Sunshine Laws

What are Sunshine Laws? Well, these are laws that seek to promote a level of openness in government or organization

And by openness, I mean public access, that is to things like meetings, voting records, other corporate actions

so that there's a level of transparency so that individuals either become aware of what's going on

or that they can validate and potentially even participate in such activities

That's particularly true when sunshine laws are applicable to the government. Now, the ultimate aim of sunshine laws is to minimize corruption in any organization

whether that's in private business or in public government sectors, thereby increasing public confidence and creating a sense of transparency, if you will

Now, the Freedom of Information Act is probably the most well-known sunshine law

as it allows individuals to request federal government records as long as there isn't some exemption for those records

or that they have some level of secrecy. So with that being said, Sunshine Laws apply equally to the government and the private sector

and seek to make those records open to the public such that the organization is more accountable to the public