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

Short answer: a Texas attorney general opinion is a written answer to a question about what Texas law means. Only certain public officials can ask for one. The office posts opinions on its own website, from 1939 on, numbered by the attorney general who signed it, such as KP-0537 or GA-0015. Courts do not have to follow an opinion, but they give it weight. Before you rely on one, check the office's list of opinions that were later overruled, modified or withdrawn.

TL;DR

• Texas law lists who may request an opinion. If you are not on the list, you can ask someone who is, or send a brief on a pending request.
• The letters in a number such as KP-0537 tell you which attorney general signed it, and so roughly when.
• The office says its opinions are persuasive (they carry weight) but not binding (a court does not have to follow them).
• The office keeps a public list of overruled, modified, affirmed and withdrawn opinions. (Affirmed means a later opinion confirmed it.) Check it every time.

This post covers Texas only. For other states, see our guide to attorney general opinions by state.

Who can request a Texas attorney general opinion

Texas Government Code section 402.042 says the attorney general "shall issue a written opinion" when a listed person asks. The question must affect "the public interest" or concern "the official duties of the requesting person." Part (b) of that section lists nine kinds of people who can ask. They include the governor, state department heads, a committee of the legislature and a county auditor.

The office's own page also lists district and county attorneys. That matters for local government. A city council member or a business owner cannot ask directly. Section 402.045 bars the office from giving a written opinion to anyone the law does not name. The usual route is to ask a county attorney or a legislative committee to send the question. The office says that person decides whether to do so.

Anyone can help shape an answer. The office takes briefs (written legal arguments) on pending requests from any person or group. It asks for them within 30 days. It also posts a list of pending requests that you can subscribe to.

How a request becomes an opinion

A request must be in writing. It goes by email or certified mail to the Opinion Committee. That is the group of lawyers in the office who research and draft opinions. Each request gets a number such as RQ-0613-KP. Section 402.042(c) says the office must acknowledge a request within 15 days. It must issue the opinion within 180 days, unless it tells the requester in writing that the opinion will be late or will not come.

The 180 days is a target. The request behind KP-0537, below, is dated September 16, 2025. The opinion is dated September 30, 2026. The attorney general reviews and signs each opinion, and the office posts it, usually within a day.

Some requests end with no opinion. The requester may withdraw, the question may be in a lawsuit, or an answer might need a ruling on disputed facts.

What the numbers mean

Texas numbers each opinion in a series named for the attorney general in office. The office groups them on its opinions page like this.

The table follows the office's opinions page as read on October 5, 2026. Two short series, AC and JS, belong to two people who briefly served as attorney general in 2023.

You may also see "LO" numbers. These are letter opinions, a type the office stopped issuing on January 4, 1999. They dealt with local questions. The office says an LO carries no less weight than an opinion with the attorney general's initials.

Do Texas attorney general opinions bind a court?

No. The office states that its opinions "are not binding on the courts, but they are considered persuasive authority," meaning a court may weigh them and need not follow them. It adds that it has no power to enforce them in most cases. The Texas State Law Library guide says the same. An opinion cannot create new law or settle a dispute about facts. The office describes it as "a written interpretation of existing law."

A real recent opinion

On September 30, 2026, the attorney general issued Opinion KP-0537. The Hill County Attorney asked it for the City of Whitney. The city wanted to take donations of money for road repairs and police equipment. The question was whether a Type A general-law city may accept a donation. (A general-law city has only the powers the state gives it, and Type A is the label state law uses for one class of them.)

The office answered: "we believe that Type A general-law municipalities have the authority to accept donations of money for municipal purposes." The office relied on Local Government Code section 51.015(a). That law lets such a city "take, hold, purchase, lease, grant, or convey property." The office read "take" to include accepting a gift, and "property" to include money.

A city clerk, a donor or a local business would care. The city may accept the money if it serves a city purpose. The opinion warns that whether a given gift qualifies depends on facts, and an opinion cannot decide facts. Read the full opinion on the attorney general's site.

How to check whether an opinion is still good

Use the office's list of overruled, modified, affirmed and withdrawn opinions, as read on October 5, 2026. It shows several causes. A court can overrule an opinion: GA-0615 was overruled by a 2016 federal appeals court decision. A statute (a law passed by the legislature) can replace one: GA-0999 was superseded, meaning made out of date, by Texas Government Code section 2268.055(b). The office can also withdraw one. KP-0108 was withdrawn on 09/10/2024 pending a new request.

One entry reads oddly. JM-1006 (1989), about a county judge on a corporate board, is listed as "Overruled by statute DM-256 (1993)." DM-256 is itself an opinion, not a statute, so the label alone does not tell you what changed or why. When an entry confuses you, open the opinion it points to and read what it says about the earlier one.

Vaquill AI's US primary-law API (a tool that lets software look up official legal text) holds Texas opinions as a searchable collection. It shows when an opinion has been superseded (replaced) or withdrawn. On October 5, 2026, it showed JM-1006 as superseded by DM-256, the same follow-on opinion the office's list names.

How to cite a Texas attorney general opinion

The office cites its own opinions like this, taken from KP-0537: "Tex. Att'y Gen. Op. No. KP-0121 (2016) at 2." It gives the opinion number and the year, plus a page if you point to a passage. If a court rule tells you to use another form, follow the rule. When you send an opinion to a non-lawyer, link the PDF on the office's site so they can read the original. For citations in general, see how to cite a statute or regulation in plain English.

Texas mistakes to avoid

Citing a request as an opinion. RQ-0613-KP is the question. KP-0537 is the answer.

Mixing up opinions and open records rulings. The office also rules on whether public records may be withheld. Those rulings are a separate series. The State Law Library says not to cite those rulings as precedent unless they say so. (Precedent is a past ruling used to decide later cases.)

Ignoring the era. A JM or MW opinion dates from the 1980s or earlier. The law it explains may have changed. Read the date. Then check the current section in our Texas law guide.

Skipping the question asked. An opinion answers one question on the facts given. Compare your facts before you lean on it.

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

Can a private citizen ask the Texas attorney general for an opinion? No. Only the officials named in Government Code section 402.042 can. A citizen can ask a county attorney or a legislative committee to send the question. A citizen can also send a brief on any pending request.

How long does a Texas attorney general opinion take? The law sets 180 days, unless the office tells the requester in writing that it will be late. Some take longer. KP-0537 took about a year.

What does KP stand for in a Texas attorney general opinion? It stands for Ken Paxton, whose series runs from 2015. Each prefix matches the attorney general who signed the opinion, such as GA for Greg Abbott and JM for Jim Mattox.

Is a Texas attorney general opinion the law? No. It is the office's reading of the law. The office calls opinions persuasive and not binding, so a court can disagree.

Where can I find all Texas attorney general opinions? The office's opinions page lists them by attorney general, with a PDF for each. The online record starts in 1939. Earlier opinions were not published in any set way.

How do I know if an opinion was overruled? Look it up on the office's list of overruled, modified, affirmed and withdrawn opinions. Then check whether the statute it discusses has changed.

To search the statutes these opinions interpret from your own software, 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.