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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Could Maryland public school students hold a voluntary Bible study or prayer group during free time in the 1980s?
In this 1984 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that Baltimore County schools could permit students to form voluntary prayer or Bible study groups during genuinely free, unstructured tim…
Did general Texas higher-education tuition exceptions apply to nonresident students at the Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf?
No. JM-240 concluded that Education Code section 131.005(b)'s actual-cost tuition method exclusively governed nonresident tuition at the institute and displaced chapter 54's general exceptions.
Did Texas's peace-officer licensing commission license school-district security officers, and could those officers act beyond school property?
JM-239 concluded that the commission had no licensing responsibility for section 21.483 school-district peace officers, although the officers had to meet minimum standards within one year. Their autho…
Could a Texas commissioners court admit county officers or employees to a closed litigation meeting with its attorney?
Sometimes. JM-238 concluded that aligned officers or employees could attend when they were agents or representatives whose presence was necessary for effective attorney-client communication. Adversari…
Did a 1984 expansion of Dallas County Court at Law No. 1 jurisdiction also expand Courts Nos. 2 through 5?
Yes. JM-237 concluded that the statutes creating Dallas County Courts at Law Nos. 2 through 5 generally incorporated Court No. 1's jurisdiction, so the 1984 expansion applied to those courts too.
Could the Texas vocational-nursing board reject an expired-license renewal application because unlicensed practice was still only alleged?
No. JM-236 concluded that an unresolved allegation of practice under an expired license did not permit the board to refuse the renewal application, although a finding of illegal practice could support…
Could a Texas school board's switch to single-member districts cut short an incumbent trustee's elected term?
Yes. JM-235 concluded that the statute required every trustee position to be filled at the first single-member-district election and that shortening incumbent terms did not take a property right or en…
Could a Maryland county spend its share of the farmland transfer tax on staff salaries, not just on buying preservation easements?
In this 1984 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that Queen Anne's County could use its one-third share of the agricultural transfer tax not only to match state funds for buying farmland …
Did Texas nepotism law bar a school district from assigning a board member's relative to a higher teacher career-ladder level?
No. JM-234 concluded that a higher career-ladder level raised salary but was not a new office, position, employment, or duty, so the nepotism statutes did not apply to that assignment.
Could the Texas National Guard Armory Board trade state-owned property for another property instead of selling it?
Yes. JM-233 concluded that the board could exchange its property for an equally suitable property worth at least as much, subject to the statutory mineral-interest reservation.
Who could serve on a Texas county bail bond board, and when did a corporate surety become in default on a forfeited bond?
JM-232 concluded that a still-licensed individual did not lose board membership by transferring an assumed-name business, and a licensed corporation could serve through an agent. A corporate surety be…
Could a Texas state-school employee living on the facility's campus qualify as a resident candidate for the surrounding school board?
Yes, the campus residence did not itself make the employee a nonresident. JM-231 concluded that the candidate could appear on the ballot if the factual residency requirement was met, while noting that…
Could a non-parent managing conservator receive and choose Teacher Retirement System survivor benefits for a minor child?
Yes. JM-230 concluded that a non-parent managing conservator could receive, receipt for, and choose among the minor's TRS survivor benefits, but only while no guardian of the estate, guardian, or atto…
Could the Texas State Archives automatically open century-old personnel medical records after a fixed number of years?
Not if the records remained confidential by statute. JM-229 said ordinary privacy interests could lapse at death, but physician-created medical-record confidentiality continued after death, and the cu…
Did a Texas local human rights commission need a local ordinance before filing an employment-discrimination lawsuit?
No. JM-228 concluded that a commission created under section 4.02 could file the civil actions authorized by section 4.03(5) without a separate local ordinance, subject to the statutory referral or de…
Could a Texas state agency automatically fire an employee after six weeks of unpaid leave for an on-the-job injury while workers' compensation continued?
No. JM-227 concluded that an across-the-board six-week termination rule violated state policy unless the agency had a legitimate independent, job-related reason, assessed case by case.
Could a Texas home-rule city regulate hazardous-material storage outside city limits to protect its water supply?
Yes. JM-226 concluded that a home-rule city could regulate hazardous-material location and storage in its watersheds within the city and its extraterritorial jurisdiction, including nuisance controls …
Could a Texas pawnbroker split several items pawned together into separate transactions to collect higher total service charges?
No. JM-225 concluded that several items pawned at the same time could secure one transaction and could not be split to produce higher total service charges, although separate transactions were allowed…
Could a Texas county clerk record abstracts of judgment only in the real-property records instead of separate judgment records?
Generally no. JM-224 concluded that abstracts had to be recorded and indexed separately from real-property records, except when the county clerk used the authorized microfilm recordation system under …
Could a Texas probate clerk charge separate fees for certifying and recording an escheat order's mailing certificate and the administrator's payment receipt?
The clerk could not charge separately for certifying the escheat order or filing the mailing certificate because the general probate fee covered those duties. JM-223 allowed a filing fee for the admin…
Did an unarmed security employee working only for one Texas retailer have to register with the state private-security board?
