State AG Opinions
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If a newly merged North Carolina county school board has a vacancy and the merger plan says the remaining board members 'shall appoint' a replacement, can the board legally just leave the seat empty until the next election?
No. The Cabarrus County/Concord City school merger plan, ratified under G.S. § 115C-68.3 and treated as if enacted by the General Assembly, mandates that 'in the event of a vacancy on the merged board…
Does the student member of the South Dakota Board of Regents have to satisfy the rule that no two regents may reside in the same county, where student regents typically register to vote in the college town like other students?
No. The student regent's qualifications are set by SDCL 13-49-6.1, not by the general regents statute SDCL 13-49-2. The specific student-regent statute controls, and it does not impose a one-regent-pe…
Could Maryland CPAs share a client's tax return information with another accounting firm doing a confidential quality peer review of their work?
The opinion concluded that Maryland law did not prohibit a CPA firm from disclosing client information, including tax return information, to another CPA firm conducting a confidential quality review o…
Could the General Assembly require a landfill developer to get the approval of the local county or city before the state issued a landfill permit, or was that an unconstitutional delegation?
Probably constitutional, the AG concluded after short-time review. G.S. § 130A-294(a)(4), proposed for amendment by S.B. 1003, required local government approval for sanitary landfills within their ju…
If the NC Court of Appeals' ruling in Fulton v. Justus that the intangibles tax provision in G.S. § 105-203 is unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause stands on appeal, what is the State's refund exposure, and would the proposed SB 1245 substitute exclusion fraction fix the constitutional defect?
The AG concluded that the substitute exclusion fraction in the proposed SB 1245 would not survive a Commerce Clause challenge under the Fulton v. Justus analysis; there is no meaningful distinction be…
If I set up a property-tax installment plan before July 1, can the county still hit me with the 15% collection penalty?
The Attorney General concluded no. A delinquent-tax penalty a county adopts under Tax Code section 33.07 (up to 15% to cover the cost of collection) does not apply to delinquent taxes that are subject…
When two 1991 Texas laws on minority-business contracting goals conflicted, which one controlled cities?
The Attorney General concluded that two 1991 amendments to the same statute conflicted, and that House Bill 338 prevailed, because a special instruction in Senate Bill 992 overrode the usual rule favo…
Can the Texas prison system run its own work-program facility for inmate labor, or can only cities and counties own one?
The Attorney General concluded that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice could not own or operate a 'work program facility,' because chapter 497, subchapter C of the Government Code reserves those…
Can a Texas city give a public park to a hospital district without holding an election?
The Attorney General concluded the city did not have to hold the usual park-sale election, because the hospital district held the power of eminent domain. But the city still could not give the park aw…
When the NC General Assembly opened bear season in Camden and Pasquotank counties two days earlier than the statewide season (creating a Saturday and Sunday opening before the Monday statewide opener), could hunters use firearms on that Sunday?
No to firearms, yes to other lawful methods. N.C.G.S. § 103-2 made Sunday hunting with firearms (shotgun, rifle, or pistol) a misdemeanor statewide, with no exception for the early local season in 199…
Does a public school system have to keep paying for an employee's health insurance during unpaid family or medical leave under FMLA?
Yes. The NC AG concluded that local education agencies must maintain and pay for eligible employees' group health benefits during FMLA leave, the same as private employers. The argument that the Inter…
Does a contractor need a North Carolina general contractor's license to build a project paid for with federal money, or on federal property?
It depends on the type of federal involvement, the AG concluded. On a federal enclave like Fort Bragg where the U.S. retains exclusive jurisdiction, state licensing usually cannot be enforced. On a pr…
Can North Carolina coastal counties and towns pass their own ordinances regulating commercial and recreational fishing in their waters, or did the General Assembly take that power away?
The General Assembly took that power away in 1965 and has not given it back. N.C.G.S. § 113-133 declares that the enjoyment of the state's marine and estuarine resources belongs to the people of the s…
Can a North Carolina community college refuse to admit a 16-year-old who has a history of behavioral problems, when the rule lets the college admit minors with 'special needs'?
Sometimes. The AG concluded that community colleges are not required to admit 16-to-18-year-olds at all; the 'special needs' rule (23 NCAC 2C .0305(b)) is permissive. If the college does choose to adm…
If the NC General Assembly bans purse seine menhaden fishing in the coastal waters next to Dare County, does that count as a 'general law' the legislature can freely enact, or as a 'local law' that bumps into the NC Constitution's limits on local legislation?
It depends on showing the bill addresses matters of state-wide interest. The AG concluded that SB 991 can be defended as a general law under the Town of Emerald Isle test if the bill or its legislativ…
When the federal government forfeits a North Carolina house held in tenancy by the entirety because one spouse used it for crime, can the federal court use the North Carolina RICO Act's automatic conversion provision to forfeit only that spouse's half?
