home > newsroom ACLU Sues Alcohol Board Over Illegal Meetings: Cites Importance of Open Deliberations and Open Votes on Matters of Public Concern FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 18, 2001 SALT LAKE CITY--The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the Utah Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission. The lawsuit alleges the Commission has violated Utah’s Open and Public Meetings law by making decisions on matters of public concern without giving the public proper notice or opportunity to participate. “The Open and Public Meetings law makes clear that state agencies like the Commission are to conduct the people’s business openly, with fair and adequate notice, so the people know what their representatives are doing,” said ACLU Legal Director Stephen C. Clark. “By disregarding the law, the people’s representatives shield their actions from public input and scrutiny, and that can only undermine public confidence in those actions.” The lawsuit follows reports earlier this week in the Salt Lake Tribune that the Commission changed proposed rules governing liquor advertising in the State of Utah in two meetings held on Monday, October 15. Further inquiry revealed that the Commission may have violated the Open and Public Meetings law for years. The Tribune is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, along with the Utah chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and John Saltas, the publisher of the City Weekly, an independent weekly newspaper. The lawsuit asks that any action taken in any illegal meetings held in the past 90 days (the maximum time period allowed under the statute) be declared void. In addition to filing the lawsuit, the ACLU sent a copy to Attorney General Mark Shurtleff along with a letter asking him to take steps “to remind State officials, agencies and political subdivisions of their responsibilities under the law so that public confidence can be restored, maintained and strengthened.” A copy of that letter is attached. --end--

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