State AG Opinions
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Did the Supreme Court's ruling striking down Connecticut's Sabbath-observance law also make Maryland's retail day-of-rest laws unconstitutional?
In this 1985 opinion, the Attorney General concluded that Maryland's county-specific statutes letting retail and wholesale employees choose Sunday or their Sabbath as a day of rest were significantly …
Does an owner who builds an apartment complex on his own land for rent to the general public need a North Carolina general contractor license if construction costs $30,000 or more?
No. The owner-builder exception in G.S. § 87-1 carves out a person building on land they own when the building is 'intended for use by that person, firm or corporation after completion.' The AG read '…
Under Chapter 387 of the 1985 NC Session Laws, how many special registration commissioners must a county appoint, and is the per-party cap a combined or separate limit for Democrats and Republicans?
The cap is per party, not combined. Each major-party county chair may separately recommend one commissioner per 2,500 county residents, with a floor of five and a ceiling of 100. So a 300,000-resident…
Can the North Carolina State Board of Education set the number of hours per week that a teacher or school support employee must work to earn the state-funded salary, or does that decision belong to the local board of education?
The State Board can set the workweek for both certified employees (teachers, principals, etc.) and noncertified support employees who are paid from state funds. The Constitution and Chapter 115C give …
Did Kleberg County have to sell its county hospital at public auction after following the hospital-sale statutes?
No. JM-335 concluded that article 1577's general public-auction procedure did not apply when a county sold a hospital under the more specific authority of article 4494l or article 4437e-2.
Which of Maryland's 1985 restrictions on dentist advertising, like bans on guarantees, painless-treatment claims, and displaying dental appliances, actually held up under the First Amendment?
In this 1985 opinion, applying Supreme Court commercial-speech cases from Virginia Pharmacy through Zauderer, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that dental advertising rules banning deceptive cl…
Could Bastrop County maintain a privately owned road that subdivision residents used as their only access to a county road?
No, not on the stated facts. JM-334 found no general county authority to maintain private roads and no public interest in this road through purchase, condemnation, qualifying dedication, or adverse po…
Could the Alice municipal judge keep serving after becoming Jim Wells County auditor if the judge refused the municipal salary?
No. JM-333 concluded that both positions were civil offices of emolument, so accepting and qualifying as county auditor vacated the municipal judgeship, and refusing its salary did not change that res…
Did the Texas Office of Public Utility Counsel's volunteer citizens advisory panel have to hold publicly noticed meetings?
No, based on the described facts. JM-331 concluded that the panel was purely advisory and did not supervise or control public business, so its meetings were outside the Open Meetings Act.
Could Texas let a heavily state-funded private nonprofit use the state telecommunications system to lower its long-distance costs?
No. JM-330 concluded that article 601b, section 10.07, limited access to governmental entities of the listed class, and a private nonprofit did not become such an agency merely by receiving public fun…
If Maryland renumbers its state employee pay grades, does that change who has to file a financial disclosure statement under the Public Ethics Law?
In this 1985 opinion, the Attorney General concluded that the Department of Personnel's renumbering of the Standard Salary Schedule (old Grade 18 became new Grade 16) was a purely technical relabeling…
Could Houston use a weighted-average wage study instead of determining the general prevailing wage for each public-works craft?
Not if weighted average and prevailing wage were different standards. JM-329 concluded that article 5159a required Houston to determine the actual predominant local wage for each craft and state it as…
Did Texas county floodplain rules required by the National Flood Insurance Program amount to an unconstitutional taking or equal-protection violation?
Not on their face. JM-328 concluded that county rules tracking the federal floodway standard did not facially take property and that phased enforcement in designated areas did not facially deny equal …
Could Idaho's Endowment Fund Investment Board legally invest permanent endowment funds in money market mutual funds, and what was the State Treasurer's role in questioning those investments?
Yes, with two conditions. Money market mutual funds whose assets are limited to U.S. or U.S. agency obligations are permissible if (1) the fund unconditionally guarantees full repayment of principal a…
When Idaho put 10% of timber, grazing, and recreation site lease income into a special fund for state land maintenance, did interest on those endowment-derived dollars belong to the general fund or to the endowment lands themselves?
