State AG Opinions
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Is sending a Delaware FOIA response to the wrong email address a violation, even if the reply itself was on time?
Yes, but only a technical one. The AG found the Village of Arden should have used the email address tied to the original request, even though its FOIA coordinator answered within one business day, and…
Does Florida's emergency-declaration tolling for permits (§ 252.363(1)(a)) apply to a development agreement between a city and a developer?
It depends. Section 252.363(1)(a) tolls only four kinds of instruments: local-government development orders, building permits, DEP/water-management permits, and DRI buildout dates. Whether the City of…
Does a company still count as a car manufacturer's affiliate if it owns the manufacturer but gives up control?
The AG concluded probably not. Texas law bars a vehicle manufacturer (including any company affiliated with a manufacturer) from owning or controlling a dealership. The DMV Board asked whether a paren…
Does a Delaware FOIA complaint end if the agency later hands over the records it was accused of withholding?
Yes. When the Governor's office later supplemented its response to a records request with the actual calendar, the AG treated the complaint as moot and did not decide whether the earlier response had …
Was Arkansas Community Correction's decision to release Tenisha Brown's redacted personnel file consistent with the Arkansas FOIA?
Not entirely. The AG agreed most documents were properly subject to disclosure but identified additional information that had to be redacted (insurance, tax info, banking, payroll deductions, personne…
Is a private-sounding historic land trust like the Trustees of the New Castle Common subject to Delaware's open records law?
Yes. The AG determined that the Trustees of the New Castle Common, a corporation the Delaware General Assembly created in 1792 to manage land for the benefit of New Castle residents, is a 'public body…
Can Connecticut legislatively change wages, benefits, or other terms of an existing collective bargaining agreement with state employees, or does the federal Contract Clause stop it?
It depends, but the constitutional risk is real. Federal courts apply a three-part test asking (1) is the impairment substantial, (2) does the law serve a legitimate public purpose, (3) is the impairm…
Does Tennessee's statutory definition of 'agriculture' apply to the adjective 'agricultural' in county authority and zoning statutes?
Yes. The AG concluded the same code-wide definitions of 'agriculture' in § 1-3-105(a)(2)(A) and § 43-1-113(b)(1) supply the meaning of 'agricultural' as used in § 5-1-118(b), § 5-1-122, and § 13-7-114…
After Public Chapter 490 reclassified Tennessee's modern market telecommunications providers, who reappraises their property and on what schedule?
The Comptroller of the Treasury still does the reappraisals. The AG concluded that even though Public Chapter 490 changed how the operating property of modern market telecommunications providers is as…
Can a California fire protection district chief enforce the State Fire Marshal's building standards and other regulations as applied to single-family homes and other R-3 dwellings within the district's territory?
Yes. The AG concluded that Health and Safety Code section 13146 does not prohibit a fire protection district chief from enforcing the State Fire Marshal's R-3 dwelling regulations. The statute's struc…
If an agency takes ten months to respond to a FOIA request, does it have to prove it acted properly along the way?
Yes. The AG found DNREC violated FOIA because it could not produce any record proving it responded within 15 business days, gave a proper reason for needing more time, or kept the contact log FOIA req…
Can a city withhold vehicle license plate numbers from parking ticket records requested under FOIA?
Partly. The AG found Wilmington could withhold vehicle license plate numbers from a reporter's parking-ticket data request under the common law right of privacy, since plate numbers can be used to ide…
Can a public body just label an agenda item 'New Business' or 'Other Business' without describing what it is?
Usually, yes. The AG found that a college board's use of generic agenda headings like 'New Business' and 'Other Business,' and the phrase 'Personnel and Legal' to justify an executive session, did not…
What happens if a Delaware police department is late responding to a FOIA request but then provides the records anyway?
The AG found the Wilmington Police Department violated FOIA by failing to respond within 15 business days to two records requests, but ordered no remedy because the department had since fulfilled the …
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Larry Morris's July 2017 'Arkansas Recreational Marijuana Amendment of 2018' draft from True Grass?
Four defects: the effective date was contradictory ('effective November 7, 2018' but also 'shall be made lawful' by some unidentified third party); the Section 4 list of legalized 'acts' used confusin…
Does Arizona law let state and county officials use, maintain, and protect access to old federal R.S. 2477 roads across federal land, even when the BLM tries to close them?
