SB353 Summary

• Makes permissive (rather than mandatory) the Attorney General's duty to examine state law for constitutional validity and provide opinions to state, county, and municipal officials upon request.

• Authorizes attorneys licensed to practice law outside Alabama to be appointed as deputy attorneys general and increases the number of non-merit executive assistants the Attorney General may appoint from three to five.

• Prohibits assistant and full-time deputy attorneys general from maintaining private law offices and removes the requirement that they maintain offices at the Capitol.

• Clarifies the Attorney General's authority to issue subpoenas at any time (whether or not a grand jury is in session) and allows deputies and assistants to render official opinions in the Attorney General's absence.

• Creates a new Class C felony for knowingly making false statements, concealing facts, falsifying documents, or destroying evidence in any matter under investigation by the Attorney General, effective on the first day of the third month following passage.