A-First Amendment / Free Speech / Press
A North Adams, Mass., law firm has provided an advisory letter to the city councilor in the community of 14,000 residents, essentially say they do not violate the Massachusetts Open Meeting Act when they exchange posts on weblogs. Attorney John B. DeRosa writes in a Feb. 24, 2006 letter that so long as the the exchanges are not deliberative and are not executed with the intent of circumventing the law, they are probably lawful. The letter is significant because open-meeting laws in most states were written before popular use of the Internet and there has been little case law on the subject. The North Adams Transcript covered the letter and issue.
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