Yes. The AG concluded that A.R.S. § 37-931 reaffirms broad state authority to use, access, and maintain valid R.S. 2477 rights-of-way across federal lands, though significant changes still require coo…
Can an agency's meeting agenda just say it will 'examine' an application, or does it have to say a vote is coming?
Yes, saying the board will 'examine' an item is enough. The AG found the Delaware Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation's agenda gave the public adequate notice of a right-of-way easement request,…
Does a county violate open meetings law by voting to promote someone to department director without disclosing it on the agenda?
Yes. The AG found Sussex County Council violated FOIA's open meeting requirements when its October 2016 meeting agenda gave no hint that the Council intended to discuss and vote on a successor to the …
Does a mayor have to give 7 days' notice before an emergency meeting to discuss firing an employee?
No, not when it genuinely qualifies as an emergency. The AG found that a mayor's decision to call a same-day meeting to discuss an urgent personnel matter fell within FOIA's emergency-meeting exceptio…
Is a pre-meeting 'meet and greet' for new board members subject to Delaware's open meetings law?
No violation found. The AG determined that the Wilmington Housing Authority did not violate FOIA at its February 27, 2017 board meeting: notice was posted ten days in advance at the authority's princi…
If you sit on a city planning commission, a sheriff's civil service commission, or another local board, can you also serve on the county building commission, or does W. Va. Code § 8-33-3 disqualify you?
You are disqualified. W. Va. Code § 8-33-3 bars building commission members from holding 'any office (other than the office of notary public) or employment under the United States of America, the stat…
Do Delaware prison officials have to release use-of-force reports and inmate grievances after a prison riot?
Mostly yes. The AG found the Department of Correction could withhold JTVCC exceptional-incident reports, use-of-force reports, inmate grievances, staff disciplinary records, and Rule 210 proceedings a…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Scott Trotter's 2017 multi-issue constitutional amendment about jury damages, campaign-finance disclosure, and legislative powers?
Seven defects, the AG said. The popular name was misleading (juries don't have an absolute right to set damages; Arkansas already requires election disclosures). The ballot title used technical terms …
Can a Texas city's tree removal ordinance be an unconstitutional taking of my property?
The AG concluded it depends on the facts. A municipal tree preservation ordinance is a per se taking that requires compensation if it denies a property owner all economically beneficial or productive …
Does a Texas school district need a tax ratification election if it lowers the total rate but raises the M&O rate?
The AG concluded yes. A school district must hold a tax ratification election whenever it adopts a rate above its rollback rate, and the rollback rate effectively tracks only the maintenance and opera…
Can a Florida town's driveway-permit ordinance be applied to a property used for bona fide farming, or do agricultural preemptions block enforcement?
It depends on scope. The Town of Grant-Valkaria's ordinance applies on its face only to driveways for single-family and duplex residential structures, so it doesn't conflict with the agricultural pree…
Can a state agency withhold records from someone who is actively suing a related federal agency over the same issue?
Yes, in this case. The AG upheld DNREC's denial of records to a property owner who was actively suing FEMA over a flood elevation determination, because the records related directly to that pending la…
Does a state agency have to get records back from the private shelter it contracts with to house seized animals?
No violation. The AG found the Division of Public Health didn't have to produce records about seized dogs' whereabouts because ownership of the dogs had already passed to a private shelter, which is n…
If a Delaware agency can't find the exact document I asked for in a FOIA request, does that violate the law?
No. The AG found that Delaware's Department of Justice did not violate FOIA when it searched for, but could not locate, the specific memo a requester asked for, told him it didn't exist, and separatel…
Can a Delaware state agency withhold correspondence with a developer by calling it part of an 'investigatory file'?
No, not here. The AG found that DNREC violated FOIA by withholding correspondence between a developer and the Sussex Conservation District under the investigatory file exemption, because the review at…
Does Virginia's three-fourths-vote rule for selling city property apply when a city grants the state a permanent easement to build a public monument?
