State AG Opinions
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Can a Maine town's public library charge patrons a rental fee to borrow videocassettes, the way a video store does?
No. AG Tierney concluded that 27 M.R.S.A. § 101 et seq. authorized only 'free' public libraries for the 'free use' of town inhabitants, and that included videocassettes; the library could still charge…
If the U.S. Department of Education recognizes an accrediting organization for chiropractic schools, does the Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners have to accept that organization's accreditation when deciding who is eligible for a Texas chiropractic license?
No. The Attorney General concluded that federal recognition of the Straight Chiropractic Academic Standards Association for certain federal purposes does not by itself require the Texas Board of Chiro…
Could the Texas Industrial Accident Board limit workers' compensation attorney fees to 15% of a claimant's recovery unless the lawyer showed his hours justified more?
The Attorney General concluded no, that rule was invalid. Texas courts consider many factors beyond hours worked in setting a reasonable attorney's fee, such as the case's complexity, the amount at st…
Can a Texas public university use campus space and staff for a private faculty club without violating the constitutional ban on gifts of public property?
The Attorney General concluded that Texas A&M University could operate a faculty club as an auxiliary enterprise without violating article III, section 51 of the Texas Constitution, as long as the arr…
When someone wins or loses an employment discrimination case brought under the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act, is the standard for who counts as the 'prevailing party' entitled to attorney's fees the same standard used under the federal Title VII law it was modeled on?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that 'prevailing party' in section 7.01(e) of the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act should be construed the same way the U.S. Supreme Court construed that term f…
Could Maryland keep holding public hearings on group home licenses for people with mental disabilities after the federal Fair Housing Amendments Act?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that Maryland could keep holding public hearings on group home license applications, but only within federal limits. The Developmental Disabilities Law's hearing…
Can Maryland require state employees in safety-sensitive jobs to take drug tests without individual suspicion?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that House Bill 370, which authorized drug testing of state applicants and employees, was constitutional, and that the state could require even random, suspicion…
Can Maryland Legal Services Corporation money pay for legal help for organizations, or only for individual poor clients?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that the Maryland Legal Services Corporation could make grants for legal assistance to organizations composed primarily of individuals who were themselves eligib…
Can a Maryland sheriff put an inmate on home detention without a court order?
No. The Attorney General concluded that a sheriff's legal duty to keep prisoners in jail can be relaxed only by statute or court order, and Article 27's 'employment of prisoners' subtitle authorizes h…
Can a county government audit its school board's management practices, or only its finances?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that Carroll County's power under ED §5-108(d) to audit its Board of Education was limited to the board's financial transactions and accounts. It did not authori…
Can the public get copies of the reports abortion clinics file with the Texas health department, or find out whether a specific clinic is a licensed abortion facility?
The Attorney General concluded no. The Texas Abortion Facility Reporting and Licensing Act makes all information and records the Department of Health holds under that chapter confidential and outside …
If a snack food seller uses cardboard 'honor system' boxes with a money slot, can the seller treat sales through those boxes as exempt vending machine sales for Maine sales tax purposes?
No. AG Tierney concluded that a cardboard 'honor system' box was not a 'coin-operated vending machine' within 36 M.R.S.A. § 1760(34), so the seller had to collect Maine sales tax on retail sales rathe…
Can the cost of an extended warranty on a used car be financed along with the car loan in Maryland?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that a 1989 law let a car buyer finance the cost of a mechanical repair contract (an extended warranty or service contract) as long as any original manufacturer'…
Are a Texas county clerk's audio tapes of commissioners court meetings public records under the Open Records Act, even if she calls them her private notes?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Audio tape recordings a county clerk makes of commissioners court meetings, used to help prepare the official minutes, are subject to the Open Records Act because t…
When a Maine regional vocational center director excludes a student from the program for disciplinary reasons, does the student get a full due-process hearing before the school board, or is informal notice from the director enough?
Assistant AG Pidot concluded that vocational-center students have a property interest in continued attendance under Goss v. Lopez, and any exclusion whose cumulative impact exceeds ten days requires a…
Can a Texas appraisal district set up its own local pension plan for its employees, the way a city or county can?
