Attorney General Opinions

The Attorney General’s Office is authorized by statute to issue written legal opinions only to constitutional executive officers, state agencies, bodies of the state legislature, and attorneys for local governments or pension funds. These opinions do not generally have legally binding effect as a court decision, but they can be helpful to inform the actions of local public officials. Some opinions are formally “published”, while others are not. People may access formal published opinions in the ways set forth below.

Locating Opinions:

• 1993 – current:  opinions are available online, using the links below:
  • Opinions by Date
  • Opinions by Subject
  • Opinions by Entity Requesting Opinion
• 1968 – 1993:  the Minnesota Legal Register has published AG opinions after 1968, and contains annual subject indexes
• 1884 – 1968:  the Reports and Biennial Reports contain selected opinions and were published from 1884-1968. These reports contain subject indexes in each volume
• Minnesota Statutes Annotated has formal published AG opinions cited in the annotations
• The print Biennial Reports and Legal Register, along with selected opinions on microfiche, are held by several law school and large county libraries in the state
• The Attorney General’s Office Library has opinions on microfiche and will send copies of opinions upon request. Please provide the opinion number, date and topic when requesting opinions copies to ensure the correct opinion is supplied.
  • Email: library@ag.state.mn.us
  • Call: (651) 757-1055
• Citations will generally appear in these formats, but there may be hundreds of opinions under a single classification number:
  • Op.Atty.Gen. 358-f, Dec. 27, 1934
  • Op.Atty.Gen. 1934, No. 215, p. 332