Kansas Attorney General Opinions: How to Find, Read and Cite Them

Short answer: a Kansas attorney general (AG) opinion is a written answer to a question of law. A statute, meaning a law passed by the legislature, requires the office to answer some officials. It answers others at its own choice. Opinions are numbered by year and order, as in Attorney General Opinion No. 2026-3. The set is small: nine to twenty-six a year lately. The office's website holds those from 2023 on, and a law school library holds the rest back to 1974. The Kansas Supreme Court says opinions are not binding law, meaning courts need not follow them, but are "persuasive authority," meaning courts may weigh them.

TL;DR

• Kansas Statutes Annotated section 75-704 (written K.S.A. 75-704) names who the office must answer. The office's written policy covers everyone else, including many local government lawyers.
• K.S.A. 75-704a tells the office how to write every opinion. That is why each one opens with a topic line and a synopsis.
• The archive is split. The AG's site covers 2023 on. Washburn Law Library covers 1974 on.
• The office says plainly that it cannot keep old opinions up to date. You must check them.

Working across several states? Start with our national guide to attorney general opinions. Need Kansas statutes and court rules as well? See how to find and cite Kansas law.

What makes Kansas different

A statute shapes each opinion. K.S.A. is the Kansas Statutes Annotated, the state's code. Section 75-704a says each opinion gets "legal headings" that follow the code's chapter order. It gets "a brief synopsis" (a short summary) and "a number for reference and indexing." Copies go to the state library and three law libraries.

The record is in two places. The office's own page says opinions issued since 2023 are on its site. For earlier ones, it sends you to the Washburn database.

The set is small and local. Many recent questions come from county and city lawyers.

The office admits its limits. It says it cannot track whether old opinions still hold.

Who can ask a Kansas attorney general opinion

K.S.A. 75-704 says the AG must "give his or her opinion in writing, without fee, upon all questions of law." The question must come from the legislature, the governor, the secretary of state, the state treasurer, the state board of education or the commissioner of insurance. A separate sentence says the office must advise county attorneys, the lawyers who prosecute for each county, when they ask.

The office's written policy, as read on October 5, 2026, covers everyone else. Other opinions are "issued at the discretion of the Attorney General." The office weighs how much the issue matters to the state and what the work would cost. The policy then lists who can ask.

• Legislators and state agencies. An individual lawmaker or a committee may ask. An agency request must be signed or endorsed by its chief executive or chief lawyer.
• County and district attorneys. Their assistants may not ask.
• Cities, counties and other local governments. The governing body or its chief lawyer must submit the request. Individual members may not.
• Elected county officers. They must ask the county attorney first and attach the answer.

A business owner or resident is not on the list. The office says it "cannot act as legal counsel to individual constituents." Ask a local official to send it.

What a request must contain

The policy says a request must give "a complete statement of the problem, together with a clear, concise question of law." The asker's own lawyers must add their research. The office may share the request with people who know the subject, and interested parties may send briefs, meaning written legal arguments. It will not answer an issue that is "threatened, pending or scheduled for determination by the courts." An opinion counts only after the AG signs it.

Numbers, counts and citation

Kansas numbers an opinion by year and order. 2026-3 is the third of 2026. The count restarts each January. Older opinions use two digits for the year, as in 84-56 from 1984. The Washburn files pad the number, so 2026-3 sits at 2026-003.

These counts were taken on October 5, 2026, from the year pages on the Washburn site (ksag.washburnlaw.edu/opinions/2023/ and so on). In 1979 the office issued 314 opinions. From 2022 to 2025 it issued 9 to 26 a year. The drop matters for search. Few recent opinions exist, so a Kansas question often has no direct answer, and a 1980s opinion may be the closest one. When no recent opinion exists, read the current statute first and use the old opinion as background.

For a citation, copy the office's own style. A 2026 opinion cites an older one as "Kan. Att'y Gen. Op. No. 84-56." (Att'y Gen. is short for Attorney General.) Opinion 2024-7 writes "Att'y Gen. Op. No. 95-91, at 1," with a page after the number. Use the number, and add a page if you point to a passage.

Do Kansas courts have to follow one?

No. In Willis v. Kansas Highway Patrol, 273 Kan. 123, 41 P.3d 824 (2002), the Kansas Supreme Court wrote that "it is the well-settled position of this court that attorney general opinions are not binding law in Kansas, but are merely persuasive authority."