Yes, as a matter of North Carolina law. The North Carolina RICO Act, N.C.G.S. § 75D-8(a)(1), automatically converts entirety property to a tenancy in common on entry of a final judgment of forfeiture …
Can a Texas licensing board decide a discipline case on its own after watching the hearing, or must it wait for the administrative law judge's ruling?
The Attorney General concluded that a licensing board required to use the State Office of Administrative Hearings could not make its own findings of fact and conclusions of law, even when a quorum of …
Does HB 818, which says NC city and county employees can engage in political activities off duty, secretly change NC's right-to-work laws or end NC's prohibition on collective bargaining by public employees?
No. The AG concluded that HB 818 amends only G.S. §§ 153A-99 and 160A-169, which deal with off-duty political activities by city and county employees (affiliating with civic organizations, attending p…
Can a Texas justice of the peace dismiss a traffic ticket if the driver doesn't finish the required driving safety course?
The Attorney General concluded no. Article 45.54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as amended in 1991, made a justice's order to complete a driving safety course mandatory. A justice could dismiss th…
Can a bank director who is not also a bank officer or employee serve on the North Carolina State Banking Commission, either as a 'practical banker' member or as a representative of the borrowing public?
No, and no. The qualifications for the Commission in N.C.G.S. § 53-92 require the Governor to appoint five practical bankers and seven representatives of the borrowing public. The borrowing-public rep…
Was 1993 N.C. House Bill 1109 (authorizing counties and cities to extend water/sewer to private industry, pay for site preparation for private industrial facilities, and statewide extend land-acquisition-and-conveyance powers for industrial recruitment) constitutional under the NC public-purpose and adequate-consideration clauses, and would a local-bill version of the same content raise an equal-protection problem?
The AG concluded the water/sewer extension provision raised no serious constitutional problem (utility service to industry has long been authorized). The site-preparation and statewide acquisition/con…
Can a NC city or town appropriate municipal funds to help a local school board buy property that will mostly be used as a school parking lot, but that the town will also use a few days a year?
Not for the school portion. The AG concluded that a NC town has no authority to appropriate municipal funds to acquire property that will be used for school or school-related purposes. The town may ap…
Can a Texas city make businesses that serve alcohol sell condoms when other businesses don't have to?
The Attorney General concluded no. Houston proposed an ordinance requiring premises that sell alcohol for on-premises consumption to stock condoms for sale and to post HIV/STD information in restrooms…
Can a South Dakota legislator (or anyone from the public) see how many jobs a REDI Fund loan recipient created, what hourly wages those jobs pay, and what benefits are included?
The number of jobs created is public. Company-specific wage and benefit data is confidential under SDCL 1-16G-11 because it qualifies as financial information about a business operation. The Board of …
Can a county commissioner put an item on the agenda or revisit something the court already voted on?
The Attorney General concluded that a commissioners court may reconsider an issue at a later meeting even after taking final action, as long as the topic is properly noticed under the Open Meetings Ac…
Can a board member listen to the recording of a closed meeting they took part in?
The Attorney General concluded yes. The Open Meetings Act requires a governmental body to keep a certified agenda or tape recording of a closed meeting, and it forbids releasing that record except to …
When a client escapes from a NC state psychiatric hospital like Broughton, how widely do staff have to notify law enforcement, and does it matter whether the client has a history of violence?
The AG concluded that G.S. § 122C-205 requires the facility to notify law enforcement wherever staff have 'reasonable grounds to believe' the escaped client may be found, including out-of-state agenci…
Can a Texas county set goals for awarding contracts to minority and women-owned businesses?
The Attorney General concluded that Local Government Code section 381.004, which lets counties set up programs to reasonably increase minority and women-owned business participation by establishing a …
If the State Ports Authority installs meters and bills its tenants for the electricity they actually use, does that make the Authority a public utility subject to North Carolina Utilities Commission regulation?
No. The State Ports Authority is a true state agency, not a 'person' within the meaning of N.C.G.S. § 62-3(21), so it cannot be a 'public utility' under N.C.G.S. § 62-3(23). The Utilities Commission h…
If the State sends more money to a NC county's area mental-health, developmental-disabilities, and substance-abuse authority mid-year, or if the authority collects more fees than it budgeted, can the county trim its own contribution by the same amount?
No to both. The AG concluded that G.S. § 122C-146 expressly bars the county from using extra fee collections to justify a mid-year cut in its local tax-revenue commitment. And on the state-funds side,…
Who pays the medical bills for an indigent inmate held in a Texas county jail?
