In a recent binding opinion, the PAC found a public body in violation of the Open Meetings Act (OMA) for restricting the content of public comment where a member of the public attempted to discuss the District’s hiring...more
In Houston Community College System v. Wilson, the United States Supreme Court held that a public body’s verbal censure of a fellow board member did not violate the board member’s First Amendment rights. The censure followed...more
On Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals struck down Section 551.143(a) of the Open Meetings Act, making it a crime for members of a governmental body to “knowingly conspire to circumvent this chapter by meeting in...more
Does your agency place a time limit on public comments at meetings? So long as time restrictions placed on public comment periods are reasonable and don’t violate state or federal law, the Second District Court of Appeal,...more
Public entities can place reasonable time restrictions on public comment at their meetings as long as the time restrictions do not violate state or federal law, a California appellate court said in a fairly sweeping decision....more
Public schools should be cautious as to how they moderate access to and comments on their social media profiles. In Packingham v. North Carolina, the Supreme Court recently recognized that the Internet, and particularly...more
A Massachusetts Superior Court is soon to consider the interplay of three important planning principles – historic preservation, sustainable development, and freedom of religion. A Unitarian Universalist church is suing the...more
A federal court in Illinois, in Church of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ v. City of Markham, Illinois (N.D. Ill. 2015), dismissed some of the Church’s religious land use claims while allowing others to proceed. The case is...more
A recent Illinois Attorney General opinion addressed an interesting question: Can a public entity delete comments by community members from its Facebook page? Although the public entity at issue was a municipality, the...more