Sunshine Laws

Sunny days might chase the clouds away, but sunshine laws chase the shadiness away. At least in theory. That’s because “sunshine laws” are laws that require most (but not all) governmental proceedings to be open and accessible to the public. We’re talking meetings, documents, records, votes...all of it.

Well, not all of it. There are some exceptions. We don’t, for example, have access to info pertaining to ongoing investigations. And we can’t paw through the personnel records of government employees or associates. We’re obviously not going to be privy to national security-type stuff, and certain governmental real estate transactions are also kept confidential. But other than that, we can access pretty much anything we want to know about governmental deliberations and other proceedings.

Sunshine laws are all about improving governmental transparency, which not only reduces the opportunity for people in government to be shady, but allows we the public to gain a much better understanding of what’s happening in our world.