State AG Opinions
Free state attorney general opinions with plain-English summaries, full citations, and the original source on every page.
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Did the money collected by Maryland's new Chesapeake Bay Trust have to be deposited into the State Treasury like other state funds?
In this 1985 opinion, the Attorney General concluded that the funds of the newly created Chesapeake Bay Trust were "moneys of the State" under Article VI, §3 of the Maryland Constitution, because the …
Could a Texas county keep its road-and-bridge precinct money in local banks that had not been selected as official county depositories?
No. The Attorney General concluded that all county funds, including the road-and-bridge fund, had to be kept in a bank selected under the county-depository statutes. Robertson County could not leave t…
Which Texas state-board members could receive compensatory per diem and travel reimbursement under the 1985 appropriations rider?
The Attorney General concluded that article 6813f could cover statewide boards created by statute, executive order, agency authority, or legislative resolution, but it did not give compensatory per di…
Did House Bill 1426 let Texas sell the Bexar County property directly to its lessee, or did the state have to use sealed competitive bids?
The state had to use a sealed competitive-bid process. The Attorney General concluded that House Bill 1426 did not approve a direct sale to the existing lessee at fair market value; it authorized a sa…
Could appointed members of the Texas Planning Council for Developmental Disabilities receive the state's $30 compensatory per diem?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the members' governing statute required them to serve without salary and allowed only reimbursement of actual expenses. The General Appropriations Act's $30 com…
How should Idaho's Department of Finance handle records and unclaimed funds from long-defunct banks and savings and loans, given the interplay between the state records management law, the Bank Act, and the Unclaimed Property Act?
Bank records the Department no longer needs may be destroyed or transferred to the State Historical Society under Idaho Code §§ 67-5751 through 67-5753 (with court-ordered destructions controlling whe…
Could a Texas municipal or justice court try a 15- or 16-year-old for a first alcohol offense under chapter 106?
Yes, if the chapter 106 misdemeanor was punishable by fine only. The Attorney General concluded that the Alcoholic Beverage Code supplied a special criminal-court procedure for minors, so municipal an…
Could a Texas school trustee avoid a conflict-of-interest violation by abstaining from the vote but still discussing the matter with the board?
No. The Attorney General concluded that participating in a board's 'vote or decision' included deliberating with other trustees, so a substantially interested trustee could not discuss the matter and …
Could a Texas state school keep money paid by a nonprofit for services performed by the school's employees?
No. The payments had to be deposited in the state treasury within seven days and were reappropriated to the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Department's appropriation items that funded the servic…
Could a Texas judge require a felony defendant on deferred adjudication to live in a restitution center?
No. The Attorney General concluded that restitution-center placement under section 6c required a sentence of imprisonment and regular probation after conviction. Deferred adjudication involved no adju…
Did Texas's private-consultant law apply when the Rehabilitation Commission hired psychologists to provide services directly to clients?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the controlling 1977 statute covered management or program consultants who studied and advised an agency, not professionals hired to carry out the agency's ordi…
Could a nurse licensed as both an RN and an LVN serve on the Texas Board of Vocational Nurse Examiners?
No. The Attorney General concluded that article 4528c barred an LVN member from also being a registered nurse and barred the registered-nurse member from also being an LVN. A person holding both licen…
Could a Texas court clerk stamp a judge's facsimile signature on a criminal judgment or order?
Only in the judge's presence and under the judge's immediate authority and direction. A facsimile stamp could serve as the judge's signature, but the judge remained responsible for reading and approvi…
Did a Texas vehicle with dealer temporary tags still need working tail lights and brake lights?
Yes. The exemption for dealer temporary tags excused the vehicle from the mechanical inspection requirements in sections 140 and 141, but it did not excuse compliance with the separate tail-light and …
Could a Texas school district promote a teacher to registrar after her husband joined the school board?
The 1979 promotion violated the nepotism law because the old grandfather clause protected only the teacher position she already held. A 1985 amendment later allowed the board to change her employment …
Could Montgomery County require lawn care companies to disclose pesticide risks to customers, or did federal law preempt that kind of local pesticide ordinance?
In this 1985 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that Montgomery County's proposed ordinance requiring lawn care businesses to disclose pesticide risks to customers was preempted by the f…
Did a nonresident graduate student's job have to be titled 'teaching assistant' or 'research assistant' to qualify for Texas resident tuition?
No. The Attorney General concluded that section 54.063 described academic job duties, not formal payroll titles. A half-time student employee qualified when the position involved teaching or research …
Could a corporation formed outside Texas receive a state permit to administer synthetic narcotics to drug-dependent patients?
