Legislation

After gutting the open records bill, the House added insult to injury by passing a bill that would keep secret, until the conclusion of grand jury proceedings, names of police officers involved in fatal shootings of civilians.

Continuing an unfortunate trend over the years, the House of Representatives decided this session to further cut-off public access to the House floor before sessions begin.

The APA, an important law requiring state agencies to provide public notice and seek input on proposed regulations, took a beating this year.

For the first time in ten years, the General Assembly approved comprehensive legislation to strengthen the state’s Access to Public Records Act (APRA).

One of the ACLU’s successes in 2007 was the passage of a bill amending the Administrative Procedures Act, an important statute that requires the opportunity for public input during the rulemaking proceedings of most state agencies.

The Senate killed an ACLU bill, passed by the House repealing an exemption for the Board of Elections from the law that requires state agencies to go through a public rule-making process before adopting regulations.

The ACLU succeeded in significantly restricting the reach of a bill allowing people with disabilities who serve on public bodies to participate in public meetings by telephone.

In order to give members a more in-depth sense of the Affiliate’s legislative work, we have picked one topic – open government – and briefly summarize how the ACLU helped shape a variety of pieces of legislation, both large and small, on the issue this session.