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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Did a 1983 Texas zoning amendment exempt all state and federal agency property from city zoning, or only historically significant sites?
It exempted all buildings, structures, and land under federal or state agency control. JM-117 rejected a reading limited to places of historical, cultural, or architectural significance.
Did a multi-state athletic conference funded by public universities have to follow Texas open-meetings and open-records laws?
Only in part. JM-116 concluded that the proposed Gulf Star Conference was not covered by the Open Meetings Act, but was covered by the Open Records Act because university payments supplied its general…
Was the Texas Legislature legally required to appropriate enough money to cover university employees' minimum insurance premiums?
No. JM-115 said the insurance statute did not obligate later legislatures to fully fund premiums. It declined to decide whether employees at an underfunded university had a cause of action because tha…
Could a Texas agency charge an open-records requester for employee time spent finding, copying, or redacting records?
JM-114 generally said no under the 1983 statute, and identified mandamus as the remedy for disputed charges. The official landing page says ORD-488 partly overruled it after later cost amendments.
When a Texas criminal court is told that a defendant or witness is deaf, must it appoint an interpreter?
Yes. JM-113 said appointment was mandatory once a party notified the court, although the judge could choose the communication method best suited to the person. The county general fund paid reasonable …
Could a Texas city or county adopt its own ban on open containers of alcohol in motor vehicles?
No under the law analyzed in JM-112. The opinion concluded that the Alcoholic Beverage Code exclusively governed possession of alcoholic beverages and preempted a local open-container ban.
Could a Texas county transfer an arrested parolee to state prison before the local parole-revocation hearing?
No. JM-111 said local authorities had to hold the parolee until the hearing was completed or waived, and the Texas Department of Corrections had to refuse a premature transfer.
Could a Texas notary public take a deposition by written questions without acting as a certified shorthand reporter?
Yes. JM-110 concluded that notaries could take non-stenographic written depositions. The certification restriction applied to shorthand reporting of oral proceedings, not every deposition.
Did a Texas county treasurer still have to report directly to the commissioners court when the county also had an auditor?
Yes. JM-109 concluded that the treasurer had to report both to the commissioners court and to the county auditor; the auditor statutes did not impliedly repeal the court-reporting duties.
Did a Texas firefighter pension rule barring new membership after age 35 violate the federal age-discrimination law?
No. JM-108 said the rule limited pension eligibility rather than firefighter hiring, and the federal law allowed bona fide benefit-plan terms that were not a device to evade the act.
If a Texas defendant received a misdemeanor jail term and a separate fine-and-cost sentence on the same day, did the time run together?
No. JM-107 said the jail term and confinement used to discharge the separate fine and costs ran consecutively. It also said a 72-hour sentence meant 72 hours, not three calendar days.
Did Texas Insurance Code article 21.14 make every insurance-agent record confidential, or only records about specified terminations for cause?
Only the specified records. JM-106 concluded that sections 12(c) and 14(c) protected information furnished under those respective sections, not every record submitted under article 21.14.
Could a Texas cable television provider be reimbursed for moving facilities displaced by interstate highway construction even without a property interest in the old location?
Yes. JM-105 concluded that a community antenna or cable television provider furnished communications service and could receive article 6674w-4 reimbursement for an eligible interstate-highway relocati…
Did designating school-district or other local-government land as a Texas state archaeological landmark require the owner to deed the property to the state?
No. JM-104 concluded that landmark designation did not require a deed transfer or remove local management, use, and control, although the Antiquities Committee's preservation authority prevailed when …
Could Somervell County pay a nonprofit committee to operate a senior service center?
Only for authorized county purposes. JM-103 said the county could contract for a center providing public recreation, health care, or support for indigent residents if controls ensured a public purpose…
Could a Texas sheriff or constable appoint a full-time deputy who received no compensation?
Yes. JM-102 concluded that sheriffs and constables could appoint uncompensated deputies to positions approved by the commissioners court, but the deputies had to perform legitimate law-enforcement dut…
Could Jim Wells County hire its county treasurer's private company to acquire highway right-of-way?
Yes, as a matter of law, if the private work was separate from the treasurer's official duties and involved no conflict, self-dealing, misuse of nonpublic information, or dereliction of duty. JM-99 sa…
Did a Texas public school need a child-care license to provide custodial care after the regular school day?
No. JM-98 concluded that section 42.041(b)(7) exempted accredited public schools from Department of Human Resources child-care licensing when they operated part-day custodial programs after school, al…
Did Texas bank-record notice and challenge rules restrict Securities Commissioner subpoenas in criminal securities investigations?
No. JM-101 concluded that article 342-705 did not restrict the Securities Commissioner's bank subpoenas or require advance customer notice and a challenge opportunity when the subpoena was issued in a…
When could a Texas governmental body meet privately with its attorney under the Open Meetings Act?
JM-100 said a governmental body could meet privately with counsel about pending or contemplated litigation, settlement offers, or legal advice. It could not close a meeting for general policy discussi…
Could one person serve at the same time on the Texas higher-education Coordinating Board and a junior college board?
