State AG Opinions
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Can a Washington city or county use its hotel-motel (lodging) tax revenues to repay revenue bonds issued to finance affordable workforce housing built within one-half mile of a transit station?
Yes. The Washington AG concluded that RCW 67.28.160(1) (amended in 2015) specifically authorizes any municipality to pledge lodging tax revenues to repay revenue bonds for affordable workforce housing…
Does someone need a Kansas public adjuster license to help a homeowner negotiate a residential insurance claim?
No license is required under this Act. The Attorney General concluded the Kansas Public Adjusters Licensing Act only defines and regulates public adjusting for first-party claims under commercial line…
Does a limited liability partnership need county approval to build a swine production facility in a Kansas county, the same as a limited partnership would?
No. The Attorney General concluded that a limited liability partnership is legally distinct from a limited partnership, so it does not need county commission approval under K.S.A. 17-5908 to establish…
Does Maryland's Public Information Act apply to delayed public broadcasts of encrypted police radio dispatch calls?
The opinion concluded that live, unencrypted police radio chatter picked up by a scanner is not itself a public record, but a recording made to facilitate a delayed public broadcast of that radio traf…
I'm the same Conway officer in opinion 2025-089 and someone made a separate, broader FOIA request listing ten categories of records about me. The custodian gave me his planned answers for each category. Are they right?
Mostly OK, but several depend on classification calls the custodian must still make. Your personnel file (category 1) needs to be sorted document by document. Categories 2, 3, and 5 (incident records,…
Did the City of Fayetteville adopt a sanctuary policy by saying 'the city does not assist ICE,' and what does that mean for state funding?
Yes. The AG concluded that the mayor's June 17, 2025 media release reflects a pre-existing City of Fayetteville policy that violates A.C.A. § 14-1-103. The release stated that the police department 'd…
When an outside police department asks a South Dakota city's officers to arrest someone in that city, or comes into the city and makes the arrest themselves, what authority is actually in play?
The local officers can act on probable cause communicated to them by another department (collective knowledge doctrine). But the outside department cannot drive into another municipality and make a cu…
Three coworker complaints have been filed against me, and now they're being released under FOIA. Aren't those internal investigation records? Can I block release?
No. The AG concluded that anonymous complaints filed by coworkers are personnel records, not evaluation records, because they were not created by or at the behest of the employer. They are not transfo…
Washington County is about to pass an ordinance that exempts a single private recovery facility from the county's conditional use permit rules. Is that an unconstitutional 'special law' under the Arkansas Constitution?
The AG declined to answer because of pending federal litigation. Eaglecrest Recovery, LLC v. Washington County, Arkansas, No. 5:24-cv-05249 (W.D. Ark., filed December 6, 2024), addresses the same cond…
Does Act 751 of 2025 stop our civil service commission from interviewing candidates for promotion to corporal or sergeant, or does it only restrict interviews for new hires?
Only new hires. The new ban on commissioners 'engaging in interviews' in section 14-51-301(b)(3)(B)(ii) applies only to applicants from outside the department, that is, candidates for appointment. Com…
Does a Texas state board member have to recuse from votes when a close family member works for an entity with competing interests in the same project?
Yes. Under Government Code section 572.058, a Nueces River Authority board member whose brother-in-law is an executive at the City of Corpus Christi's water utility has a 'personal or private interest…
Can a Texas county require a permit or set a minimum burial depth when a phone company buries cable along a county road, and who pays if the county cuts it?
No on permits and depth. Chapter 181 of the Utilities Code does not authorize a county to require a permit or set a minimum burial depth for a telephone or telegraph corporation that buries cable in a…
Can a California school board trustee also serve as a director of the local municipal water district that supplies water to the schools?
The Attorney General granted the Whittier Union High School District leave to sue Gary Mendez in quo warranto. Under Government Code section 1099, holding two public offices with possible significant …
If I'm convicted of a minor offense and then pick up a second conviction during the waiting period, can I still get the first one expunged in South Carolina?
No. Section 22-5-910 requires a clean record during the three-year (subsection A) or five-year (subsection B) waiting period. A second conviction inside that window permanently disqualifies the first …
Can a private school bus company be forced to give up its bus routes under North Dakota's open records law?
No, not by the company itself. A private contractor that provides services to a school district at fair market value is not a 'public entity' under N.D.C.C. § 44-04-17.1(13). Records held by the contr…
Is a small private rural hospital that occasionally gets city sales-tax money for equipment subject to North Dakota's open meetings law?
