February 12, 2009

TO: The Honorable Senator;

Kirk Watson, Wendy Davis, Rodney Ellis, Mario Gallegos, Chris Harris, Juan Hinojosa, Carlos Uresti, Royce West

This bill has put all of you on under the ‘Good’ column of Our List at www.informed.org It would seem ALL would know that Judicial Secrecy is in opposition to American and Texas values. The Judicial Secrecy laws enable, in effect, our Judges to put a hood over their head so that their identity is unknown. Only the most oppressive governments ever to exist have ever allowed such a practice. The secret practices of Judges, enabled by policy and practices of our Judicial Department, and Judicial Secrecy Laws that have been enacted over the years, are contrary to our STATE POLICY well established in our Texas Government Code under TITLE 5. OPEN GOVERNMENT; ETHICS:

(a) Under the fundamental philosophy of the American constitutional form of representative government that adheres to the principle that government is the servant and not the master of the people, it is the policy of this state that each person is entitled, unless otherwise expressly provided by law, at all times to complete information about the affairs of government and the official acts of public officials and employees. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created. The provisions of this chapter shall be liberally construed to implement this policy.

To date those serving in our Judicial Department have construed provisions in opposition to the foregoing and used friends in our legislative department to pass laws in opposition to the fundamental philosophy of government on our land of Texas.

WE THANK YOU for addressing this in this session.

Sincerely, INFORMED CITIZENS of Texas

Back to List of Letters