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Showing results for government bodies must comply brown act 54951 act90 54951 act 54951 act90 54951 54951 54951

Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Getting information from closed sessions

As a preliminary matter, it is not clear why your Board would have cited Government Code section 54956.9. Section 54956.9 provides for closed sessions to discuss pending litigation, and does not apply to either of the items you listed in your inquiry. With regard to the first item, public employee discipline/dismissal/release, the Brown Act […]

June 14, 2009
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

Councilmembers May Have Met Privately to Agree on Vote Outcome

[…] the Council working together in private to agree to pass legislation without public access. I am running for officer in November against this councilmember and if she and other Councilmembers violated the Act, the voters have a right to know about that. If you can give me any feedback on this, I would appreciate it.

November 6, 2018
Asked and Answered

Brown Act

COVID-19 Prohibition On Public Gatherings Prevented Me From Speaking to the Public

[…] Act. Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP is general counsel for the First Amendment Coalition and responds to FAC hotline inquiries. In responding to these inquiries, we can give general information regarding open government and speech issues but cannot provide specific legal advice or representation. No attorney-client relationship has been formed by way of this response.

January 20, 2021
Asked and Answered

First Amendment Social Media

Can a public official delete users’ comments and block them from the official’s social media account?

[…] on social media." Id. at 198. To satisfy the first prong, a plaintiff "must show more than that had some authority to communicate" on behalf of the government entity, but rather the "alleged censorship must be connected to speech on a matter within bailiwick" or official "portfolio" of responsibilities. Id. at 187–88. The official’s […]

March 6, 2025
Posts

FAC, ACLU, Fresnoland Demand Fresno City Council Stop Secret Budget Negotiations

[…] council’s budget committee has repeatedly met behind closed doors to finalize the budget in clear violation of the Brown Act, which guarantees the fundamental right to open government. According to Fresnoland, as the fifth largest city in California by population, Fresno stands alone in the top 10 by holding secret budget committee meetings. Although […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
September 6, 2023
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Blog

Tracy case tests the power of government officials to avoid disclosure of their emails on public business

[…] By Peter Scheer Those enterprising members of the Tracy City Council have come up with a strategy to hide from public view all their written communications about government business. With a bit of legal legerdemain, they claim to be able to evade state open-government laws, transforming their communications from public records into private correspondence. […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
June 2, 2009
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NSA surveillance case reflects a growing distrust in the federal judiciary

[…] a suit against the CIA by a victim (by all accounts, innocent) of the agency's "extraordinary rendition" program. The state secrets privilege is the mother of all government privileges because it typically requires, not merely the exclusion of certain evidence, but the outright dismissal of the lawsuit—even if the plaintiff's claims have merit. It's […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
June 2, 2009
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Leak investigation of Fox News’ Rosen crosses red line by obtaining journalist’s email contents, not just data

[…] Rosen, a reporter for Fox News. The criticism has focused on the revelation, contained in a 2010 FBI affidavit used to obtain a search warrant, that the government then viewed Rosen not merely as a witness, someone who possessed evidence about the source of a national security leak, but as an indictable law-breaker. Rosen's […]
- Press Freedom
May 29, 2013
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If China unplugs Google, it will be the first time China’s people will know what they are not being allowed to see. This should give the censors pause.

BY PETER SCHEER--Google's high-stakes confrontation with China's government has entered a new, and uncertain, phase. Making good on its threat to cease censorship of search results on its China-based site, Google.cn, Google has begun redirecting users in China to its uncensored Chinese-language site based in Hong Kong, google.com.hk. China's censors now face a difficult […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
March 24, 2010
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California AG Xavier Becerra and the Thick Blue Wall of Police Secrecy

By DAVID SNYDER—California Attorney General Xavier Becerra appears to believe there are two sets of rules about government transparency—one for his office, and another for everyone else. Back in 2017, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) refused to disclose public records about EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s potential ethical conflicts, Becerra promptly sued under the […]
- Government Transparency and Accountability
March 6, 2019