No. JM-222 concluded that the longstanding exemption remained effective for unarmed personnel employed exclusively and regularly by one retailer in a true employer-employee relationship. Contract and …
Did Texas Tax Code section 11.431 allow a late homestead application and tax refund for the 1981 tax year?
No. JM-221 concluded that section 11.431 authorized late residence-homestead applications and related refunds beginning with the 1982 tax year, not 1981.
Could a Texas city or county spend public money through a local 1986 sesquicentennial committee?
Yes, for reasonable activities serving a valid public purpose and subject to constitutional limits on donations. JM-220 treated local committees as agents of the city or county that created them, not …
What happened to Texas AG Opinion JM-219 on school-district peace officers?
JM-219 was withdrawn and replaced by JM-239 in December 1984. Its original text remains available as historical material, but JM-239 is the replacement opinion for the licensing and off-campus-authori…
Could a Texas auto insurer waive a comprehensive deductible if the policyholder agreed to repair a windshield instead of replacing it?
It depended on timing and facts. JM-218 said a pre-loss offer or an offer incorporated by trade usage violated article 5.06(1), while an individual post-loss settlement was not automatically an unfair…
Could a Texas landscape architect prepare structural plans for retaining walls, shelters, decks, platforms, and elevated boardwalks?
Not when the work required engineering, architecture, or public-surveying skills. JM-217 said whether a particular improvement crossed that line was a fact question the Attorney General could not deci…
Did a Texas district clerk have to assign and docket a case transferred from another county before the filing fee was paid?
No. JM-216 concluded that the transferee clerk did not have to assign or docket the case until the filing fee was paid. If the fee was not timely paid, a district judge in the transferee county could …
Could the Texas highway department require every motor vehicle dealer to use a corporate surety bond for licensing?
No. JM-215 concluded that the 1984 law required a good and sufficient $25,000 bond but did not authorize the department to accept only corporate surety bonds. The department could still decide whether…
Could a Texas state agency use leftover parking-garage construction money to finish the Travis State Office Building?
Yes. JM-214 concluded that a 1984-85 appropriations rider allowed the State Purchasing and General Services Commission to move excess funds from the completed parking-garage project to additional Trav…
Could a Texas county court at law judge also serve as a trustee of an independent school district?
No. JM-213 concluded that the no-emolument rule did not bar the two posts, but the statute enforcing the Code of Judicial Conduct barred a county court at law judge from serving as a school trustee.
Could Texas county or district judges operate a work-release detention facility outside the county sheriff's supervision?
No. JM-212 concluded that county and district judges lacked authority to operate a work-release facility independently of the sheriff. It also said the Texas Commission on Jail Standards supervised fa…
Could Maryland constitutionally ban sex-based pricing in insurance, even for policies already in effect?
In this 1984 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that legislation banning sex-based pricing in insurance would be constitutionally defensible under the Contract Clause, because Maryland's…
Did a critical newspaper ad about a congressman have to include Maryland's campaign disclosure 'authority line' if it never mentioned the election?
In this 1984 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that Maryland's campaign-literature 'authority line' disclosure requirement did not apply to an independently published newspaper ad criti…
Were Texas country-club dues, initiation fees, and guest recreation fees subject to the new amusement-services tax?
JM-211 did not decide. It said the legislature had assigned the initial interpretation of taxable services exclusively to the comptroller, so the Attorney General declined to answer until the comptrol…
Could a Texas city charge plumbers a registration fee before they worked in the city?
It depended on what the ordinance regulated. JM-210 concluded that a city could require registration of a plumbing business, but could not use an ordinance to regulate the plumbing occupation or indiv…
Could Sutton County agree to pay half of volunteer firefighters' private electricity bills without limiting the amount or creating a sinking fund?
No. JM-209 concluded that the open-ended, long-term obligation created unconstitutional county debt because the county could not limit the amount and had made no provision for a sinking fund to retire…
Could the Tarrant County purchasing agent rewrite or refuse to advertise bid specifications approved by the commissioners court?
No. JM-208 concluded that the purchasing agent could neither rewrite the commissioners court's specifications nor refuse to advertise them, even if the agent believed they were too narrow for competit…
Could Maryland's Mass Transit Administration leave depreciation and interest out of 'operating costs' when calculating its required 50% fare box recovery ratio?
In this 1984 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General agreed that the Mass Transit Administration could exclude capital costs like depreciation and interest from 'operating costs' when calculating the s…
Could a Maryland school board avoid the state's prevailing wage law by turning down some of the state construction funding it was eligible for?
In this 1984 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that a local school board could avoid the Prevailing Wage Law by voluntarily funding more than 25% of a school construction project with l…
Did Texas unconstitutionally discriminate against the federal government by taxing materials used by federal construction contractors?
No. JM-207 concluded that removing the exemption for federal contractors did not violate federal tax immunity because it placed them in the same economic position as similarly situated private constru…
Could the Tarrant County Bail Bond Board cap the number of bail bond licenses issued in the county?
