Legislative Services

TAC has highlighted recent attorney general opinions and requests for opinions of interest to counties.

Attorney General Opinions

KP-0394: Eligibility to hold municipal office under Section 22.008 of the Local Government Code and related questions (RQ-0412-KP). Municipal authority to adopt ordinance relating to Local Government Code Subsection 22.008(a) prohibiting official custodian of municipal funds from holding office when in default to municipality.

KP-0395: Texas medical school compliance with Coats-Snowe Amendment, which prohibits discrimination against health care entities that refuse to provide or undergo training for induced abortion (RQ-0413-KP). The Coats-Snowe Amendment, found in 42 U.S.C. § 238n, prohibits the state of Texas from discriminating against physicians, medical students or graduate medical education training programs for their refusal to participate in abortion-related training. It requires the state of Texas to disregard Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education accreditation standards that compel the provision of induced abortion training on an opt-out basis, thereby allowing graduate medical education programs to provide induced abortion training on an elective, opt-in basis. Furthermore, a graduate medical education training program that forces a person to affirmatively opt-out of such training raises constitutional and religious freedom concerns and implicates conscience rights of doctors and students. Given these constitutional and statutory concerns, a graduate medical education program should implement opt-in induced abortion training.

KP-0396: Whether the NCAA’s policies on transgender student-athletes violate PageTitle IX (RQ-0414-KP). Analysis of National Collegiate Athletic Association’s transgender student-athlete policies in relation to PageTitle IX of Education Amendments of 1972. Membership in the NCAA is voluntary, but the NCAA may penalize member schools that do not comply with its constitution, bylaws and rules. How a court would determine whether a violation of PageTitle IX occurred if the NCAA imposed penalties against a university must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis after fact finding, which is beyond the scope of an Attorney General opinion.

KP-0397: Whether Section 37.122 of the Education Code prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages at a school banquet facility when leased to private operators for non-school related or sponsored events (RQ-0417-KP). Application of Education Code Section 37.122 prohibition to banquet facility used for noneducational events and located in district-owned stadium. The opinion concludes that whether a building in a stadium owned by a school district is a “building of a public school” subject to the prohibition depends on the particular facts and therefore cannot be determined as a matter of law in an Attorney General opinion.

Requests for Attorney General Opinion 

RQ-0442-KP: Ms. Amy F. Cook, Executive Director, Texas Racing Commission. Permissible uses and distributions of escrowed purse funds by the Texas Greyhound Association under Section 2028.202 of the Occupations Code.

RQ-0443-KP: The Honorable Tracy O. King, Chair, House Committee on Natural Resources, Texas House of Representatives. Whether the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act prohibits a business or government entity from entering into an agreement to provide utility service to a factory owned by a company that meets one of the criteria under the act.

RQ-0444-KP: The Honorable DeWayne Burns, Chair, House Committee on Agriculture and Livestock, Texas House of Representatives. Whether a merchant may offer a theft deterrent course in lieu of arrest and prosecution and whether doing so would expose a merchant or educational provider to civil or criminal liability.