2026 Official Opinions
Official opinions will be posted as they are issued, generally within 24 to 48 hours. Please check this page at regular intervals to determine whether additional opinions have been issued.
July
|
Opinion # |
Requestor |
Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 26-006 | Elizabeth D. Teare, County Attorney, Fairfax County | No locality may delegate power to a county official pursuant to 24 VAC §§ 30-91-60(E)(7) and -150(B)(3) to request, the Virginia Department of Transportation (“VDOT”) to accept a request to add a street into the secondary state highway system. |
| 26-021 | The Honorable Henry Eickelberg, Treasurer, Loudoun County and the Honorable Robert S. Wertz, Jr., Commissioner of the Revenue, Loudoun County. | Where a town charter is silent on the vote threshold, Virginia law requires a two-thirds vote for a town’s governing body to impose a tax rate. Virginia law imposes this two-thirds voting requirement on a town regardless of whether the proposed rate is higher, lower, or unchanged. Virginia law does not permit a town to avoid the two-thirds voting requirement by adopting an ordinance that states the adopted tax rate shall remain in effect (or lowered) by a simple majority vote. Finally, the use of fiscal-year terminology in an ordinance or public notice (versus referring to the specific tax or calendar year for which the tax rate will be imposed) does not, by itself, impact the validity of such ordinance or notice, provided the wording materially represents the terms and conditions of the proposed tax rate and gives fair indication of the time period over which such tax rate will be imposed. |
| 26-031 | The Honorable Jason A. Vandever, Treasurer, City of Charlottesville | The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority is, by virtue of Virginia Code § 33.2-299.3, exempt from local stormwater fees only after July 1, 2026 but not before that date due to the General Assembly’s amendment to Code § 33.2-299.3 effective July 1, 2026. |
June
|
Opinion # |
Requestor |
Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 26-009 | Hon. Kelly K. Convirs-Fowler, Member, House of Delegates | The determination of what constitutes a “primary residence,” as that term is used in Virginia Code § 55.1-1201(D), requires a case-specific review which considers the totality of the factual circumstances. |
May
|
Opinion # |
Requestor |
Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 26-024 | Oliver L. Wright III, Secretary, Lunenburg County Electoral Board | An elected town council member may also be elected to the county school board if that school board is elected; reaffirming two prior opinions from 2011. |
April
|
Opinion # |
Requestor |
Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 26-014 | Steven Koski, Commissioner, Virginia Department of Elections | Voter registrations of individuals flagged by the DMV pursuant to the programs described in Va. Code Ann. § 24.2-410.1, and Va. Code Ann. § 46.2-328.1 should not be cancelled within 90 days of a federal primary or general election. However, some administrative processes need to be restructured to be brought into compliance with the National Voter Registration Act since systematic removal of voters within the 90 day quiet period before an election is not permitted by NVRA. It is always legal throughout the year to remove individual voters who indicate they are ineligible to vote. |
March
|
Opinion # |
Requestor |
Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 26-007 | Hon. Scott Surovell, Member of Senate of Virginia; Hon. Marcia “Cia” Price, Member, House of Delegates | Electoral boards and general registrars must provide for in-person absentee voting 45 days prior to any Election Day and possess no discretion to delay or fail to initiate voting on this timeline outside a valid court order expressly enjoining such administration and issued by a court of competent jurisdiction. Furthermore, any local resolution, regardless of the locality’s stated justification for its adoption, attempting to prevent election officials from implementing in-person absentee voting contradicts state law and is legally invalid. |
| 25-023 | Hon. Glen H. Sturtevant, Member, Senate of Virginia | The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is responsible for monitoring and enforcing IDEA requirements in the Commonwealth’s school divisions, and local school divisions are required to correct any noncompliance identified by the VDOE as soon as possible, and in no case later than one year after identification. If a school division fails to correct its noncompliance, the VDOE is responsible for taking appropriate enforcement action, which may include withholding special education funds from the school division and providing special education services directly, or by contract, to affected students with disabilities. Whether and which enforcement action may be appropriate or necessary in any set of circumstances, however, must be decided on a case-by-case basis. |
February
|
Opinion # |
Requestor |
Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 24-022 | The Honorable Wren Williams, Member, House of Delegates | The Virginia State Police properly denies firearm purchases when the prospective purchaser is prohibited from possessing a firearm under federal law because of an out-of-state conviction, irrespective of whether a Virginia circuit court has granted the purchaser a firearms restoration order. Procedures for restoration of firearm rights discussed. |
| 25-021 | Arthur L. Goff, Esq., County Attorney for the County of Rappahannock | Rappahannock County does not have power to require residential outdoor light fixtures to be retrofitted to combat light pollution (the obscuring of the night starry sky by abuse of man-made light) but may, if a properly worded zoning ordinance is in place, require new residential development to have such outdoor light fixtures to combat light pollution. |
| 24-036 | Hon. Marcus Simon, Member, House of Delegates / Chair, Virginia Code Comm’n | Certain provisions of the Charter for the City of Virginia Beach have been repealed by § 16.1-69.1. |
| 25-016 | Hon. Michael Sienkowski, Treasurer, Stafford County | A county treasurer has authority arising from the 2017 amendment to Code § 15.2-2286(B), which relates to zoning permit applications by landowners or final approvals by local governing boards when the landowners owe certain delinquent local taxes that are or can be a lien on that land, to require the county government to consider the application on its merits, notwithstanding a local ordinance not containing the 2017 amendment. |
| 25-032 | Marcus Moyer, Secretary, Electoral Board, Prince William County | A local electoral board has no statutory authority to add software to its voting system and such changes would, in any event, require approval from the State Board of Elections (nor to display publicly a digital copy of a ballot or the cast vote record. |
January
|
Opinion # |
Requestor |
Summary |
|---|---|---|
| 25-027 | Ms. Jamie Patten, Acting Head & Chief Administrative Officer, Virginia Cannabis Control Authority | The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority may not limit written certifications for the medical use of cannabis products to electronic or digital certifications. |
| 26-001 | Honorable Michael J. Webert, Virginia House of Delegates | A licensure requirement to purchase firearms and a ban on commonly used firearms, accessories, and components would violate the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 13 of the Constitution of Virginia. *This opinion has been withdrawn. See Attorney General opinion 26-004. |
| 26-002 | Honorable Karen Hamilton, Virginia House of Delegates | The holdings of Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board are limited to the facts of the case and United States v. Skrmetti weakens any argument for applying Grimm beyond its facts. |
| 26-003 | Honorable Marcus B. Simon, Virginia House of Delegates | The proposed constitutional amendment to Article II, § 6 of the Constitution of Virginia first agreed to by the Senate and the House of Delegates on October 31, 2025 preceded the general election of members of the House of Delegates that occurred on November 4, 2025. Thus, for purposes of Article XII, § 1 of the constitution of Virginia, the proposed amendment must be referred to the 2026 regular session of the General Assembly. |
| 26-004 | Honorable Michael J. Webert, Virginia House of Delegates | Withdraws previous Attorney General opinion 26-001. |