A state senator asked the Attorney General to spell out what retirement plans an appraisal district may offer its employees, after an earlier opinion (JM-1068) held that appraisal districts lacked aut…
In Maryland, does a therapist have to report suspected child abuse if the patient was referred by a lawyer?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that a mental health provider, such as a psychiatrist or therapist, must report suspected child abuse or neglect even when the person who disclosed it was referr…
Can a hazardous waste facility use a corporate guarantee instead of a bond to meet Maryland's financial assurance rule?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that the Maryland Department of the Environment could let a hazardous substance facility satisfy its financial assurance requirement with a corporate guarantee t…
Does Texas law require a child's parent to consent before the child, as a witness or complainant rather than a suspect, is given a polygraph test?
The Attorney General concluded that the Family Code's specific consent requirement, section 51.151, only applies to a child who has been taken into custody as a suspect, not to a child complainant or …
Does the pay a Texas district judge gets for serving on a county juvenile board count toward the legislature's cap on the judge's total salary?
The Attorney General concluded yes. Even though House Bill 101 (1989) directly capped only the district judge's combined state-and-county salary, and the juvenile board statute paid a judge separately…
Must a security officer hired by a Texas harbor or port board be armed to be licensed by the state's law enforcement standards commission?
The Attorney General concluded yes, for security officers employed under article 1187f. The Government Code defines a licensable 'public security officer' as an armed officer employed by the state or …
If the legislature gives a Texas district judge a raise mid-year, does the county's court-at-law judge whose pay is tied to it get a raise automatically, and can the county amend an already-adopted budget to pay for it?
The Attorney General concluded that the raise was automatic and took effect on the legislature's effective date, not at the discretion of the commissioners court, because the county court-at-law judge…
Can a Texas county auditor require the tax assessor-collector to file notarized weekly revenue reports?
The Attorney General concluded no, at least in counties with fewer than 190,000 people. Local Government Code sections 112.001 and 114.003 give the auditor authority to require unsworn 'statements' fr…
Does a Texas county attorney's office count as a 'specialized local entity' under the county purchasing law, and what counts as a 'professional service' exempt from competitive bidding?
The Attorney General concluded that a county attorney's office, even one performing district-attorney-type duties under the Professional Prosecutors Act, is not a 'specialized local entity' under sect…
After the U.S. Supreme Court's 1989 City of Richmond v. Croson decision held that local racial set-asides in public contracting must survive strict scrutiny, are North Carolina's minority-business participation provisions in G.S. 143-128, G.S. 136-28.4, G.S. 160A-17.1, the 1989 prison-construction appropriation, and Executive Order 77 still constitutional?
Yes. The 1990 AG concluded that the North Carolina provisions are facially constitutional under Croson because each one creates only a 'verifiable goal' for minority-business participation, implemente…
Can Maryland raise the pay of a State Roads Commission member in the middle of the member's term?
No. The Attorney General concluded that State Roads Commission members are 'public officers' under Article III, §35 of the Maryland Constitution, which bars increasing a public officer's pay during a …
Did Maryland's Medicaid program have to go through formal rulemaking before requiring doctors to write a reason for prescribing a brand-name drug instead of its generic version?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that Maryland's Medicaid agency did not have to go through formal rulemaking before requiring physicians to write a specific medical reason on a prescription whe…
Did Maryland's 1990 budget bill restrict Medicaid abortion funding differently than the state's own abortion statute did?
In a 1990 opinion analyzing then-current, since-superseded Maryland law, the Attorney General concluded that if Roe v. Wade were overruled, Maryland's dormant abortion statute would control the legali…
Under Maryland's 1986 rulemaking amendment, when could an agency change a proposed regulation without republishing it for comment?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that a Maryland agency could adopt a regulation that differed from its original proposal without republishing it for new comment only if the change was one parti…
After Maine's 1989 parental consent law for minors' abortions, what is the status of the older 1979 parental notification statute that a federal court enjoined and never let take effect?