Only as to the public funds. Jacobson Memorial Hospital Care Center, a private nonprofit critical access hospital in Elgin that received three sales-tax-fund grants from the City of Elgin (in 2013, 20…
I'm a Conway police officer. I was terminated, I'm appealing it to the Civil Service Commission, and the city wants to release a big stack of records about my case. Can they?
Mostly no on the records connected to your termination, but several other records can go out. Because your termination is on appeal to the Conway Civil Service Commission, your evaluation records (any…
We're trying to plan our initiative petition campaign under the new Act 274 rules. Can a canvasser play voters a prerecorded reading of the ballot title and then accept their signature, or does the canvasser have to do the reading live? And can voters listen on headphones, speed up the playback, or hear it in another language?
The AG declined to answer because of pending federal litigation. League of Women Voters of Arkansas v. Cole Jester, No. 5:25-cv-05087 (W.D. Ark., filed April 21, 2025), is challenging Act 274 of 2025,…
Does Delaware FOIA require a denial letter to cite specific statutory exemptions, provide an index of withheld records, or answer the requester's substantive questions?
No to all three. New Castle County did NOT violate FOIA by responding to Irina Genseruk's permit-history request with a partial production, an investigatory-files exemption note, and a website link. S…
I run a small police department. Someone has FOIA'd a former officer's personnel file. I have admin records, a written warning, a paid-administrative-leave letter, a final investigation letter, investigative notes, and a resignation letter. What can I release?
Release most of it, but hold the investigative notes unless the resignation was actually a constructive termination. The administrative records (job application, training acknowledgments, separation n…
Can a spouse or heir inherit a Kansas doctor's, dentist's, or vet's practice and just hire someone licensed to run it?
No, not on an ongoing basis. The Attorney General concluded an unlicensed heir cannot own or operate a doctor's, veterinarian's, or dentist's practice; the heir must sell or close the practice within …
Can a West Virginia county commission make its volunteer fire departments submit to a financial audit, and withhold their share of levy funds if they refuse?
No on both counts. The AG concluded the Mineral County Commission has no express or implied authority under W. Va. Code § 7-1-3d to audit volunteer fire departments, because the Legislature gave that …
When a Delaware school district employee separates and asks for the separation agreement and related records, are those documents exempt as a personnel file?
Mostly yes, with two key exceptions. The Christina School District properly invoked the personnel file exemption in 29 Del. C. § 10002(o)(1) for most records about Phillip Hudson's separation. But two…
Does South Carolina's six-week paid parental leave for state employees and teachers cover a stillbirth?
Probably yes. The AG concluded that a court would likely read the word 'birth' in §§ 8-11-150 and 8-11-151 to include stillbirths, but warned the statutes do not say so explicitly and recommended that…
When a federal agency like DCSA or DoD asks a South Carolina sheriff or court for someone's arrest history for a security clearance, do they have to provide it?
Yes. Under 5 U.S.C. § 9101, every state and local criminal justice agency in South Carolina (police departments, sheriffs, courts, county CJAs) must release criminal history records to a covered feder…
Does Arkansas's new open-meeting law (Act 505 of 2025) apply to a city council, the mayor, or both?
Both. Act 505 applies to a city's 'governing body' and its individual members. A city council is a governing body, and because the mayor is ex officio president of the council, the mayor counts as a c…
Who gets written notice of a Texas zoning change, and do you have to be on the city tax roll to count toward a zoning protest?
Written notice of a zoning-commission hearing goes only to owners within 200 feet who appear on the most recently approved municipal tax roll. But for the 20 percent protest that triggers a three-four…
Can Texas HHSC license and regulate disability-services (ISS) providers as day-activity facilities, and can it set penalties above the statutory limit?
Yes to licensing, no to higher penalties. The Health and Human Services Commission may license and regulate on-site and off-site Individualized Skills and Socialization (ISS) providers that are alread…
Can a Texas county clerk spend records management and preservation fees on a project that includes the district clerk's records?
Only partly. The records management and preservation fee a county clerk collects under section 118.0216 may be used only for documents filed and recorded with the county clerk. The clerk cannot use it…
If a Kansas governor or lieutenant governor candidate dies or drops out after filing but before the deadline, can the other one just find a new running mate and stay on the ballot?
