The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota has entered the debate over a county commissioner's suggestion that private citizens be banned from recording county board workshops.
The ACLU this week sent a letter to County Board Chairman Dennis Fink asking that the board not to pursue any recording ban, saying such a move would violate not only the Minnesota Open Meetings law but also the state and U.S. Constitutional rights to free speech.
Earlier this month the News Tribune reported on a request by Commissioner Keith Nelson of Eveleth that the board consider banning private recordings because edited excerpts of those recordings had been made public. A 1972 Attorney General's opinion appears to clearly state that a recording ban would be illegal.
The county board asked County Attorney Melanie Ford to issue an opinion over whether such a ban was legal.
Ford has not yet issued an opinion, but the ACLU said any such ban would be illegal.
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"Implicit in the public's right to attend government meetings is the right to record those meetings,'' said Teresa Nelson, legal counsel for the group, in the letter to Fink.
The county board has taken no action on the issue and is not yet scheduled to do so.