To the endowment lands. The AG concluded that to avoid violating the constitutional land grant provisions, the special fund created by § 58-140 should be moved from the state operating fund to the age…
Could Maryland's Insurance Guaranty Association hire its own private lawyers, or did it have to use the Attorney General's office like a state agency?
In this 1985 opinion, the Attorney General concluded that although the question was not free from doubt, the Maryland Insurance Guaranty Association (MIGA) was not a "unit of the State government" for…
Could a Texas county use general county money to pay Hospital Project Financing Act bonds or operate the hospital built with those bonds?
No. JM-327 concluded that article 4437e-2 limited bond payments and hospital-project operating costs to bond proceeds, project revenue, or revenue provided by a nonprofit corporation.
Could Wichita County reduce the county attorney's salary after adopting the annual budget, and did accepting the lower pay waive the difference?
No on both questions. JM-326 concluded that the elected county attorney's salary could not be reduced until the next fiscal year's budget process, and accepting less did not waive the salary fixed by …
Could Cleburne remove police-dispatcher jobs from its civil service system without taking protection away from current dispatchers?
Yes, prospectively. JM-325 concluded that Cleburne could remove the dispatcher position from future civil-service coverage in good faith, but could not strip protection already fixed for current emplo…
Could Nueces County pay a nonprofit to run anti-litter education, organize cleanups, and distribute trash receptacles?
Yes, through a controlled contract rather than an unrestricted grant. JM-324 concluded that the county could pay a nonprofit for litter-abatement work if the agreement secured an adequate return that …
How could Rusk County dispose of abandoned road rights-of-way when county records did not show how the land was originally acquired?
After a lawful abandonment, JM-332 concluded that county-owned right-of-way property had to be disposed of through article 1577's procedure, even when records did not reveal the original acquisition m…
Could the Idaho Water Resource Board issue revenue bonds to finance a stand-alone hydroelectric project that did not provide irrigation or other water-development benefits?
Yes. The AG concluded that Idaho Code § 42-1734(x) authorized the Water Resource Board to issue revenue bonds and loan the proceeds to a local water-project sponsor for a hydroelectric project, and th…
Could Texas appropriate interest earned on non-constitutionally dedicated money in the State Highway Fund for general revenue purposes?
Yes. JM-323 concluded that interest on statutory highway-fund money could be severed into general revenue, while interest on constitutionally dedicated revenue and trust funds had to remain with those…
Did the state's FICA contribution for a Galveston County district judge count as salary when calculating county court and probate judge pay?
No. JM-322 concluded that article 695h expressly excluded state Social Security contributions from compensation, so they were not part of the district-judge salary base used for local judicial salarie…
Could Texas divert interest earned on constitutionally dedicated highway funds into general revenue by an appropriations rider or statute?
No. JM-321 concluded that interest followed the constitutionally dedicated highway principal and could not be diverted to general revenue by either an appropriations rider or an ordinary statute.
Could Texas Parks and Wildlife cite a sailboard user under section 31.073 for not carrying a Coast Guard-approved life jacket?
No. JM-320 concluded that a sailboard was not a sailboat for section 31.073, so the department could not use that provision to cite a sailboard user for lacking an onboard lifesaving device.
Does the World Bank have to pay DC real property tax on the buildings it owns in Washington, and if not, does the exemption start when the bank bought the property or only later?
No. The World Bank is exempt from DC real property tax under the federal International Organizations Immunities Act because the President has designated it as a covered international organization. The…
Can Maryland raise the salary of a sitting liquor board official in the middle of their term by moving them to a newly created position?
In this 1985 opinion, the Attorney General concluded that Article III, §35 of the Maryland Constitution barred the Frederick County liquor license commissioner and inspector from receiving increased p…
When does a Maryland governor have to return a vetoed bill to the legislature after a special session?
In this 1985 opinion, the Attorney General concluded that the Governor was not required to return bills vetoed during a special session to the House of origin during that same special session, but had…
Did Cass County have to supplement its criminal district attorney's state salary for civil work normally performed by a county attorney?