The court-case notes printed under K.S.A. 75-704 add a second point. They cite State ex rel. Morrison v. Sebelius, 285 Kan. 875, 885 (2008), for the view that an advisory opinion is an executive power, meaning the work of the governor's branch of government and not of the courts. An advisory opinion is official advice that does not decide a lawsuit. So an opinion is advice from the executive branch, a source a court may weigh but need not follow. A court is free to read the statute its own way.

Where to find Kansas attorney general opinions

Use the AG's opinions page, as read on October 5, 2026, for 2023 on. It lists each new opinion with a short summary. For 1974 on, use the Washburn Law Library database at ksag.washburnlaw.edu. It says its full text runs from 1974-1 (January 2, 1974) through 2026-9 (June 18, 2026).

A recent opinion: 2026-3

On February 3, 2026, the AG issued Opinion 2026-3. Steven Hirsch, county attorney for Decatur and Sheridan Counties, asked about county extension councils. These councils run county extension programs, which promote agriculture. Both counties had passed resolutions that let the county commissioners pick the council members. State law says residents elect them. Could a county use its home rule, meaning its power to run its own affairs, to skip that law?

No. The synopsis says "counties may not invoke their home rule authority to exempt themselves" from the election statute. The office relied on K.S.A. 19-101a, which says counties stay under state laws "concerning elections." It added that the two resolutions "are null and void."

A county clerk or commissioner can act on this. A county that tried the same move for extension council elections has the office's answer.

An older opinion that is still cited: 84-56

Opinion 2026-3 leans on one from forty-two years earlier. Opinion 84-56, dated June 22, 1984, answered William Kauffman, general counsel of the Kansas Board of Regents. He asked how the Kansas Tort Claims Act treats county extension councils. That Act sets when a government can be sued for harm it causes. The synopsis says they are "municipalities, with an existence separate from that of the county." A municipality here is any local unit of government. The opinion explains why: "the members are directly elected by the residents of the county and are not appointed."

The 2026 opinion repeats those words in a footnote. This opinion also shows a Kansas habit. Its synopsis says: "Attorney General Opinion No. 75-125 is withdrawn." The office states a withdrawal in the synopsis of the newer opinion.

How to tell if an opinion is still good

The office's own page gives a blunt warning. "Subsequent legislation and court decisions" can affect old opinions. "It is impossible to maintain a constant review of the validity of past opinions." Each one explains the law "at the time the opinion is written."

Do not count on one list of withdrawn opinions. Do three things instead.

1. Read the synopsis for a line that withdraws an older opinion.
2. Read the current statute the opinion cites. The synopsis ends with a "Cited herein" list.
3. Search for later opinions on the same statute, as 2026-3 did with 84-56.

Vaquill AI's US primary-law API (a tool that lets software look up official legal text) holds Kansas AG opinions as a collection you can filter by state. A product team can take the statutes in an opinion's "Cited herein" line and compare them with the current text.

Kansas mistakes to avoid

Asking as an individual. A council member, a clerk or a resident cannot ask. The governing body or its lawyer must.

Looking only on the office's site. Anything before 2023 is at Washburn.

Dropping the zeros. Washburn writes 2026-003. The office writes 2026-3.

This guide is part of US Law Data: The Complete Guide. If a citation in an opinion looks unfamiliar, see how to cite a statute or regulation in plain English.

FAQ

Can a private citizen ask the Kansas AG for an opinion? No. The policy limits requests to officials, agencies and governing bodies. The office will not act as counsel to constituents. Ask a county attorney or city attorney to send the question.

How many opinions does Kansas issue a year? Few. Washburn's year pages show 9 in 2022, 13 in 2023, 10 in 2024 and 26 in 2025. In 1979 there were 314.

How far back do Kansas opinions go online? The office's site holds those from 2023. Washburn's database starts with 1974-1 (January 2, 1974).

Is a Kansas AG opinion the law? No. The Kansas Supreme Court calls opinions "merely persuasive authority."

How do I cite one? Use the office's style: "Kan. Att'y Gen. Op. No. 84-56." Add a page number if you point to a passage.

Will the office tell me if an opinion was overruled? Not in one list. Its page says it cannot keep up that review. Check the statute, the synopsis and later opinions yourself.

If you need to retrieve Kansas opinions and compare their cited statutes with current statute text inside your own product, see the US primary-law API.

Priyansh Khodiyar

Co-Founder & CTO

Priyansh leads engineering and AI at Vaquill AI: the pipelines that pull statutes, regulations and court rules from every US jurisdiction's official publisher, and the REST API, MCP server and open dataset that serve them.