No. JM-97 concluded that the offices were incompatible because the statewide Coordinating Board supervised critical parts of junior-college administration. Accepting one office relinquished the other.
Could Texas impose its distilled-spirits gallonage tax on wholesalers' sales to military installations in the state?
No. JM-96 concluded that federal law and United States v. State of Texas preempted the $2 gallonage tax on distilled spirits sold by Texas wholesalers to United States military installations in Texas.
Did the Texas Open Records Act require a county clerk to provide duplicate microfilm copies of real-property records?
JM-95 said yes and barred limits on who received the copies or how they were used, while prescribing certified and noncertified copy fees. The official Texas AG page says this opinion was overruled to…
What salary could Texas pay an employee temporarily serving in an acting state position?
JM-94 said a classified employee temporarily promoted to another classified position received the increase specified in the appropriations act. For exempt positions, the agency head could pay less tha…
Could a Texas state agency ban outside employment or require its director's approval before an employee took a second job?
Possibly. JM-93 said those policies were not unreasonable or unconstitutional as a matter of law, but their validity depended on careful drafting, demonstrated need, a legitimate government interest, …
Could Texas health officials regulate unsanitary toilets, drinking water, and wash basins on railroad trains?
Partly. JM-92 said state health officials could regulate drinking water and chemical toilets on trains, while home-rule cities and local health officers could regulate or abate qualifying sanitation n…
Was the superintendent of a Texas mental-health facility a public officer subject to state nepotism restrictions?
Yes. JM-91 said a facility superintendent was a public officer because statutes made the superintendent the institution's administrative head and gave that person independent authority to govern the f…
Could the Texas Legislature create a county court at law that sat somewhere other than the county seat?
Yes. JM-90 concluded that no constitutional provision required a legislatively created county court at law to conduct proceedings at the county seat, so the legislature could authorize another locatio…
When did the terms of Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners members expire: the statute's effective date, the first appointments, or the sunset extension date?
JM-89 said the terms expired on April 26 because the original law creating the board took effect on April 27. The first appointments four months later did not move the term cycle, and the 1981 sunset …
Did Texas Insurance Code article 3.68 bar a life insurer from paying premium-based fees to an affiliated service company with the same officers?
JM-88 originally said yes and also applied article 3.68 to commissions based on out-of-state business. JM-187 later withdrew the per se rule for affiliate service fees, while expressly reaffirming JM-…
Could Texas fish farming, shellfish culture, and other aquaculture qualify for agricultural property-tax treatment?
Yes, when the activity involved cultivating or producing aquatic life. JM-87 said fish farming, shellfish culture, and similar mariculture could receive agricultural tax treatment, but merely catching…
Could the Fort Worth Transportation Authority condemn land, including a station or terminal site, without Fort Worth City Council approval?
No. JM-86 concluded that the transit authority needed Fort Worth City Council approval to exercise eminent domain generally and to acquire land for a station or terminal complex.
Could Corpus Christi require pawnshops to keep more detailed customer records and delay redemption for 72 hours?
Corpus Christi could require detailed pawnshop records because that rule complemented state law. It could not impose a 72-hour redemption delay because state law required pledged goods to be returned …
Could a Texas county use combination tax and revenue bonds to build toll roads without violating the constitutional ban on lending public credit?
Yes, assuming the bonds complied with all constitutional and statutory debt requirements. JM-84 said charging tolls did not itself create a constitutional problem and county toll roads could serve a l…
Could Texas impose a 3% gross-receipts tax only on out-of-state railroad-car companies while exempting Texas companies doing the same business?
No. JM-83 concluded that taxing only out-of-state railroad-car companies, with no legitimate purpose for the discrimination, violated the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.
Could a Texas county commissioner donate copyrighted court forms to his own county while marketing the same forms to other counties for personal profit?
No. JM-82 treated the accepted donation as a contract and concluded that the commissioner's planned use of Collin County as a sales showcase created an indirect interest prohibited by article 2364.
Could Harris County release the names and addresses of parents whose infants died from sudden infant death syndrome without the parents' consent?
No. JM-81 concluded that the parents' identities were protected by common-law privacy because disclosure would reveal highly intimate or embarrassing family information with no sufficient public inter…
Could Texas retroactively impose new 67% or unanimous voting rules on condominium declarations and deeds that already contained different amendment rules?
Not when the existing condominium deeds or declarations contained contrary provisions. JM-80 said the new rules were not invalid in every application, but retroactive use that changed existing contrac…
Could the Harris County Commissioners Court reject the hospital district's entire budget because it funded a pregnancy-termination clinic?
Yes. JM-79 concluded that the commissioners court's statutory right of final approval allowed it to reject any hospital-district budget, and no statute required the court to state a reason for disappr…
Did federal disability law prevent Texas from requiring school-bus drivers to meet a minimum hearing standard?
JM-78 said federal law did not categorically bar a reasonable hearing standard, but it did not decide whether the particular rule was fully lawful or reasonable on the facts. A cited district-court ru…
Did using former state ad valorem tax funds exempt Texas public-college construction from Coordinating Board approval?