No. JM-319 concluded that the commissioners court could refuse a supplement, but if it chose to pay one, the amount could not be less than the county compensation paid to its highest-paid district jud…
Can a small Maryland town condemn land outside its own borders to build a sewage treatment facility?
In this 1985 opinion, the Attorney General concluded that the Town of Manchester had express statutory authority under §9-705(5) of the Health-Environmental Article to condemn land outside its municip…
Did Dallas County need a separate filing system for civil cases appealed from justice courts to county courts at law?
No. JM-318 concluded that justice-court appeals had to be numbered consecutively with other filings and assigned among Dallas County courts at law in the same rotation.
Could a Texas commissioners court approve a subdivision plat and maintain its roads when some landowners had not signed the dedication?
Not on the unsigned plat alone. JM-317 concluded that all owners had to acknowledge the plat, but missing owners could separately evidence an intent to dedicate and the court could then accept the roa…
Can a Maryland Property Tax Assessment Appeal Board raise your property's assessed value on its own, without anyone asking it to?
In this 1985 opinion, the Attorney General concluded that a Property Tax Assessment Appeal Board (PTAAB) has the statutory power to increase a property tax assessment above what the supervisor of asse…
Could a Texas municipal court try a 15- or 16-year-old for a nontraffic Class C misdemeanor when the child had fewer than three prior convictions?
No. JM-316 concluded that the municipal court had to transfer the case to juvenile court under Family Code section 51.08 unless juvenile-court jurisdiction had been waived.
Did Texas's 1984 increase in financial-responsibility minimums automatically raise the liability limits in auto policies already in force?
No. JM-315 concluded that the new minimums did not rewrite an existing policy's liability limits. A previously adequate policy continued to count as proof of financial responsibility until it ended or…
Could the Texas Department of Corrections classify a returned parole or mandatory-supervision violator as a trusty so the inmate could earn good-conduct time?
Yes. JM-314 concluded that article 6184f restricted outside-prison trusty status after a trusty violated that trust, but did not bar a returned parole or mandatory-supervision violator from a trusty c…
What could a Texas prosecutor pay from an article 53.08 hot-check fund, and did the commissioners court have to approve each expense?
JM-313 concluded that the prosecutor did not need commissioners-court approval and could use the fund for reasonable salaries and expenses of the whole office, not just bad-check work. It barred retro…
Did Texas have to appoint a lawyer for every indigent person charged with a misdemeanor, including a fine-only case in justice court?
No. JM-312 concluded that neither the Constitution nor Code of Criminal Procedure article 26.04 required appointed counsel when the proceeding carried no possible loss of liberty. It did not decide wh…
Could the Texas Legislature create a temporary amnesty that erased accrued penalties on delinquent property and local sales taxes paid in full?
Yes. JM-311 concluded that House Bill 1751 could extinguish accrued tax penalties during a general amnesty period without violating the cited constitutional bars on releasing taxes or public debts, so…
Can the DC Auditor demand to see the Public Service Commission's internal deliberations on a utility rate case?
Yes for procedures, no for deliberations. The DC Auditor can audit the Public Service Commission's accounts, operations, rules, and the legal authority for its work. The Auditor cannot demand to see t…
Could a Texas county clerk own part of a title company and manage it part-time without creating a prohibited conflict of interest?
Yes, on the facts presented. JM-310 concluded that the clerk could hold and manage the interest because he would not act for the company in county business or make county contracting decisions, but he…
Could a Texas public university charge an F-1 international student more tuition than Texas residents or other nonresident students?
Texas could charge an F-1 student the nonresident rate because the visa conditions prevented establishing Texas domicile. JM-309 concluded, however, that the state could not charge F-1 students more t…
Could Texas require a public-housing tenant to serve on the local housing-authority board without creating an automatic conflict of interest?
Yes. JM-308 concluded that the Legislature could require a tenant commissioner and that living in an authority project was not an interest in a business entity under article 988b, so residency alone d…
Could a Texas judge require a probationer to donate money to Crime Stoppers or repay rewards connected with the probationer's case?
For felony and ordinary misdemeanor probation, JM-307 allowed an individualized donation or case-related reimbursement when reasonably tied to rehabilitation and public protection. It concluded that m…
Did interest earned on Texas's Unemployment Compensation Fund belong to that fund or to the state's General Revenue Fund?
