Legislative committee votes to gut Louisiana open records law [Video]

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – The Louisiana legislative committee voted to gut the state’s open records law by shielding many government records at all levels from the public.

The bill has been touted as a way to protect the governor and his family but a portion of the bill also blocks the public from seeing part of the decision-making process.

SB482 exempts government agencies from having to share records that have to do with “opinions” and “deliberations” of how government policies and decisions are made.

Gov. Jeff Landry said in a statement, “These laws have become weaponized to stifle deliberative speech.”

“There is an impression by some that they are privy to that information and to put that information out prematurely would be disingenuous, misleading and potentially catastrophic,” said State Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek.

Cloud referenced a Supreme Court case that deals with the executive branch of the federal government releasing deliberative …