Opinion ID: 385700
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Government in the Sunshine Act

Text: 3 The Sunshine Act, enacted in 1976, Pub.L.No. 94-409 (90 Stat. 1241), generally requires that meetings of government agencies be public. The Act reflects the policy, as stated in its Declaration of Policy, that the public is entitled to the fullest practicable information regarding the decisionmaking processes of the Federal Government. Pub.L.No. 94-409, § 2. To accomplish this objective, the Act directs that every portion of every meeting of a multi-member agency must be open to public observation. 5 U.S.C. § 552b(b). It also requires that in most cases the time, place, and subject of meetings be announced at least one week before the meeting. 5 U.S.C. § 552b(e) (1). 4 The Act defines meeting as the deliberations of at least the number of individual agency members required to take action on behalf of the agency where such deliberations determine or result in the joint conduct or disposition of official agency business .... 5 U.S.C. § 552b(a)(2). It defines agency as any agency as defined in the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552(e), that is headed by a collegial body composed of two or more individual members, a majority of whom are appointed to such position by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, and any subdivision thereof authorized to act on behalf of the agency. 5 U.S.C. § 552b(a)(1). 5 The Act contains ten exceptions to the open-meeting requirement of section 552b(b). 5 U.S.C. § 552b(c). Those exceptions, based upon the subject matter to be considered, permit but do not require an agency to close a meeting. Many of the exceptions closely parallel and are based upon the exceptions from disclosure in the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552(b). H.R.Rep.No.94-880, Part II, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 15 (1976), reprinted in (1976) U.S.Code, Cong. & Ad.News pp. 2212, 2224. An agency is required to take a formal vote to close a meeting. 5 U.S.C. § 552b(d). If the meeting is closed, then the agency must make a recording, transcript, or minutes of the meeting from which the nonexempted portions of the meeting can be excerpted and made public. 5 U.S.C. § 552b(f). 6 Subsection (g) requires each agency subject to the Act to promulgate regulations to implement the foregoing requirements. 7 The Act gives this court jurisdiction to review those regulations, set aside those not in conformity with the Act, and require agencies to publish regulations in accord with the Act's requirements. 5 U.S.C. § 552b(g). Additionally, the district courts are given jurisdiction to enforce agency compliance with the Act. 5 U.S.C. § 552b(h)(1).