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Vote YES on Prop 42 if you value open-government. Vote no if you prefer secrecy.

[…] Will these costs be a burden for local governments? No. How much can it cost, after all, for a city council to post on its website the agendas of forthcoming council meetings? Or to help citizens describe the records they are looking for? Until now local governments, able to send all their their invoices […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
May 13, 2014
Posts

First Amendment

FAC, ACLU Urge Temecula School Board and Its President to Halt Free Speech Violations at Meetings

[…] without clear indication that every member of the public who was sitting in that section was engaged in genuinely "disruptive" conduct. The letter argues that this subjective system, and the process for its implementation, flies in the face of the First Amendment and specific warning requirements outlined in the Brown Act. See the letter below:
- Government Transparency and Accountability
August 22, 2023
Latest News

Blog

The “deliberative process privilege” is dead or, at best, on life support

[…] give voters an opportunity to register disapproval. Legislators can’t discuss public business in the elevator, at a cocktail party, the bathroom or in group email. A properly noticed public meeting is the sole legal venue for such deliberations. Only by ignoring the Brown Act could the Supreme Court in the Times Mirror case possibly […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
June 2, 2009
Latest News

Cases Press Release

Settlement Reached in Free Speech Case at Temecula Valley Unified

People may not be removed from school board meetings without proper cause or warning FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 16, 2024 Contact: [email protected] TEMECULA VALLEY — Today, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and the First Amendment Coalition reached a settlement with the Temecula Valley Unified School District on behalf of two plaintiffs, following the […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
April 16, 2024
Latest News

Blog

Recent court decisions transform legal tools for protecting free speech into an instrument for the suppression of the public’s speech and access rights

[…] a legal Frankenstein’s monster. In doing so, they have turned a law designed to protect the public’s exercise of free speech and petition rights into a tool for government suppression of those rights. The decisions in Holbrook v. City of Santa Monica and Californians Aware v. Orange Unified School District both arise from the […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
June 3, 2009
Latest News

Blog

Public officials’ love of secrecy is no match for the public’s love to watch government decision-making up close. In California, democratic voyeurism prevails.

[…] denied on those grounds. Secrecy corrupts; absolute secrecy corrupts absolutely. Local government officials are always searching for a legal theory that will effectively exempt them from open-government requirements. Many, like San Bernardino’s Postmus, thought they had found their silver bullet against public record requests in the deliberative process privilege. Wrong! Peter Scheer, a lawyer […]

June 2, 2009
Latest News

Blog

Obfuscating Mercy: How the California Supreme Court Finally Addressed Secretive Pardons

[…] moved to unseal the file. (Read: FAC petition, the memorandum in support of petition and declaration in support of petition.) The California Rules of Court enumerate specific requirements for filing court records under seal. Under these rules, sealing is appropriate only to the extent necessary to protect an "overriding interest" that cannot be protected […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
September 17, 2021
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Resources

The Legal Hotline gives users quick, free access to FAC’s lawyers for questions about access to public records and your right to attend government meetings in California; access to court documents and proceedings in California and federal courts; and First Amendment protections for freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

June 12, 2024
Asked and Answered

Court Records CPRA First Amendment Police Records

Sheriff’s office refuses to release crime report unless I am a victim

[…] classified as an "investigatory record" that is exempt from disclosure, it remains exempt forever, even after the case is closed, and whether or not anybody was prosecuted for the alleged crime. That said, police are required to release a limited amount of information to the public related to arrests and requests for assistance, unless […]

November 16, 2015
Asked and Answered

Bagley-Keene Act Newsgathering

Arrested at meeting for commenting on no-public-comment rule

[…] the Dept. of Fish and Game. The facilitators illegally tried to establish a no public comment and no recording policy at these public meetings. I was arrested for trying to openly record the meeting, and for stating that the no public comment policy was illegal. They have, as of last week, reversed their illegal […]

July 2, 2010