Open Meeting Laws 2d
Ann Taylor Schwing has written a second edition of her excellent book summarizing open meetings and records laws throughout the United States. The book has extensive citations to court cases, attorney general opinions and law review articles from all over the country. I have a copy of the first edition of this book in my law library, and have already sent off a request for the second edition.
Patrick Cronan
§ 4.8 1. State Commissions
State commissions are uniformly subjected to open meeting laws as a general matter, although specific named commissions may be excepted on an individual basis in particular states. Absent a specific statutory definition, a “commission” is a public body officially appointed and empowered to perform certain acts or exercise specific jurisdiction of a public nature.
Relatively little litigation has occurred concerning the application of open meeting laws to state commissions. Many commissions were required to meet publicly prior to enactment of the open meeting laws or did so by tradition. For illustration, specific commissions that have been subjected to the open meeting requirements include
- civil rights commissions, and other commissions charged with protecting the rights of individuals,
- public service and public utilities commissions,
- tax commissions,
- corporation and commerce commissions,
- state lottery, racing or gaming commissions,
- state ethics commissions and similar bodies,
- commissions studying government reorganization, and so forth.
A commission cannot avoid application of the open meeting law on the ground that it is only an interim commission. The fact that much of the work of the commission must occur in closed session, as may be the case with lottery commissions, for example, does not justify an implied exemption from the application of the law.
Open Meeting Laws 2d, § 4.8 1. (Footnotes omitted.)
Copyright 2006
Fathom Publishing Company
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