No. The supermajority-vote rule and competitive-bid rule in Article VII, Section 9 of the Virginia Constitution and Code § 15.2-2100 did not apply when Richmond proposed to grant the Commonwealth a pe…
Does a town violate Delaware's open meetings law by calling a special meeting on three days' notice to vote on firing an employee?
Yes, in part. The AG found that the Town of South Bethany violated FOIA by calling a special meeting on only three days' notice to discuss and vote on firing its Town Manager without showing the exige…
Are police or fire marshal firearms qualification records exempt from Delaware's public records law as personnel files?
No, not in this case. The AG determined that the City of Wilmington violated FOIA by withholding its Fire Marshal's Office firearms qualification records, because disclosure would not have invaded per…
Can Northwest Arkansas Community College use its local property tax millage to build and run a campus outside its taxing district?
Yes, generally, as long as the new facility is inside NWACC's assigned service area. Arkansas law expressly distinguishes a community college's taxing 'district' from its 'service area,' and contempla…
Does the California Voter Participation Rights Act override a charter city's home-rule authority over election timing, and does it apply to school districts whose elections are governed by city charters?
Yes to both. The AG concluded that the California Voter Participation Rights Act (Elec. Code §§ 14050-14057) preempts a charter city's article XI, section 5 home-rule authority over election timing be…
How many days does a Delaware state agency have to respond to a FOIA public records request?
15 business days. The AG found that the Delaware Department of Insurance violated FOIA's public records provisions by taking longer than 15 business days to respond to a request, but ordered no furthe…
Does a city council violate Delaware's open meetings law by holding an all-day planning retreat without a real agenda?
Yes. The opinion found that the City of Seaford's Council violated Delaware's open meetings law by holding an all-day planning retreat without including an agenda in the meeting notice, and then provi…
Does a Delaware charter school have to post its meeting notices online, or is physically posting them at the school enough?
No, according to this opinion. A charter school's budget oversight committee did not violate FOIA by failing to post meeting notice on the school's website, because FOIA's requirement to post notice o…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Mary Berry's third 2017 cannabis legalization amendment, the one with effective dates of November 7, 2018 and April 19, 2019?
Three ambiguities in the measure's text. Section 2 said marijuana activities would be 'regulated and made lawful' starting November 7, 2018, but Section 9 said the state had until April 19, 2019 to is…
Can an Arkansas county election commission hire its own election coordinator without the county judge's approval?
No. The AG concluded that under Amendment 55, the county judge holds the exclusive power to contract on the county's behalf. Election commissioners are not 'other elected officials' within the narrow …
Are an Arizona public official's text messages and social media DMs about government business public records, even if sent on a personal phone or account?
It depends on the device. Messages on government-issued phones or accounts are public records. Messages on truly private devices and accounts are not, but officials still have an affirmative duty to r…
Can West Virginia still force minor-party and independent candidates to file by the January 'certificate of announcement' deadline now that a federal court has enjoined the state from doing exactly that?
No. The Secretary of State should treat the August 1 deadline (under W. Va. Code §§ 3-5-23, 3-5-24) as the operative filing date for minor-party and independent candidates, and may not enforce the Jan…
Can a school board's tax rate increase vote be challenged if the board added it to the meeting agenda as a last-minute addendum without explanation?
Yes, according to this opinion. The Milford School District Board of Directors violated FOIA by adding a Fiscal Year 2017 tax rate increase to its June 20, 2016 meeting agenda as a same-day addendum w…
Can an Arkansas state agency release a former employee's resignation letter under FOIA, even when the employee says the requester is harassing them?
Yes. The AG concluded that a fill-in-the-blank resignation notice is a personnel record subject to disclosure under Arkansas FOIA. The privacy interest is at most de minimis, and there is no 'harassme…
When California's jail strip-search rule says the person conducting or watching a strip search must be the 'same sex' as the inmate being searched, does that include the inmate's gender identity and expression?
Yes. The AG concluded that 'sex' in Penal Code section 4030, subdivision (k), means gender, which the Penal Code expressly defines to include gender identity and gender expression. So a transgender de…
Can a Delaware county deny a public records request just because the requester isn't shown to be a Delaware citizen?