No, not as the same candidacy. The Attorney General concluded that when one member of a Governor/Lieutenant Governor candidacy withdraws or dies after filing but before the filing deadline, the joint …
Does Oklahoma law (the new 2025 'adult performance' statute or the existing obscenity laws) prohibit drag performances in front of minors or in public places?
Only if the drag performance contains 'obscene material' as defined by the Miller test (codified in 21 O.S. § 1024.1(B)(1)). Drag itself is not the legal hook; obscenity is. Some drag performances lik…
Can my school district legally ban employees from talking directly to school board members?
Probably not as a blanket ban. The First Amendment likely forbids a school district from prohibiting all direct communication between employees and board members. Whether the district can discipline a…
After the Mississippi Senate refuses to confirm a governor's nominees, can the governor send the same names back, or appoint different people, while the Senate is out of session?
The same nominees cannot be reappointed, because the Senate's failure to confirm annulled the appointment under Section 7-1-35. Different nominees may be appointed during Senate vacation; until the Se…
When a Little Rock police officer is fired, are the off-boarding forms and the termination letter subject to release under Arkansas's FOIA?
The off-boarding and termination clearance forms are personnel records and must be released with limited redactions (personal contact info, employee ID number). The termination letter is an evaluation…
Can one person serve on a South Carolina county hospital board and a county elections commission at the same time?
No. Both positions are 'offices of honor or profit' that exercise sovereign power. Under Article XVII, § 1A, holding both at once is unconstitutional dual office holding, and the law treats the first …
When a Mississippi sixteenth-section land lessee fails to pay ad valorem taxes, the lease expires, and a new lessee takes over the same parcel, who owes the unpaid taxes and can the county simply forgive them?
The unpaid ad valorem taxes are a personal debt of the original lessee. A new lessee is not responsible for the prior lessee's taxes and can pay current taxes on the new lease even while the old taxes…
When a Mississippi city pays the county to house a municipal prisoner, does the daily rate ($25 or $32.71) cover meals, medical care, and transportation?
Meals: yes, included. Medical treatment and related transportation: no, separate. Other transportation: not addressed by statute, so left to the parties' contract. Section 47-5-901(3)(a) says the dail…
Does a Mississippi city have to extend sewer service into a private subdivision whose own lagoon system has failed?
No. A city's decision to build or extend sewer infrastructure is discretionary, not mandatory. The city can choose to fund the extension under the municipal water and sewer statute, but it isn't requi…
If I'm settling a car-accident injury claim and the insurer wants me to sign a hold-harmless agreement, can the insurer use that to avoid paying my chiropractor's medical lien?
No. Arkansas's Medical Lien Act says the insurer cannot pay the patient before the lien is paid or released, and the patient cannot waive the personal-injury claim while a perfected lien is unpaid. A …
Can the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety pull the Highway Patrol off the interstates that run through Oklahoma City and Tulsa?
No, not entirely. State law makes OHP the 'primary law enforcement authority' for traffic offenses on Oklahoma's interstate highways, and 'shall' means it's a mandatory duty. DPS can reallocate troop …
Can a Delaware city charge a journalist $511 to retrieve government salary data, then change what records will be produced after payment is made?
Not without explanation. The City of Dover violated FOIA by failing to demonstrate compliance with cost-estimate rules. Ben Mace of The News Journal paid $8.68 for 2024 salary data, then learned the C…
Can the same person serve as a Mississippi city attorney and municipal court judge to save the town money?
Yes. The Mississippi separation of powers doctrine does not bar simultaneous service as city attorney and municipal court judge. A city attorney does not exercise core executive power. Duties as munic…
What fiscal impact did Missouri approve for Jamie Howard's initiative petition 2026-109?
The Attorney General approved the legal content and form of the fiscal note summary for petition 2026-109. The approved summary said state and local governmental entities estimated no costs or savings…
What fiscal impact did Missouri approve for Jamie Howard's initiative petition 2026-108?
The Attorney General approved the legal content and form of the fiscal note summary for petition 2026-108. The approved summary said state and local governmental entities estimated no costs or savings…
What fiscal impact did Missouri approve for Jamie Howard's initiative petition 2026-107?
The Attorney General approved the legal content and form of the fiscal note summary for petition 2026-107. The approved summary said state and local governmental entities estimated no costs or savings…
How is a single-family home that is rented out long-term, or a duplex where the owner lives in one half and rents the other half, classified for Tennessee property-tax purposes?
