How California’s Open Meetings Law Became a Gag Rule
Local Government Has Changed So Much That the Historic Brown Act Is Silencing Us, Not Protecting Us
The Ralph M. Brown Act, first approved in 1953, is celebrated for its supposed guarantees that we citizens have a voice in the decisions of all our local governments.
But today, it is little more than a gag rule.
Over the past six decades, the Brown Act—famous for its guarantee of a 72-hour notice for public meetings—has become a civic Frankenstein, threatening the very public participation it was intended to protect.
The act’s requirements of advance notice before local officials hold a meeting has mutated into strict limitations on the ability of …
