In 1832 the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office began issuing formal opinions on legal and constitutional matters. These opinions can be found in the AG’s Annual Reports (Public Document No. 12) which the State Library has in print and digitized in our digital repository.
- In addition to the Annual Reports, historic opinions can also be found in a set of numbered volumes entitled, Official Opinions of the Attorneys-General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Volumes 1 - 8, 1891 through 1929. You may come across citations to these volumes in Westlaw or Lexis. As an example, 5 Mass. Op. Att'y Gen. 670, 672 is a citation to Volume 5 (1917-1920). The full volume is in our digital repository here. The opinion begins on page 670 and ends on page 672; the opinion is from 1920. These volumes contain a subject index and table of statutes cited. Once you have the year, you could also locate this opinion in the 1921 Annual Report, Report of the attorney general for the year ending January 19, 1921. In addition, it is important to note that beginning in 1967, opinions were issued chronologically and numbered.
For more information on Attorney General Opinions, see our previous blog post. It goes over AG Opinions in Shepard’s Citations.
If you need assistance locating Attorney General Opinions, please feel free to contact the Reference Department.
April Pascucci
Legislative Reference Librarian