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AG Opinions

One function of the Attorney General is to issue opinions to legislators and other state officers regarding questions of law in which the officer is officially interested. 

Generally, public officials are required to act in accordance with an Attorney General opinion unless or until the opinion is set aside by a court. However, opinions that conclude a statute is unconstitutional are advisory only.

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February 28, 2024

An opinion concluding that the positions of the Secretary of Transportation, the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, and the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority each constitute an “office” for purposes of Oklahoma’s law prohibiting an individual from simultaneously holding two or more offices. 51 O.S.2021, § 6. When an office holder accepts and enters upon the duties of a second office without a statutory exemption from the dual office holding prohibition, acceptance of the second office operates to ipso facto vacate the first office. 

February 28, 2024

Under the Oklahoma Supreme Court's four-pronged balancing factor test used to determine the constitutionality of legislative appointments to boards and commissions, this opinion concludes that the provisions of title 69 section 1703 (Supp.2023), as amended by House Bill 2263, are constitutional and do not violate the separation of powers provision in the Oklahoma Constitution. Okla. Const. art. IV, section 1; In re Okla. Dept. of Transp., 2002 OK 74, 64 P.3d 546; In re Okla. Dept. of Transp., 2003 OK 105, 82 P.3d 1000.

February 22, 2024

An opinion concluding that physician assistants are authorized to prescribe Schedule II drugs, but this authority is limited to on-site administration. Title 63, section 2-312(E) (Supp.2022) confirms that physician assistants prescribing controlled substances must otherwise comply with the 519.6 of title 59. Section 519.6 grants physician assistants a general authority to “prescribe drugs, including controlled medications in Schedules II through V,” but expressly qualifies in the next subsection that “[a] physician assistant may write an order for a Schedule II drug for immediate or ongoing administration on site.” 63 O.S.Supp.2022, 519.6(E)(1–2). 

February 6, 2024

Attorney General opinion analyzing Oklahoma laws restricting ownership of land, including recent legislative amendments to title 60, section 121 (Supp.2023) requiring an affidavit when recording a deed with an Oklahoma county clerk. This opinion also declares certain deeds exempt from the affidavit requirement.

February 5, 2024

Attorney General opinion examining the statutory duties of Service Oklahoma, an agency tasked in 2022 with all powers, duties, and responsibilities previously exercised by the Driver License Services Division of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety, including, upon request from an authorized person, preparing and maintaining a person's motor vehicle report. The opinion concludes that unless removed from a person's driving record in a manner authorized by law,  title 47, section 6-117(D) requires a suspension of a driver's license to remain in the motor vehicle report for three years, even if Service Oklahoma lifts the suspension during the three years.

December 29, 2023

Attorney General opinion concluding that a municipality may, under zoning or land use powers reserved by the Prevention of Youth Access to Tobacco Act, enact an ordinance prohibiting the zoning of an establishment engaged in the sale of tobacco, nicotine, or vapor products within 300 feet of an existing facility primarily used by persons under twenty-one years of age, subject to mandatory grandfathering of nonconforming use as required by the Oklahoma Municipal Code.

December 27, 2023

The Attorney General looks at article X, sections 14, 15, and 17, of the Oklahoma Constitution and concludes that neither these sections nor any other provision of law prohibits a charter municipality from establishing a leave-sharing program for members of a paid fire department or police department. And, this opinion also determines that because the rights of members of a fire department to collectively bargain for all terms of labor is a matter of statewide concern, and not purely municipal, a charter municipality may not enact or construe an ordinance that irreconcilably conflicts with these rights.

December 1, 2023

Generally, the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency (“OHFA”) is exempt from the Central Purchasing Act (“CPA”), State Finance Act (“SFA”), and State Consultants Act (“SCA”). Compliance with these statutes is mandatory if an entity is a “state agency,” generally defined as an office or officer that is a part of the executive or judicial branch. The OHFA is a public trust whose beneficiary is the state, and its trustees are public officers. However, neither the OHFA nor its trustees are part of the executive branch. Accordingly, the OHFA and its trustees are not within the scope of the term “state agency” and, therefore, generally not subject to each of these statutes. Notwithstanding, the SFA includes specific provisions that require action by a public trust having the State of Oklahoma as its beneficiary, such as OHFA. Therefore, the OHFA must comply with these limited provisions of the SFA.

December 1, 2023

The Commissioners of the Land Office (“CLO”) is subject to the laws of the State Use Advisory Council and the Central Purchasing Act except where the laws conflict with the CLO’s constitutional mandate to maximize benefits to current and future beneficiaries of the School Lands Trust. See Hendrick v. Walters, 1993 OK 162, ¶ 7, 865 P.2d 1232, 1238 (the Oklahoma Constitution is the State’s highest law and the bulwark to which all statutes must yield). The CLO is an office within the executive branch of state government and is made up of officials within the executive branch. Four of the five commissioners are constitutionally vested with executive authority for the State. Furthermore, whether an agency’s acquisition of real estate violates the laws of the State Use Advisory Council turns on the agency’s intention in making the acquisition. Answering this question requires factual determinations, which is beyond the scope of an Official Attorney General Opinion.

November 21, 2023

Attorney General opinion concluding that neither section 1-733 of title 63 nor any other provision of the Oklahoma Statutes permits the charging of a pregnant woman with a misdemeanor or felony for performing or inducing an abortion on herself to intentionally terminate a pregnancy.

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Disclaimer

74 O.S. § 18b (A(5)) provides the following language: The duties of the Attorney General as the chief law officer of the state shall be ... To give an opinion in writing upon all questions of law submitted to the Attorney General by the Legislature or either branch thereof, or by any state officer, board, commission or department, provided, that the Attorney General shall not furnish opinions to any but district attorneys, the Legislature or either branch thereof, or any other state official, board, commission or department, and to them only upon matters in which they are officially interested.