Walk It Through: City Hall
A sidewalk, a back room vote, the department's video, and the case that followed.
A crowd on the sidewalk outside city hall, and an order over a loudspeaker to disperse.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
Permits, sound limits and hours are local ordinances that differ from one city to the next. The full list of executive session purposes and which bodies the meetings section reaches, the exemptions an agency may assert over a particular recording and what a court does with a denial, and what has to be disclosed in a particular case and by when are not decided here. Whether a particular gathering was a meeting of a public body at all is a contested question in its own right.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
10 words · tap one for its definition
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- AdjudicationThe juvenile court finding that a child committed the act alleged. It is what that court does instead of convicting, and what follows it is called a disposition rather than a sentence.
- DiscoveryThe exchange of evidence between the parties in a criminal case. On receipt of a written demand the prosecuting attorney provides the categories the rule lists, including statements, records, lab results and officer reports.
- Public recordA record kept by a public office that the office makes available for inspection promptly and copies at cost, unless a statute exempts it. Everybody is a requester on the same terms, and nobody has to explain why they want one.
- Public forumA category of government property, such as a street or a park, where speech restrictions face the highest scrutiny. Other government property falls into categories where more restriction is permitted.
- Time, place and mannerRestrictions on when, where and how speech occurs, permitted in a public forum where they are content neutral, narrowly tailored to a significant interest, and leave open other channels.
- Brady materialEvidence favorable to the accused and material to guilt or punishment. Suppressing it violates due process regardless of whether the prosecution acted in good faith, and Giglio extends it to evidence impeaching a government witness.
- Reciprocal discoveryThe defendant's duty to provide the state the same categories of material, triggered by having demanded discovery in the first place.
- Civil forfeitureIn the open meetings section, a fixed sum a court orders a public body to pay to the party who obtained an injunction against it. Five hundred dollars, alongside court costs and reasonable attorney's fees.
- Executive sessionThe one lawful way a public body closes a meeting. It takes a roll call vote of a majority of a quorum, at a regular or special meeting, for the sole purpose of considering matters the section lists, and the motion has to state which listed purpose it is for.
- Pretrial motionA request to the court decided before trial, a motion to suppress evidence among them. The rule puts all of them within thirty-five days after arraignment or seven days before trial, whichever is earlier.