No. JM-77 said Coordinating Board approval was required whether ad valorem tax receipts funded all or part of the project, unless the legislature itself approved the project. It expressly overruled MW…
Could a Texas university faculty member receive a lump-sum payout or use vacation earned while also serving as an administrator?
The employee could use qualifying vacation leave from administrative duties without losing administrative salary, but could not use it for faculty duties. A returning faculty member was not separated …
When Texas's amended bail-bond law referred to crimes committed after 'the effective date of this Act,' did it mean 1973 or 1981?
It meant August 27, 1973, the original Bail Bond Act's effective date. JM-75 said the 1981 complete reenactment did not reset the cutoff for license eligibility, suspension, or revocation.
Could a Texas appraisal district waive the 5% penalty and 10% interest on a taxing unit's late budget payment?
No. JM-74 said an appraisal district lacked statutory authority to waive or rescind the mandatory penalty and interest. LO-95-62 later reaffirmed that conclusion.
Could a Texas sheriff award county-jail good-time credit for days an inmate served before sentencing?
Yes. JM-73 said presentence confinement was part of the sentence for good-time purposes and had to receive equal consideration. An inmate receiving article 5118a good-time credit could not also receiv…
Could an appraisal district replace its chief appraiser with an independent contractor and let the chief appraiser hire his wife as secretary?
No on both points. JM-72 said the Tax Code did not authorize outsourcing the chief appraiser's statutory office, and the chief appraiser's personnel authority made the nepotism law applicable to hirin…
Who controlled money and property donated to or raised by a county historical commission, and could the commission keep its own bank account?
JM-71 treated the commission as the county's agent. The commissioners court controlled acceptance and disposition of donated real property, while all money, including fundraising receipts and interest…
Could a commissioners court control state Professional Prosecutors Act funds paid to a district attorney, and how could those funds appear in the county budget?
JM-70 said the district attorney controlled the state funds for authorized office expenses. The commissioners court could show their availability but could not direct their use or include them in the …
Was a motor-carrier permit or certificate transferred for tax purposes when a creditor took it after default on a secured note, and how was the transfer tax calculated?
Yes. JM-69 treated the assignment after default as a taxable transfer when the creditor could continue service. The tax was 10% of the cancelled debt plus 10% of additional cash consideration—$7,500.1…
Was Senate Bill No. 1's definition of intoxication as an alcohol concentration of 0.10% or more unconstitutionally vague?
No. JM-68 concluded that the per-se definition gave drinking drivers constitutionally adequate notice. It replaced a rebuttable presumption with an alternate statutory method of committing DWI while l…
Was the Texas Catastrophe Property Insurance Association's plan of operation an administrative rule, and if so, whose rule was it?
JM-67 said the plan was a rule of the State Board of Insurance, not of the association. The association could only propose a plan; the board's approval adopted it as the agency's broadly applicable st…
Could the Texas State Treasurer use wire transfers to move money between state depository banks and collect money into the treasury?
Yes. JM-66 said an inter-depository transfer kept money within the treasury and under the treasurer's control. The statutory remittance methods were minimum authorized forms, not an exhaustive ban on …
Could Mason County fund the general operations of a privately owned nonprofit hospital or pay it for indigent care and ambulance-related services?
The county could not donate money for the private hospital's general operations. It could contract for authorized county services such as indigent medical care and public-health ambulance functions if…
Did an appropriations rider violate the Texas Constitution by treating two affidavits as adequate proof of citizenship or residency for state-funded health services?
No. JM-64 said the affidavit sentence merely explained the rider's funding restriction and was necessarily connected and incidental to the appropriation. It did not amend other law or enact unrelated …
Did the county judge or county clerk control preparation of a commissioners court's meeting agenda?
Neither. JM-63 said the commissioners court as a whole controlled and could amend its agenda. It could designate an agenda clerk and prescribe submission procedures, but every court member had to be a…
Could lay bail bondsmen appear in bond-forfeiture proceedings and file motions for a bonding company, partnership, or corporate surety?
No. JM-62 said lay bondsmen could represent themselves and their own interests, but could not appear, prepare motions, or request relief for other people, partnerships, bonding companies, or corporate…
How did a county have to hold, disburse, and use state voter-registration reimbursement money?
JM-61 required deposit with the county treasurer in a special county-depository fund, commissioners-court action before disbursement, and use for reasonable registrar expenses directly attributable to…
Did Texas's small-school personnel-unit formula violate state equal protection or the constitutional duty to maintain an efficient public-school system?
No. JM-60 assumed without deciding that strict scrutiny might apply and found the formula justified by compelling resource-allocation needs. It also held that minimum enrollment and distance rules pro…
Were concession rights held by a nonprofit operating a golf course in a Texas state park exempt from property tax?
No. JM-59 said the underlying state land remained exempt because the golf course served a public purpose, but the concessionaire held a separately taxable possessory interest. The Tax Code exempted ce…
Could the legislature require Senate confirmation of executive-agency heads who were not appointed by the governor?
No. JM-58 said Senate confirmation under article IV, section 12 applied to governor-appointed state or district officers. Requiring confirmation of employees, non-state officers, or officers appointed…
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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.