On October 19, 1977, the Supreme Court decided Polillo v. Deane, 74 N.J. 562 (1977). That decision is still the leading case under the New Jersey Sunshine Law, N.J.S.A. 10:4-6, otherwise known as the Open Public Meetings Act. There, the Supreme Court, by a 4-2 vote, held that the Sunshine Law was applicable to Faulkner Act charter commissions. Justice Pashman wrote the majority opinion, in which Justices Mountain, Sullivan, and Schreiber joined. Justices Clifford and Handler were the dissenters.
Justice Pashman wrote what was, for him, a typically lengthy and scholarly opinion. In discussing the public’s right to know about government proceedings, the idea that underlay the Sunshine Law, he cited (among other sources) 17th century English law, the writings of James Madison, Alexis deTocqueville’s Democracy in America, and a statement by Woodrow Wilson. The result was a vigorous explication and vindication of the statute. This was the first Supreme Court decision that construed the Sunshine Law, which had been enacted only a few years earlier, and it set the tone for the application of the statute from then on.
The Sunshine Law is now over 40 years old, and it has become a part of the fabric of our society. There are still some occasional cases under the statute, such as this one, but there is little if any controversy about the policy of the law. It is now difficult for most of us to think of public life without the Sunshine Law. But as Justice Pashman’s opinion reminds us, in 1950, Alabama was the only state to have such a law, though by 1976 every state had adopted an open public meetings statute, with New York being the last jurisdiction to do so.
“Government in the sunshine” was not always a given, to say the least. Justice Pashman’s opinion in Polillo helped ensure that the Sunshine Law would have the broad and favorable application that the Legislature intended.