AG Tierney concluded that the 1989 parental consent statute (22 M.R.S.A. § 1597-A) impliedly repealed the 1979 parental notification statute (22 M.R.S.A. § 1597), so even if the U.S. Supreme Court lat…
A state employee who flies on a state-purchased ticket accumulates frequent flier miles in the employee's personal account. The 1982 AG had said this was illegal under then-SDCL 4-3-4. SDCL 4-3-4 has been repealed and replaced by SDCL 4-3-4.2, and the airlines no longer require the original ticket to claim award travel. Can a state employee now use the frequent flier credits for personal travel?
Yes. AG Tellinghuisen overruled the 1982 opinion. Frequent flier miles are not 'emoluments or perquisites' of state employment because (1) the state pays nothing extra for them, (2) the airline (a thi…
Does Maine law require the Governor to balance the state budget before the new fiscal year begins, or only to react if revenues fall short during the year?
Chief Deputy AG Kilbreth (writing under AG Tierney) concluded the Governor was under no advance balanced-budget obligation. The Maine Constitution's $2 million debt limit and the budget statutes opera…
Can Texas deny an HIV education grant to a group because it lobbies to change drug or sodomy laws, or because gay people serve on its board?
The Attorney General concluded no. The Human Immunodeficiency Virus Services Act only let the Department of Health deny a grant to a group that advocates or promotes conduct that itself violates state…
Can the Texas Racing Commission regulate racetracks that don't have pari-mutuel betting, like small independent tracks, using the same authority it has over licensed pari-mutuel tracks?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the statute giving the Racing Commission power over non-pari-mutuel racetracks, V.T.C.S. article 179e-4, hands the commission that authority without any legisla…
Could a Maryland county liquor board get around a state law banning beer-and-wine-only licenses by issuing a full liquor license with a no-liquor restriction attached?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that the Calvert County Board of License Commissioners could not issue a Class A beer, wine, and liquor license with a restriction removing the right to sell liq…
If the same name (or the same handwriting) shows up more than once on a petition for a local option liquor election in Texas, does every one of those signatures get thrown out, or just the extra copies?
The Attorney General concluded that every signature in a duplicate set is void, not just the later copies, so a voter can't preserve one valid signature by pointing to which one came first. The opinio…
Does a hospital district's own enabling law or the general Tax Code control what a county tax collector gets paid for collecting the district's taxes?
The Attorney General concluded that the general Tax Code standard controlled. Even though the Reagan County Hospital District's 1977 enabling law set a specific fee formula (up to 2% of collections, c…
When an emergency mental illness commitment is started in one county for a person who actually resides in another county, can the state's attorney in the county where the proceedings began send a bill for his or her legal services to the patient's home county?
No. SDCL 27A-10-2 reimburses 'apprehension and transportation' costs back to the county of residence, but does not list the state's attorney's services among reimbursable costs. SDCL 27A-9-15 reimburs…
For the Texas prison Work Program Plan's 100-mile rule, does an inmate's 'recorded place of residence' mean their actual home, or just the county they live in?
According to this 1990 opinion, it means the inmate's actual place of abode, dwelling, or habitation, not merely the county of residence, so an inmate cannot be placed in a designated work facility mo…
Can a Texas chiropractor advertise that he performs physical therapy if he isn't a licensed physical therapist?
Yes, according to this 1990 opinion. The Attorney General concluded the Physical Therapy Act completely exempts licensees of other state health-care boards, including chiropractors, so a licensed chir…
Two different 1989 Texas laws changed the required wording for a special-district real estate disclosure notice. Which version do sellers have to use?
According to this 1990 opinion, a seller who uses the notice wording required by Senate Bill 1207 satisfies both bills, because Senate Bill 1207's changes already include the standby-fee language Hous…
Does a licensed commercial shrimper in Texas need a separate finfish license to legally sell fish caught while shrimping?
No, according to this 1990 opinion. The Attorney General concluded the captain and paid crew of a licensed commercial shrimp boat only need the general commercial fisherman's license, not an additiona…
Once a Texas justice of the peace has ruled on cause of death at an inquest, can she later hold a separate inquest hearing to reconsider it?
