Kentucky’s higher-education coordinating board violated state law when it hired its new president this month, the state’s attorney general ruled in a legal opinion issued on Thursday, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

The attorney general, Jack Conway, a Democrat, issued the 12-page opinion after Kentucky’s governor, Steven L. Beshear, also a Democrat, asked him to determine whether the Council on Postsecondary Education had ignored legal requirements that it conduct a national search for a president with an established reputation and experience in postsecondary education.

The council named Brad Cowgill, who had been serving as interim president, as its permanent president. Previously he was budget director for Governor Beshear’s predecessor, Ernie Fletcher, a Republican.

After Mr. Beshear raised concerns about Mr. Cowgill’s appointment, the council’s chairman, John Turner, released a statement in which he defended the presidential-selection process. He said he believed it had complied with both the spirit and the letter of the law, adding that the council had conducted “a thorough and exhaustive national search” and had picked “a candidate who satisfied the qualifications sought.”

The previous president of the council, Thomas Layzell, weighed in on the dispute last week, sending a letter to the governor warning him that a continuing battle between the governor and the council could stall, or even reverse, progress Kentucky has made in improving higher education, the Courier-Journal, a Louisville newspaper, reported. —Sara Hebel