Avara v. Baltimore News American Division

The primary issue in this case is whether a Conference Committee of the Maryland General Assembly appointed to resolve differences between the two Houses arising over enactment of the Fiscal Year 1982 Budget Bill (H.B. 620) violated the provisions of Maryland Code (1957, 1980 Repl. Vol.), Article 76A, §§ 7-15 (the Act), by excluding the public from its working sessions.(1)

The Act requires that meetings of public bodies, with some exceptions, be open to the public. In § 7, the General Assembly declared:

"It is essential to the maintenance of a democratic society that except in special and…