No, according to this 1990 opinion. The Attorney General concluded a justice of the peace must decide at the inquest itself whether a formal inquest hearing is needed, and once she has made a finding …
Does a substance abuse or court residential treatment facility run by a Texas probation department need a state license, or is it exempt as a state-operated facility?
It generally needs a license, unless it operates under standards set by the community justice assistance division. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that substance abuse treatment fa…
Can two people who are first cousins both serve on the board of a Texas water district, or does a relationship rule disqualify them?
If the disqualification statute applies to their district, both are disqualified. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that section 50.026(a) of the Water Code, which bars a person from…
Does a Texas emergency services district have to provide fire and ambulance service to tax-exempt property, like a port or public school, inside its boundaries?
Yes. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that an emergency services district organized under article 2351a-8, V.T.C.S., may not deny its services to tax-exempt entities located within …
Can a Texas rural fire prevention district take out a bank loan repaid from property taxes without holding an election?
No. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that a rural fire prevention district cannot borrow money repayable from ad valorem taxes to be collected in future years unless the district's …
Does the Texas Open Meetings Act apply when a quorum of a state board attends another organization's meeting?
Not by itself. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that a quorum of the Credit Union Commission attending a meeting of the Texas Share Guaranty Credit Union board does not hold a 'meet…
Does a Texas county clerk have to report a mental incompetency ruling to the Department of Public Safety even when the order doesn't mention a driver's license?
Yes. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that a county clerk must notify the Department of Public Safety of any finding by any court of competent jurisdiction that a person is mentally…
Can the Texas Insurance Commissioner appoint a conservator for an insurer without publishing the newspaper notice the law requires?
No. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that section 3 of Insurance Code article 21.28-A does not give the Insurance Commissioner an 'alternative route to conservatorship' that lets th…
Can a Texas court charge court costs for a defensive driving course deferral if you never pleaded guilty?
It depends on how the deferral works. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that when a driver requests a course, pleads guilty or no contest, and the court enters judgment before deferr…
If a Texas beach is artificially rebuilt after washing away, does the old owner get it back or does the state keep it?
The state keeps it. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that when the state already holds title to submerged littoral (beachfront) land, raising that land back above the tide line by a…
When can a Maryland car dealer legally advertise a vehicle that was previously sold and returned as 'new' again?
In a 1989 opinion, Maryland's Attorney General concluded that a car dealer generally may not readvertise a vehicle as 'new' once it has been sold to a buyer and then reacquired by the dealer, unless t…
Can a Texas seawall commission use its tax funds to build a public beach?
Generally no. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that the Matagorda County-Palacios Seawall Commission has no authority to spend its funds to construct or create a public beach unless…
Which version of Maryland's drunk-driving license suspension law controlled when two 1989 laws amended the same statute without referencing each other?
In a 1989 opinion, Maryland's Attorney General resolved a conflict created when two separate 1989 laws, the Drunk Driving Act and the Commercial Driver's License Act, each amended the same Transportat…
Does a Texas sheriff have to go through the county purchasing agent to set up a jail commissary contract?
No. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that section 351.0415 of the Local Government Code lets the sheriff enter into a contract regarding the county jail commissary without consultin…
Can a Texas justice of the peace keep part of the fines he collects to pay for extra staff if the commissioners court approves?
No. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that a commissioners court has no power to let a justice of the peace retain a portion of assessed fines to fund an additional employee. Nothing…
Can a North Carolina judge let a Level 1 or Level 2 DWI defendant serve the mandatory jail time at home on electronic monitoring instead of in the county jail?
No. N.C.G.S. § 20-179(g) and (h) required Level 1 DWI defendants to serve at least 14 days and Level 2 defendants at least 7 days of imprisonment, either as part of an active sentence or as a special …
Does a Texas county official have to follow a grand jury's recommendation, like one about using a bank night depository?
No. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that a grand jury recommendation about the tax assessor-collector's use of a bank's night depository is not binding on that official. A grand ju…
Does a Texas real estate agent or seller have to tell buyers that a previous occupant of the house had AIDS or HIV?
No, and in fact they cannot. In this 1989 opinion the Attorney General concluded that the federal Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 treats HIV as a handicap and makes it a discriminatory housing pra…
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