The interest belonged to the Unemployment Compensation Fund. JM-306 concluded that the fund was an out-of-treasury trust held for employees, so the general statute sending depository interest to Gener…
Was cotton-gin trash exempt from Texas commercial-feed registration, labeling, and inspection rules when a gin sold it for farmers?
Only if the farmer still owned the gin trash and the gin sold it as the farmer's agent. JM-305 concluded that the exemption ended if title passed to the ginner, while trash handled by a farmers' coope…
Could deaf people serve on Maryland juries in the 1980s, and were they entitled to a sign language interpreter?
In this 1985 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that Maryland's requirement that jurors comprehend spoken English was not, in practice, being used to disqualify deaf jurors who used inte…
Could a Texas physician charge a patient separately for drugs supplied for self-medication without operating a licensed retail pharmacy?
Generally no. JM-304 concluded that a physician supplying drugs under section 5.09(a) could not charge separately for their cost because that would be retailing drugs. Section 5.09(b) created a narrow…
Did federal special-allowance payments on Texas student loans count as interest that had to flow through the bond interest and sinking fund?
Yes. JM-303 concluded that the federal lender's special allowance was compensation for use of the loan money and therefore counted as interest under Education Code section 52.17.
Could Texas make out-of-state college students wait more than one year for resident tuition or permanently classify them as nonresidents?
JM-302 said one-year tuition-residency requirements had been upheld, but a longer period raised unresolved constitutional questions. It concluded that permanently freezing an entering nonresident's st…
Could a Texas health insurance policy pay less or impose place-of-treatment rules that effectively excluded chiropractors or other listed practitioners?
No, when the covered service was within a listed practitioner's license. The Insurance Code barred both express payment discrimination and neutral-looking place or manner restrictions that had the sam…
Did depository interest earned on Texas's supplemental retirement fund for law enforcement and custodial officers belong to that fund or to General Revenue?
The interest belonged to the supplemental retirement fund because JM-300 classified it as a trust fund. Interest previously placed in General Revenue could be returned only after a specific legislativ…
Could qualifying Texas cities acquire state-owned riverbeds through annexation, and did that let them commercially remove sand and gravel?
Article 7467a constitutionally relinquished qualifying state-owned riverbeds when cities annexed them under other authority, subject to the permanent-school-fund mineral estate and the public trust. I…
Can a North Carolina city pass an ordinance setting a speed limit below 35 mph on a city street that is not part of the State highway system?
Yes. G.S. § 20-141(e) gives local authorities express power to set higher or lower speed limits on streets that are not part of the State highway system. The lowered limit takes effect only when appro…
Could Texas refuse or restrict commercial fishing licenses for Arkansas residents because Arkansas limited licenses for Texans?
No. JM-298 said Texas law required sales of nonresident commercial fishing licenses, and retaliation against Arkansas was not a substantial constitutional reason for discrimination.
Who had authority to set and review the Lakeway Municipal Utility District's water rates for customers living in the Village of Lakeway outside the district?
The utility district set the initial rates, and the Village of Lakeway could not regulate them. Residents could petition the Texas Water Commission, which had authority to review whether the rates wer…
Does an unpaid personal-property tax lien wipe out a bank's earlier purchase-money security interest in the same equipment?
Yes. The AG concluded that Idaho personal-property tax liens have first priority, even ahead of prior perfected purchase-money security interests under UCC Article 9. The result followed from Article …
When a South Dakota state employee asked the state to deduct money from her paycheck to buy a retirement annuity, did SDCL 3-10-5 mean she could only use an insurance company? Or could she use her bank or her investment broker instead?
She could use any licensed provider, not just insurance companies. The AG concluded that SDCL 3-10-5 authorized state employees to direct payroll-withheld funds to 'a company or organization licensed …
Does it matter under Maryland law whether a state tax on savings and loan associations is meant to regulate them or just to raise revenue?
In this 1985 opinion, the Attorney General concluded that the distinction between a regulatory tax and a revenue-raising tax mattered only for judging the validity of a local government's tax, not a t…
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