Yes, according to this opinion. A consultant asked New Castle County for records and the County denied the request because he wasn't a Delaware citizen; the AG confirmed Delaware's FOIA only requires …
Can a state licensing board be forced to hand over its licensees' email addresses to a company that wants to market to them?
No, according to this opinion. An out-of-state developer of paid training courses asked the Delaware Association of Professional Engineers for the email addresses of all its licensed engineers in a sp…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Mary Berry's June 2017 cannabis amendment titled 'The Arkansas Adult Recreation of Marijuana Amendment'?
Because the proposal's Section 1 baked the phrase 'Recreation of Marijuana' into the amendment's official short title. The phrase is grammatically and conceptually ambiguous: it could read as 'recreat…
Can a 100%-disabled Virginia veteran or surviving spouse claim the disabled-veteran property tax exemption back to 2011, beyond the usual three-year correction window?
Yes. The AG concluded that a disabled veteran or surviving spouse who has filed the required affidavit under § 58.1-3219.5 is entitled to the property tax exemption back to the date of disability rati…
Can an Arkansas police officer chase and ticket a driver outside the officer's jurisdiction for a traffic misdemeanor that started outside the officer's territory?
No. Under the law as it stood in 2017, an Arkansas officer who saw a misdemeanor for the first time outside his jurisdiction had no statutory power to pursue, detain, or ticket the driver. The fresh-p…
Did DC need a technical-amendment act before the Mayor could sign the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission Interstate Compact, given that the DC, Maryland, and Virginia enabling statutes had small wording differences?
No. Interstate compacts are valid when member-state enabling statutes are substantially similar, even if not word-for-word identical. The 28 small variances among the DC, Maryland, and Virginia versio…
Does a city council's formally appointed "leadership team," created to meet regularly with the mayor's office, have to follow Delaware's open-meetings law?
Yes, according to this opinion. The Wilmington City Council President formally appointed five Council members to a "Council Leadership Team" to meet regularly with the Mayor's administration and repor…
Can a Florida city use city employees and equipment during business hours to help a private citizen run a fundraiser for restoring a city-owned building?
The opinion did not give a yes/no. The AG noted that municipal funds may only be used for a municipal purpose, and whether the city commission could make the necessary public-purpose findings under Ar…
Can Delaware's Lottery Office refuse to break down monthly revenue and payout data by game and retailer if generating that report needs new computer programming?
Yes, according to this opinion. A newspaper editor asked the Delaware Lottery Office for three months of revenue and payout data broken down by individual game and by each licensed retailer, and the A…
Can a Florida soil and water conservation district sponsor a nonprofit corporation that buys and runs a private water and wastewater utility on its behalf?
The opinion concluded a Florida soil and water conservation district lacked statutory authority to sponsor a nonprofit corporation owning and operating a water/wastewater utility, because Chapter 582 …
Can a West Virginia county commission tell the county sheriff, county clerk, or other independently elected officials when their offices have to be open?
No. Independently elected county officials run the day-to-day operations of their own offices, including office hours, employee schedules, and time off. The county commission's constitutional 'oversig…
Does a private consulting firm's stakeholder focus groups have to be publicly noticed under Delaware's open meetings law?
No, according to this opinion. A private planning firm hired by Sussex County to help draft a new comprehensive land use plan ran stakeholder focus groups without input from the County Council or Plan…
Why did the Arkansas AG reject Barry Emigh's 2017 casino-by-municipal-ballot proposal that would have given gambling licenses to a small group of named BQC members?
The popular name was misleading because it suggested gambling could be legalized 'simply by way of a municipal ballot measure.' The 785-word ballot title still failed to convey the sweeping changes th…
After the 2016 FOCUS Act restructured Tennessee higher education governance, can state university employees still participate in the Board of Regents' 403(b) retirement plan?
Yes. The AG concluded that the FOCUS Act, which created separate governing boards for the six state universities, did not impliedly amend the Government Employees Deferred Compensation Plan Act. The c…
Can a Texas charity give away bottles of liquor as a raffle prize?
The AG concluded a court would likely say yes. Two laws were in play: the Charitable Raffle Enabling Act, which lets qualified nonprofits hold raffles, and the Alcoholic Beverage Code. The Act restric…
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