved constitutional questions. It concluded that permanently freezing an entering nonresident's st…
Could a Texas health insurance policy pay less or impose place-of-treatment rules that effectively excluded chiropractors or other listed practitioners?
No, when the covered service was within a listed practitioner's license. The Insurance Code barred both express payment discrimination and neutral-looking place or manner restrictions that had the sam…
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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.