Both are generally classified as residential property and assessed at 25% of value, not industrial and commercial property assessed at 40%. The key statutory line is 'two or more rental units': a stan…
If a city's mayor fires an employee, the city council reverses that decision and reinstates the employee, and an outside investigator's report exists about the employee, can someone get the investigation report under FOIA?
No. Because the council reinstated the employee, the firing was not 'administratively final,' so the four-part test for releasing an employee evaluation record fails. The investigator's report stays w…
If the State Board of Education takes over a public school district and removes the local school board, does that district become a 'state entity'?
It depends on the purpose. For most statutes that define 'state entity' (energy bonds, cabinet departments, the divisive-concepts law), no, a state-controlled district is still not a state entity. But…
South Dakota's new election law (HB 1062) tells the Secretary of State to post the statewide voter registration file online weekly, but another statute says voter registration info can't be put on the internet with unrestricted access. Do those statutes contradict each other?
No. The Secretary of State can satisfy both by posting the file behind a request-form gate: anyone can ask for access by submitting contact info and acknowledging the use restrictions, then gets a one…
Can a Mississippi constable run for sheriff in a special election without resigning the constable seat first?
No, no resignation required to run. There is no statutory prohibition against a Mississippi constable running for sheriff while still holding the constable seat. If elected, separation of powers, inco…
What is the maximum land a Mississippi beat-system county can buy for a road station, what can it be used for, and what happens if no longer needed?
10 acres maximum per station, road-working purposes only, and disposal under Section 19-7-3 (or operation/management agreement under home rule). Section 65-7-91 limits a county to 10 acres per station…
If a Mississippi school district seat covers two counties, where does a candidate qualify in a special election, both counties or just one?
One county. Per the 1996 Eskridge opinion, a candidate for a multi-county school board seat files a single qualifying petition (signed by qualified electors of the district regardless of which county …
Can Mississippi CPS take a newborn into custody if the baby tests positive for meth or cocaine and is suffering withdrawals, even before the baby goes home?
Section 43-21-303 sets the conditions under which CPS or law enforcement may take a child into immediate custody without an order. The AG treated questions 1-4 (whether CPS could act in specific drug-…
Can a Mississippi sheriff or county use LIDAR, camera-based speed detection, or other non-radar speed devices, given that Section 63-3-519 limits 'radar' to certain agencies?
No. Section 63-3-519 prohibits all speed detection devices outside the Mississippi Highway Patrol and the specific municipalities listed in subsections (a) through (d), not just radar. AG opinions goi…
After Senate Bill 941 made the West Virginia DEP the sole authority over conservation-district dams, what happens to existing federal Operation and Maintenance agreements, future federal contracts, and the districts' liability if dam work fails?
Existing O&M agreements with the federal NRCS stay in effect, but conservation districts must get DEP approval before doing alteration, improvement, or agreement work on a covered dam. Future federal …
When a Mississippi municipal prisoner is bound over to the grand jury, who pays for housing the inmate, the city or the county?
The county. Once a municipal prisoner is bound over to the grand jury at preliminary hearing, or waives the hearing, the prisoner becomes a county prisoner. From that point, the county pays inmate exp…
If text messages from a state trooper's personal phone end up in the trooper's personnel file because of an investigation, can the public get them under FOIA, even though the trooper says they're personal?
Yes. Once the messages are in the personnel file connected to the trooper's employment, they're personnel records. The custodian must redact family-related personal content but may release the rest. T…
Does a data center count as an 'industrial building' under Kentucky law so it can be financed with industrial revenue bonds?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that a data processing center qualifies as an 'industrial building' under KRS 103.200(1)(a) and (b), because it processes data (a commercial product) and can be vie…
Can an Arizona county recorder cancel a long-registered voter's registration if the voter cannot now produce documentary proof of U.S. citizenship?
No. Under current Arizona law, a county recorder cannot cancel or downgrade an already-registered voter's registration just because the voter cannot or does not respond to a request for new proof of c…
After Mississippi's 2025 House Bill 291 changed plurality voting to majority voting for some offices, do legislative and state district offices still win on a plurality?
Yes to all three questions. After H.B. 291, the threshold for state legislative offices and state district offices (Public Service Commissioner, Transportation Commissioner) remains a plurality of vot…
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