Virginia Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Virginia, with full citations and the original source on every page.
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Can the Governor of Virginia create a Chief Diversity, Opportunity & Inclusion Officer position in the cabinet by executive order, when state law also creates a Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?
Yes. The Governor's general executive authority under Article V, plus statutes giving him control over executive branch policy and personnel, lets him designate additional cabinet officers by executiv…
Can Virginia's Commonwealth Transportation Board authorize license plate reader cameras to be installed on state highways for law enforcement?
No. The Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) lacks the statutory authority to amend its Land Use Permit Regulations to authorize the installation of license plate reader (LPR) cameras in VDOT right…
Can a Virginia Governor, by executive order alone, end the state's participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the requirement that electric utilities hold CO2 allowances?
No. The Governor of Virginia cannot, by executive order or other executive action alone, repeal or eliminate the regulatory requirement (under the 2020 Clean Energy and Community Flood Preparedness Ac…
Can a Virginia Governor unilaterally suspend, delay, or alter the Commonwealth's tax laws without the General Assembly approving it?
No. The Virginia Constitution vests the taxing power in the General Assembly. Without specific authority from the legislature (statute or law's enactment clause), the Governor cannot suspend, delay, o…
Can the Virginia General Assembly expel a member who participated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol?
Yes. Although Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment may require congressional enabling legislation to be operative, the Virginia Constitution (art. IV, § 7) gives each chamber of the General Assembly …
Does the Virginia State Bar's 60-day suspension for unpaid dues conflict with the statutory two-year forfeiture rule, and is the Supreme Court's rule unconstitutional?
No. The Virginia AG concluded the 60-day administrative suspension in the Rules of the Supreme Court is a permissible exercise of the Court's rulemaking authority under § 54.1-3912 and does not confli…
Would Virginia's proposed Growth and Opportunity Board, with legislators in the majority and a legislator veto, violate the state constitution?
The AG identified two significant constitutional risks in House Bill 834. The Growth and Opportunity Board's composition gave legislators and their appointees majority control over an executive-branch…
Can the Governor of Virginia simply refuse to enforce a law that was passed by the General Assembly and signed into law?
No, absent statutory or enactment-clause authority. The opinion concluded that the Governor of Virginia must enforce valid, duly enacted laws unless the power to delay or suspend enforcement is grante…
Could the Governor of Virginia order the Department of Taxation to let same-sex couples file joint state income tax returns?
Issued in January 2014, before Bostic v. Schaefer (4th Cir. 2014) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) struck down state bans on same-sex marriage. The opinion concluded that a Virginia Governor could not …
Can the Governor of Virginia issue an executive order or guidance document that suspends a state regulation?
No. The opinion concluded that the Virginia Constitution prohibits the Governor from unilaterally suspending the operation of a validly adopted regulation that has the force of law. Three independent …
Can Virginia's legislature pass a budget that lets a small commission of legislators decide later whether to expand Medicaid under Obamacare?
No. The 2013 budget act created the Medicaid Innovation and Reform Commission and delegated to it the final call on whether Virginia would expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, contingent on …
Can the Virginia General Assembly delegate final say over a budget item, like Medicaid expansion, to a small subset of legislators?
No. Article IV, § 11 of the Virginia Constitution requires that a bill be passed by a majority of those voting in each house, and budget bills require an affirmative vote of a majority of all the memb…
Can Virginia's Governor accept and spend federal education grant funds without an appropriation from the General Assembly?
No, an appropriations act is required to spend revenues of the Commonwealth, including federal grant funds. But where the General Assembly has already provided for the appropriation of those funds, th…
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Attorney general opinions in Virginia are written by the Virginia 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.