The Attorney General concluded that it turns on where the inmate lives. If an indigent jail inmate is a resident of a hospital district, that district pays for the medical care, even when the inmate i…
When the 1991 NC legislature rewrote the state personnel statutes to make career-employee status depend on job level rather than pay grade, and said the new rules applied to employees hired on or after July 1, 1993, did that leave employees hired before July 1, 1993 stuck under the old (slower) tenure rules?
No. Reading the act to create a dual personnel system (where current employees achieve career status more slowly than new hires) would raise serious equal-protection and class-legislation problems. Th…
Could the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority pull legislative appropriations out of its Reserve Trust Fund and put them in a separate Contingency Reserve Trust Fund managed by the State Treasurer?
Yes, with one explicit limit. The Authority had power under G.S. § 116-204 and other provisions of Article 23 (particularly § 116-209.3) to create a Contingency Reserve Trust Fund and transfer to it t…
What did Maryland's new Health Care Decisions Act mean by 'end-stage condition,' and who was allowed to make medical decisions for an incapacitated patient who never signed an advance directive?
The opinion interpreted several parts of Maryland's newly enacted Health Care Decisions Act, including how 'end-stage condition' should be understood, how a court-appointed guardian fit into the prior…
Can a bail bond company hold multiple agent licenses, and does that give it extra votes on the county board?
The Attorney General concluded that the answers split. A corporate surety must get a separate license for each agent it authorizes to write bail bonds, and the board can issue those multiple licenses,…
Can a former state regulatory board member lobby that same board right after leaving office?
The Attorney General concluded that a former Polygraph Examiners Board member cannot sponsor a polygraph intern until two years after leaving the board. The state's revolving-door statute (V.T.C.S. ar…
Can the Idaho Public Utilities Commission set safety, equipment, insurance, and operator-licensing rules for tow truck operators?
Yes, mostly. Tow trucks fit Idaho's statutory definition of 'common carrier' under the Motor Carrier Act, so the PUC has authority to regulate equipment, safety, operator qualifications, insurance, an…
Can Cumberland County put a car tax on vehicles owned by people who aren't in the military but live on Fort Bragg?
Probably not, but the answer turns on when the federal government acquired Fort Bragg and how. If the federal government acquired Fort Bragg under the Jurisdiction Clause with North Carolina's consent…
Can a North Carolina bank's trust department market and sign preneed funeral arrangements with customers, with a funeral home as the service provider?
No. After the 1992 General Assembly moved preneed regulation from the Banking Commission to the Board of Mortuary Science and recodified the rules as Article 13D of Chapter 90, the previous statutory …
Did Maryland's blind-made-products law require Blind Industries and Services of Maryland's vending machine business to keep mostly blind employees, even though the snacks and drinks weren't made by blind workers?
The opinion concluded that Maryland's law requiring products sold as 'made by the blind' to have at least 75 percent blind direct labor applied to Blind Industries and Services of Maryland's vending m…
When Monroe City and Union County school systems merged in 1993, did the two separate voter-approved local school taxes collapse into one county-wide tax, and could either tax pay for any school in the merged system?
The two tax districts stayed separate, but the proceeds could fund the whole merged system. The State Board of Education's merger plan, ratified by G.S. § 115C-68.3 as if enacted by the General Assemb…
Was the 1992 contract awarding NCDOT employees' supplemental-insurance payroll deduction slot to Colonial Life valid, given that the NCDOT Insurance Committee's members were not appointed on rotating terms and the contract was signed by both the Committee and the Department, with third-party Agents of Record listed as parties?
Mostly yes, with one carve-out. The AG concluded that under G.S. § 58-31-60 the Insurance Committee is autonomous in selecting insurance products and awarding payroll deduction slots. The Committee's …
Can the North Carolina State Highway Patrol assign State-owned vehicles to civilian (non-sworn) employees like radio technicians and mechanics to drive home and back, and if so, do those civilian employees have to pay the State a commuting fee?
Yes, the Highway Patrol can assign State vehicles to civilian on-call employees for commuting, and they do not have to pay a commuting fee. Under IRS guidance, on-call emergency-response vehicles are …
Does the NC law that limits gifts and favors from contractors to government officials (G.S. 133-32) apply to outside attorneys and law firms that represent a local school board, and can those attorneys buy meals or gifts for school-board members or administrators?
Yes. The AG held that a local board of education is a 'governmental agency' and that an attorney or law firm retained to provide legal services is a 'contractor' for purposes of G.S. 133-32(a). So the…
What standards should the NC State Superintendent of Public Instruction apply when approving or rejecting local school districts' differentiated pay plans, and can those plans pay teachers extra just for joining a particular professional organization or for years of experience already covered by the state salary schedule?
