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ing the Minority Report, "Freedom of In-
formation", and I would like to quote from
James Madison to begin that report:
"Knowledge will forever govern igno-
rance. And a people who mean to be
their own governors, must arm them-
selves with the power knowledge gives.
A popular government without popular
information, or the means of acquiring it,
is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy,
or perhaps both."
The Committee on Personal Rights had
hearings on the problem of the secrecy of
governmental proceedings. This body has
on several occasions addressed itself to
similar proceedings, consideration by the
legislature of appointments, meetings of
the Board of Public Works, and has affirm-
atively stated that secrecy in government
shall not be a practice.
I will not detail the many reasons why
this provision is proposed because I am
sure that you are aware of many of the
problems of state and local government,
and I will allow those people who will
speak to the issue to discuss it more fully.
I will discuss the proposal itself.
It is clear that the public has no com-
mon law right to attend meetings of gov-
ernment bodies, whereas there is a com-
mon law right that published records be
open. In the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries in England, publication of parlia-
mentary debates was frequently visited
with harsh punishment.
The motive for secrecy originally lay in
protection from the Crown. Beginning in
the late eighteenth century, publication of
debates was tolerated, but reporters had no
privilege to attend and could be excluded
upon the request of a single member.
Since 1874 a majority vote has been re-
quired to exclude the public, and Parlia-
ment has increasingly encouraged dis-
semination of information about its pro-
ceedings in an effort to exert greater in-
fluence on the people and to enlarge their
role in the process of enacting or rejecting
legislation. In the United States, the House
of Representatives has customarily met in
public since its inception, and the Senate
since 1794. Most congressional work is
now done in committee, however, and ap-
proximately one-third of the committee
meetings have been closed.
Thirty-four of the states have constitu-
tional requirements that the legislature
meet in public; in the others legislative
sessions are open as a matter of custom.
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Apparently no state, however, has a con-
stitutional requirement of open meetings
applicable to any governmental body other
than the legislature.
I might point out that in some decisions
it has been argued that the First Amend-
ment freedoms of the press and of speech
include a right to freedom of information.
I would read you just a short statement
from a judge in a dissenting opinion in
interpreting this language. Judge Mus-
manno in Pennsylvania stated: "A print
shop without material to print would be as
meaningless as a vineyard without grapes,
an orchard without fruit, or a lawn without
color. Freedom of the press means to
gather news, write it, publish and circulate
it."
Provide for open meetings. It also pro-
vides that it will be limited, that these
open meetings will have a requirement of
notice.
As part of the Minority Report, we have
given a statute or have provided a statute
that would handle those areas where there
is a right to privacy. The force of this
amendment is to change the burden of
proof from the citizen claiming that he has
a right to information or a right to attend
a public meeting, to the State to show that
he does not have that right, and that is all
it does. It is essentially the same approach
taken by the federal government in the
recent Public Information Act.
The enforcement of this provision or the
justiciability of this provision would be by
way of injunction or mandamus only.
At the present time in our law there is
a right to a writ of mandamus to obtain
public records because this is not a dis-
cretionary act. The old goveinmental lan-
guage includes the legislative, judicial, and
executive branches, local government
branches, agencies, and governmental in-
strumentalities. It is to be read as broadly
as possible. It includes governmental bodies,
subordinate agencies, and committees whose
only function it is to make recommenda-
tions to the parent organization. "Proceed-
ing" is really a term of art which refers
to the court, and it only refers to the
formal proceedings, that is, the proceed-
ings in court; it does not go to the delibera-
tive process of the court. Essentially it is
almost a term of limitation. But the intent
is to provide this area of public informa-
tion and to broaden it. Because there is
some concern about deliberations of the
court, this word "proceedings" refers to the
formal aspects of it, not to the deliberative
process.
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