Transparency & Accountability

 Hello fellow Activists!

The Massachusetts Justice Foundation is  advancing  the following  Legislative Agenda for the upcomming 2009 legislative session:

1. Reform of State Public Record Law.      Public records in Massachusetts, it turns out, are not so public. 50 years after the the first public record law was inacted the State Legislature inacted legislation to exempt itself. The Judicary soon followed suit, ruling they too were above public scruinity. Judicial officials go so far as to say its budget and salary records are beyond the reach of the law (of note is the total budget for the Judiciary has increased by 82% in the last decade alone, while case load has remained stagnant or decreased). The Government should be covered from the top down by the public record law. Transparency is the cornerstone of a healthy democracy.

 2. Adoption of Federal Statues 28 U.S.C  sec. 144 and 28 U.S.C.  sec. 455. The proposed legislation would change our state's current subjective standard of judicial recusal, modeling the Federal Court's objective standard of recusal. Lax standards in the arena of judicial bias has to long been the norm in our State, with tragic and costly results.  It is far to expensive and difficult for litigants and the public to pay for the resulting protracted proceedings Massachusetts' "insider" justice creates.

The Massachusetts Justice Foundation is a group of concerned citizens dedicated to creating a transparent and accountable state government.