WASHINGTON, DC (March 14, 2024): Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) participated in a symposium on transparency as part of Sunshine Week, a week dedicated to bringing awareness to the need for transparency and public access to government records.
Vice President of Litigation for SLF Braden Boucek joined a panel hosted by the Right on Transparency coalition to discuss the importance of transparency, open government, and public records laws at all levels of government.
The Right on Transparency coalition is a group of leading right-of-center groups dedicated to comprehensive government transparency reform with an eye to increasing accountability and creating a more engaged citizenry. The coalition is dedicated to the principles of open government and to furthering those principles through model policies and education.
As part of its litigation efforts, SLF uses transparency laws to expose government corruption, restore constitutional balance, and preserve liberty. For instance, Boucek described during the panel how government schools often abuse their power by refusing to produce curriculum to parents and other members of the public, claiming that the curriculum is copyrighted. This inhibits freedom of speech because the American people can and should have a right to publicize and debate what their government is doing, but they are effectively prevented from doing so when the government withholds important information from the public.
Boucek further explains, “Americans are understandably frustrated with state and local government. There are intense debates about what is occurring in schools and what children are being taught. But when the government stonewalls and withholds the very information these discussions center on, it just furthers the divide in our nation and fails to resolve any disputes in a meaningful way.”
Director of Legal Initiatives for SLF Cece O’Leary states, “Now more than ever, we need transparency in federal, state, and local government. The government works for the people, and the American public must know what its government is doing. Sunshine is the best disinfectant, so the more exposure we can bring under the law, the stronger our nation will be.”
Read more about SLF’s transparency work here.
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