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

Short answer: Mississippi attorney general opinions are written answers from the state's top lawyer to questions about what a state law means. Only certain public officials can ask for one. Courts do not have to follow it. But an official who asks and then follows it honestly (the law calls this good faith) is protected from liability, meaning being held legally responsible. The office posts its opinions on its own website from January 2020 on, and points to a free Westlaw database for the rest.

TL;DR

• Who can ask: state and local officials and bodies. Private citizens and businesses cannot.
• What binds: the office says its opinions are "advisory only and not binding in a court of law." A separate statute shields the official who asked.
• Numbering: there is no public number. You name one by who asked and the date.
• Where: the attorney general's website (January 2020 on) and a free Westlaw database.
• Staleness: I found no withdrawn-opinions list on the office's site. You check yourself.

Who can ask, and what the statute says

A statute is a law passed by the legislature. Mississippi Code section 7-5-25, titled "To give opinions in writing," is the one that creates this service. It tells the attorney general to answer written questions of law "without fee." Who may ask is a long list. It includes the legislature and the governor. It includes state boards, sheriffs, clerks and tax assessors. It also includes boards of supervisors (the county governing boards) and the "mayor or council or board of aldermen of any municipality" (a city or town). The list ends with "and no others." The question must relate to the asker's own office.

The office's process document gives a shorter list of the same kind. Staff and lawyers can prepare the request, as a city attorney did in the example below. The office still declines questions about "the official duties of someone other than the requestor."

How a request moves

As of October 2026, the office describes the steps in its official opinion process document. You file the request form on the office's website and attach a letter on official letterhead. The form asks whether the issue is in a lawsuit. The office does not take matters that are in court.

The office says it will acknowledge a proper request within three business days. It aims to answer in 100 days, or 45 for a real emergency. Senior lawyers review each draft at a monthly meeting. Once the attorney general signs, the opinion goes to the asker and onto the website. An asker who disagrees can ask for a second look by citing the opinion.

The office turns down some kinds of questions:

• Federal law, contracts, or facts the office would have to decide.
• The meaning of a local ordinance (a city or county rule) or a charter (the document that sets up a local government) by itself.
• Actions already taken that someone wants to justify, such as money already spent.

One opinion states the rule: "opinions of this office are issued on prospective questions of State law." Prospective means about what to do next, not about what was done.

Does an opinion bind anyone?

On courts, the office is direct: its opinions are "advisory only and not binding in a court of law." I found no Mississippi court ruling to quote on how much weight judges give them, so this guide does not claim one.

Section 7-5-25 adds a protection for the person who asked. Say an official gives all the facts and gets an opinion. If the official "in good faith, follows the direction of such opinion" (good faith means honest reliance), there is "no liability, civil or criminal." Civil means a lawsuit or civil penalty. Criminal means prosecution for a crime. The shield ends if a court declares the opinion "manifestly wrong and without any substantial support," which means plainly wrong with no real backing in the law. The statute also bars any opinion given "after suit is filed or prosecution begun."

Two things follow. The shield belongs to the official who asked, so a vendor or neighbor cannot lean on it. And the official must give the office every fact.

Where to find Mississippi attorney general opinions

The office's site is at an address built on the current attorney general's name: its opinions page. The older ago.ms.gov forwards to it. Bookmark the page, not a single PDF.

I could not confirm how far back the Westlaw database goes. Older opinions exist: a 2021 opinion cites letters from 2005 and 2011. For anything before 2020, search that database by statute number or topic, then call the Opinions Division at 601-359-3680.

A real opinion: can a food truck sell Mississippi beef?

On July 23, 2021, the office answered the city attorney for Senatobia about mobile food vendors. A "transient vendor," meaning a seller who works from place to place, needs a license to do business in a Mississippi city. Section 75-85-3 exempts farm, poultry and seafood products grown or produced in the state. The city asked whether beef counts.

The office said yes: "the sale of beef, poultry, and seafood products sourced from within the State of Mississippi fall within the exception." Then it set a limit for everything else. A vendor may skip the license only "if one of the exceptions in Section 75-85-3 applies." It repeated an older view that prepared foods are not exempt, even when made from Mississippi ingredients.

A food business cares because the answer decides whether a city can demand a transient license. A city official cares because the opinion also marks the edge of what the office will answer. Health and tax rules, it said, belong to the agencies that run them.

The letter is on the attorney general's site. It is addressed to Ginger M. Miller, dated July 23, 2021, and carries no number.

How to cite one

There is no official citation rule for these opinions. The office states no preferred form, and I found none. Its letters cite earlier opinions by the asker's surname and the date, such as "MS AG Op., Mullings at *1 (Apr. 22, 2011)," meaning a Mississippi attorney general opinion to Mullings, first page, on that date. The Recent Opinions page lists each by name, date and subject, such as "A. Bullard - November 1, 2024 - Maintenance of Rivers Outside Municipality."

This is a practical format, not a court rule. Use it the same way every time: surname, full date, subject. For example: Miss. Op. Att'y Gen., Miller, "Mobile Food Vendors" (July 23, 2021). Add the web address if your reader needs it.

Is an old opinion still good?

I found no withdrawn list. Run three checks:

1. Read the statute the opinion explains. In the beef opinion, that is section 75-85-3. Has it changed since the date?
2. Search the quarterly outlines and the database for newer opinions on the topic. An asker can ask for a second look, so a newer letter may revisit an older one.
3. Look for a court ruling. Under section 7-5-25, a court can call an opinion "manifestly wrong."

Mistakes people make in Mississippi

• Looking for a number. There is none, so a search for "AGO 2021-xx" finds nothing.
• Assuming a private person can ask. The statute's list ends with "and no others."
• Relying on someone else's shield. It covers the official who asked, on the facts they gave.
• Quoting an outline as the opinion. The quarterly outlines are only summaries. Read the letter.
• Asking about something already done. The office declines questions that try to justify a past expense.

This guide is part of US Law Data: The Complete Guide, a map of where US law comes from and how to use it.

FAQ

How do I search these opinions? Use the Recent Opinions page for January 2020 onward. For older ones, use the free Westlaw Government database. Search by the asker's last name or a subject, since there are no opinion numbers.

Can a business or private citizen ask for an opinion? No. The statute lists who may ask and ends with "and no others." A business owner can ask a local official to request one, or read existing opinions on the topic.

Do the opinions have legal force? The office says they are "advisory only and not binding in a court of law." A statute separately shields an official who follows one in good faith.

How long does the office take? It aims for 100 days, or 45 for an emergency. Those are goals the office states, not promises.

How do I cite one? The office states no form. Use the asker's surname, the full date and the subject, as its own letters do.

How do I know an opinion is still current? Check the statute for changes, look for later opinions on the topic, and look for a court ruling. The office publishes no withdrawn list.

Readers who want Mississippi opinions beside the code sections they explain, such as section 7-5-25, can find both in Vaquill AI's data on US statutes, regulations and opinions. Our guide to finding and citing Mississippi law covers the rest of the state's sources. Other states work differently, and the national comparison shows how. For the basics, see citing a statute in plain English.

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.