Right to access public documents

 Public participation is key to our democracy.

Residents have the human right to secure tenure, including equal access to all the information before decisions are made.

HB 438, passed in the recent State legislative session would require certain identification documents provided for electronic requests to view or copy public records. 

Gov JBE vetoed HB 438   noting the "bill purports to be a common sense policy -- to ensure that people who request public records are who they say they are.  However, in practice, it will result in something entirely different. This bill, if enacted into law, would very likely be used, at best, to delay responses to public records requests or, at worst, intimidate members of the public into withdrawing their requests. There is simply no good reason for this bill."

Given the number of public records requests which over the years have been ignored, delayed, denied, or manipulated, any effort to protect our rights is appreciated. 

 Gov JBE voted HB 438 along with 27 other bills from the State regular session 2021.

July 02, 2021

Gov. John Bel Edwards announced that he has now acted on all legislation from the 2021 Regular Session. He has signed 477 bills into law and has vetoed 28 bills. He also limited the unnecessary waste of taxpayer dollars by using his line item authority to veto certain items in the budget and capital outlay bills.