No. The Attorney General concluded that article 4476-11 limited institutional permits to entities both organized and operated under Texas law. A foreign corporation authorized to do business in Texas …
Was a computer terminal that only dispensed state-lottery tickets a 'gambling device' under Texas law?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the PAT-2000 terminal only recorded transactions and dispensed tickets. Because the element of chance came from a separate lottery drawing rather than the termi…
Did a Public Health Service officer lose Texas domicile when the federal government assigned her to duty in another state?
Not solely because of the assignment. The Attorney General concluded that a commissioned Public Health Service officer should receive the same domicile presumption as military personnel: an involuntar…
Could the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission let its executive director make the final decision on shell-dredging permits?
No. The Attorney General concluded that chapter 86 assigned the final grant-or-deny decision to the commission, so a rule giving that authority to the executive director was invalid. The commission co…
Who had to approve a subdivision plat outside Palestine's city limits: the city, Anderson County, or both?
Within Palestine's one-mile extraterritorial jurisdiction, both the city and Anderson County had to authorize the plat, and the stricter conflicting regulation controlled. Outside that one-mile area, …
Did the Texas Constitution's 'color of title' requirement allow a land patent when the claimant's chain of title contained a complete gap?
JM-364 said no: it treated 'color of title' as requiring an unbroken chain of transfers, even if some transfers were defective. This holding is no longer controlling because JM-907 expressly overruled…
Could a Texas magistrate require cash-only bail, accept a cash percentage instead of the full bond, or set different bail amounts for cash and surety bonds?
No. JM-363 said a magistrate could not exclude a surety bond by requiring cash only, accept less than the stated bail amount as a cash percentage, or impose different bail amounts depending on whether…
Could the Governor of Idaho appoint a sitting judge to the Children's Trust Account Board?
No. The AG concluded that appointing a member of the judiciary to the Board would violate the separation of powers clause in Article 2, § 1 of the Idaho Constitution. The Board's duties are executive,…
How did the Texas Prison Management Act's emergency overcrowding cycle operate, who could determine prison capacity, and could makeshift housing count?
JM-362 said minor daily fluctuations did not restart the statutory release cycle, but an unresolved emergency required the cycle to be repeated after the prescribed interval. The Board of Corrections …
Could the Industrial Accident Board approve a workers' compensation compromise that settled only future medical expenses after the carrier admitted liability and began paying lifetime benefits?
No. JM-361 said section 12 allowed a compromise only when liability or the extent of injury was uncertain. Once the carrier admitted liability for a statutorily permanent and total injury and paid com…
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…
When Maryland bailed out its savings and loan associations after the 1985 crisis, was the emergency legislation authorizing state control and bond funding constitutional?
In this 1985 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that the emergency legislation enacted during the May 1985 Special Session to respond to the savings and loan crisis, including state bond…
In rural South Dakota, can a neighboring landowner just plow up and farm an unimproved section line that's never been formally closed by the township? If they do, can the township make them restore it to grass? And what counts as 'obstructing' a section line, anyway, if you're growing crops on it?
No, the farmer cannot just take a section line. Under SDCL 31-18-1, every section line in South Dakota is a public highway by operation of law unless formally vacated, and the public retains an absolu…
Can a private letter of wishes attached to a will legally stop a library from publishing papers the will itself left with no restrictions?
In this 1985 opinion, the Attorney General concluded that a private memorandum H.L. Mencken left to his executors, and a receipt the Enoch Pratt Free Library signed when it received his diaries, had n…
After the 1985 Garcia and Loudermill Supreme Court decisions, did Maryland have to change its state employee overtime and firing rules?
In this 1985 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that neither Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority nor Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill required Maryland to chan…
Can the same South Dakota county official serve as County Director of Equalization and as a school board member at the same time?
No. The County Director of Equalization is the official responsible for determining property valuations for tax purposes. A school board is a governing body that depends on property tax revenue to ope…
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-…
Can Maryland's Comptroller waive late-filing penalties for a taxpayer just because they have a good track record of filing on time, and can that waiver be done automatically by computer?
In this 1985 opinion, the Attorney General concluded that the Comptroller could lawfully treat a taxpayer's consistent record of timely filing as "cause" or "good cause" to waive penalty and interest …
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.
Under Maryland's old Fair Election Practices Act, did contribution limits apply to money given to a PAC instead of directly to a candidate?
In this 1985 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that the Fair Election Practices Act's $2,500 aggregate contribution limit applied to money given to a political committee even though 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…
When a North Carolina student transfers between school systems by written agreement of the two local boards, can the agreement bar the transfer student from playing sports or joining other extracurricular activities at the new school?
No, absent unusual circumstances. The AG read § 115C-366 in light of the In Re Varner best-interest-of-the-child standard and concluded that conditioning a transfer on giving up extracurricular activi…
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…
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