No matter where you turn around, it’s the same sun that keeps shining down…

    Three weeks ago, there were citizens in our state who’d probably never heard of the sunshine law.  Now, I imagine there are a number of citizens in our state who are tired of reading about the sunshine law and e-mails and Governor’s aides and deleting data and, well, you get the picture.

    Do you know what worries me?  For once the sunshine law is, dare I say it, in the spotlight, and yet I view this turn of events with trepidation.  I’m afraid it is getting so much attention, with a new story nearly every day, that citizens will begin viewing it as a political ploy.  As simply another political game played between the Democrats and the Republicans.  Any value that might be gained by this turn of events may be lost by the fact that everyone may soon be tired of  hearing about sunshine law violations.  Everyone might decide this is just another way to get the upper hand politically.

    State records are critical.  This country was founded on the rights of citizens to be involved in their government and monitoring actions of public officials in meetings and through inspection of public records plays a key role in that process.  When politicians began playing games with this right, it loses its purity as a principal of good government.

    And when citizens get tired of hearing about the sunshine law, will they discount the importance it plays in keeping our government on a sound basis?  Will state legislators not want to strengthen this law because it is “yesterday’s issue” and not relevant to what is happening in the state in the immediate future? 

    I just hope I won’t regret tomorrow that today the sunshine law is a page 1 issue in my newspaper.

    Meanwhile, there’s an interesting situation that has developed in the central part of the state.  A key public figure faced a criminal charge.  Who it was and what the charge was is probably not as important as what happened.  The wheels of justice did not, in this case, grind slowly.  They, in fact, gave our own Carl Edwards a run for his money, so to speak.  This case reached the finish line before those observing it had “left their gates,” so to speak.  Records normally open to the public in this case were closed almost literally within minutes of being created and open to the public.  The case was over and the records, if they existed, were closed, according to the official statement.

    That is surely not what the legislature intended in allowing for closed records in cases of suspended imposition of sentencing.  Indeed, the Missouri Supreme Court has said that official records are only closed “following successful completion of probation….”  If that is what happened here, this case must hold a statewide record for the shortest duration of probation in history.  (See the attached Yale decision.)  Download Yale.doc

    There will be a discussion, I predict, about this as a case of the court taking care of its own.  As an officer of the court myself and as a believer in openness in government, I hope I am not embarrassed by my brethren at the bar before this is over.