INTRODUCTION Have you ever stopped to think why it is that in the State of Georgia, there really isn’t any headline-making mass of “organized crime” taking place? By “organized crime,” I mean the stories you hear about coming out of New York City and Chicago, et al. involving all kinds of crimes, drugs, prostitution, payoffs […]

So, in looking at other states on whether or not a) they have “sunshine laws”, and b) how they handle them, I came upon a case in West Virginia decided in 2009 by their Supreme Court. Kind of a fascinating case, but I didn’t find the details of the case (as in the decisions being […]

Case #2: Fathers Are Parents Too v. Hunstein – Court of Appeals of Georgia, Decided Feb. 7, 1992 Here is a link to this case. The gist of the case is that Fathers Are Parents Too (“Fathers”) filed a request under the Open Meetings Act to have the meetings of the Georgia Commission on Gender […]

Sunshine Laws, et al. Whether it is legally defined as the ‘Freedom of Information Act’ (“FOIA”), or a “Sunshine Act” or the ‘Open Records Act,’ the concept behind all of these laws is to make the people who work in government become more accountable to the taxpayers who pay their salaries and expenses. The primary […]

Introduction Have you ever pondered why it is that in this state, it is only the Executive Branch of Georgia’s three-legged stool of governance (i.e., Executive, Legislative, Judiciary) that is required to respond to Open Records Requests? Think about that for a moment. The Legislative Branch operates strictly from taxpayer dollars. The Judicial Branch operates […]