No. JM-206 concluded that article 2372p-3 required licenses for qualified applicants and did not authorize the board to set a numerical ceiling. The board could administer statutory qualifications but…
Were Windham prison-school employees Texas state employees entitled to state workers' compensation, group insurance, and appropriations-act benefits?
Yes. JM-205 treated Windham employees as state employees entitled to state workers' compensation, uniform group insurance, and applicable appropriations riders. It also said the Board of Corrections g…
Did temporary and part-time Texas Employment Commission workers earn vacation, sick leave, holiday benefits, and back pay?
Yes. JM-204 concluded that hourly, temporary, and part-time commission workers were state employees entitled to the same leave and holiday benefits as similarly situated state workers, including speci…
Could Maryland reduce a retired state judge's pension when he was appointed to the federal bench and kept drawing a federal salary?
In this 1984 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that a state statute reducing judicial pensions for retired judges who accept other government-paid employment applied to a retired Maryla…
Predator Control Districts have been formed in several West River counties under SDCL chapter 40-37, but stockgrowers are not paying the special tax because counties are not collecting it. Can the counties be forced to do their statutory duty, and how?
Yes. The county treasurer is the 'proper tax collecting official' required to collect predator control district taxes 'in the same manner as the general taxes' (SDCL 40-37-17). If the treasurer fails,…
Did Maryland's hunting guide license requirement apply to employees of guide services, not just self-employed guides?
In this 1984 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that the state's commercial hunting guide license requirement covered everyone who guides hunters for compensation, including employees of…
Could Texas school trustees, college regents, teachers, and education employees serve on the transitional State Board of Education?
JM-203 said school trustees, junior college trustees, certain college regents, and employees directly subordinate or accountable to the State Board were barred by common-law incompatibility. Most list…
Could a homeless person register to vote in Maryland in the 1980s without a conventional home address?
In this 1984 opinion, the Maryland Attorney General concluded that a homeless person could register to vote if they presented satisfactory evidence of a fixed, present domicile, even one without a con…
Did Texas restore voting rights five years after a felony discharge issued by the prison system, federal authorities, or another state?
Yes. JM-202 read House Bill 718 to restore voting rights on the fifth anniversary of discharge by the Texas Department of Corrections or a federal or sister-state prison or parole board, just as for d…
Could Pasadena appoint commissioners to the Port of Houston Authority after its population exceeded 100,000?
No. JM-201 concluded that the statutory city appointment power belonged to Houston, the qualifying municipality when the navigation district was created, and did not shift or expand when Pasadena late…
When could a Texas county use county equipment to maintain roads inside a rural subdivision?
JM-200 said a county could maintain a rural-subdivision road only after it became public through commissioners-court establishment, prescription, or dedication and county acceptance. Filing a plat tha…
Did a Texas water district have to retain 10 percent from construction payments and place the money in an interest-bearing account?
Yes. JM-199 said Water Code section 51.146 required 10 percent retainage until the statutory release point, while article 6252-5b required the retained money to earn interest for the contractor. A sep…
Could Victoria County separately hire and pay its criminal district attorney for private legal work in condemnation proceedings?
Yes, for the administrative condemnation work described in JM-198. The opinion said that work was outside the prosecutor's statutory court-representation duty, so the county could contract with him pr…
Did Texas's state-officer indemnity statute cover county attorneys who prosecuted felonies?
No. JM-197 concluded that county attorneys with felony-prosecution duties were not officers or employees of a state agency, institution, or department under article 6252-26. The opinion treated the se…
Could a Texas recreational fishing club fillet coastal fish at its spoil-island camp before boating the catch back to the mainland?
No. JM-196 concluded that a spoil island was not a final destination under Parks and Wildlife Code section 66.216(a), so the club could not possess filleted fish there. Its separate retail fish dealer…
Did Texas's nepotism law apply when interim State Board of Education members received only expense reimbursement?
No. JM-195 concluded that statutory reimbursement for board-related expenses was not salary, fees, or compensation under article 5996a. Because the interim board members received no compensation, the …
Who controlled filing, dismissal, impartiality, and transfer decisions in a Texas felony-probation revocation case?
JM-194 said the prosecutor independently decided whether to file a revocation motion, while the judge could dismiss without a hearing and transfer the case as article 42.12 allowed. Ex parte fact disc…
Could a Texas commissioners court create reasonable sheriff and constable service fees that did not exist before September 1, 1981?
JM-193 originally said yes, but JM-880 later overruled that answer for fees to execute criminal warrants. The later opinion left the fee-setting statute's application to civil matters unaffected.
Can a South Dakota state's attorney bring criminal theft charges against a library patron who borrows a book and, after repeated written requests, refuses to return it?
Yes. AG Meierhenry concluded that a borrower who refuses to return a library book after repeated requests can be prosecuted for theft of public property under SDCL 22-30A-1 (the intent to deprive can …
Did Texas county employee salary warrants need commissioners-court approval and prior county-auditor approval?
JM-192 said each county salary warrant required commissioners-court approval before issuance. The county auditor did not have to approve the salary beforehand, but the auditor's countersignature was r…
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