The AG concluded that the State Superintendent should apply three criteria: was the plan adopted under the procedures in G.S. § 115C-238.3(c), is it based on one or more of the five pay-plan types lis…
Can a parent sign over court-ordered child support to a collection company without going back to court?
The Attorney General concluded no. A custodial parent (managing conservator) filed a limited power of attorney with the district clerk naming a collection company to receive her child's support paymen…
If South Dakota law requires one of the trustees of a county hospital to be a 'legally-qualified physician or nurse,' does that person have to hold an active medical license, or does an inactive license satisfy the rule?
An inactive license is sufficient. The 1993 SD AG read the statutory phrase 'legally qualified' as different from 'licensed.' A physician or nurse who has met the licensure requirements of SDCL ch. 36…
Can a Texas home-rule city add its own pesticide notice and reporting rules on top of state pest-control law?
The Attorney General concluded it depends on the provision. The City of Greenville's ordinance required 24-hour advance notice of indoor pesticide applications, but the Structural Pest Control Act set…
Can the Maine Legislature, by ordinary statute (LD 1350), establish a recall election mechanism for the Governor, State Senators, and State Representatives, or does that require a constitutional amendment?
Unconstitutional, requires amendment. The AG concluded that LD 1350 (which would have established a statutory mechanism for citizens to petition for and trigger a recall election against the Governor,…
Under N.C. Rule of Civil Procedure 4(h), when can a clerk of superior court appoint a private process server to serve a summons, and does the sheriff 'neglect' his duty within the meaning of the rule if he diligently tries but cannot find the defendant?
Only when the sheriff has actually neglected the duty (refused to make service or made no reasonable attempt) can the clerk appoint a private process server. A sheriff who makes a reasonable, good-fai…
Can a private security company in DC use one Special Police Officer commission to cover several separately owned buildings, and have that officer walk or drive between them on public sidewalks?
Yes. Both armed and unarmed Special Police Officers can patrol several separately owned residential and commercial buildings under one commission, and they can travel across public space between those…
In Minnesota, are tribal or individual Indian lands held in fee simple exempt from local property tax under the 'Indian lands' exemption in § 272.01?
No. The AG concluded that the 'Indian lands' tax exemption in Minn. Stat. § 272.01, subd. 1 covers only land held in trust by the United States for an Indian tribe or member, and land held by a tribe …
Could the Avery County Sheriff's Department hold and spend voluntary cash 'gifts' from arrested defendants in a separate 'Drug Fund' outside the county budget, and could the county finance officer cut the sheriff's regular appropriation by the amount in that fund?
Both questions answered no, and the AG flagged a deeper problem. The sheriff was accepting voluntary cash from defendants awaiting trial on Controlled Substances Act charges, depositing it in a separa…
Who can collect rollback taxes on farmland that changed use, after the law moved that job to the appraisal district?
The Attorney General concluded it depends on timing. The 1989 amendment to Tax Code section 23.55(e) moved the power to determine a change of use of agricultural land (and to notify the owner) from th…
Can a Texas licensing board charge a fee that its governing statute does not specifically authorize?
The Attorney General concluded that it cannot. The Board of Licensure for Nursing Home Administrators wanted to collect a $10 fee for each participant in continuing-education courses approved for cred…
Can a Texas city use sales-tax money to pay for a homestead exemption instead of lowering the property tax rate?
The Attorney General concluded that a city may not. An additional sales and use tax adopted under Tax Code section 321.101(b) must be used first to reduce the property tax rate, and a homestead exempt…
Can a Texas agency block state payments to someone who owes it fees?
The Attorney General concluded that the Texas Surplus Property Agency could use Government Code section 403.055 to collect unpaid service-and-handling charges by asking the Comptroller to withhold sta…
Is school bus fuel tax-free in Texas if a private contractor runs the buses?
The Attorney General concluded that the Tax Code's gasoline-tax exemption for fuel sold 'to a public school district in this state for its exclusive use' does cover fuel a district buys directly and h…
Can a state or local law enforcement agency in North Carolina turn property seized under a state search or seizure warrant over to federal authorities for federal forfeiture, or does a NC court have to release the property first?
Yes, the agency can hand the property to federal authorities without a state-court turnover order. The AG concluded that NC search-warrant statutes (G.S. § 15A-11.1 and § 15A-258) allow transfer to fe…
Can a Minnesota police officer issue a traffic citation for a misdemeanor traffic offense that the officer did not personally see, but learned about later from investigation?
Yes, with limits. The AG concluded that an officer with probable cause may issue a uniform traffic ticket for a misdemeanor not committed in the officer's presence, as long as the officer does not pla…
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