## Facts

- The Georgia Supreme Court created the Georgia Commission on Gender Bias in the Judicial System to study gender bias in the state’s courts.
- Fathers Are Parents Too, Inc. sued Carol Hunstein, the Commission’s chair, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief requiring the Commission to hold open meetings under the Georgia Open Meetings Act, O.C.G.A. § 50-14-1 et seq.
- Hunstein moved to dismiss, arguing the Open Meetings Act does not apply to the judicial branch and thus does not reach a commission created by Supreme Court order.
- The trial court dismissed the complaint on the ground that the Act does not apply to the judicial branch.
- The Court of Appeals of Georgia reviewed the dismissal after the appeal was transferred from the Supreme Court of Georgia.

## Issues

1. Whether the Georgia Open Meetings Act applies to the judicial branch of state government.
2. Whether a commission created by order of the Georgia Supreme Court is subject to the Open Meetings Act and required to conduct public meetings.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s dismissal.
- The court held the Georgia Open Meetings Act does not apply to the judicial branch.
- Because the Commission was created by the Georgia Supreme Court as part of judicial administration, it was not subject to the Act’s open-meeting requirements.

## Legal Principles

- Statutes requiring open meetings are not construed to regulate the internal operations of the judicial branch absent clear legislative direction.
- Separation of powers and the Georgia Constitution’s vesting of judicial power support judicial control over judicial administration and related instrumentalities.
- Under precedent interpreting the predecessor open-meetings statute, open-meetings requirements applied to the executive branch but were not extended to the legislative or judicial branches.

## Conclusion

The court held that Georgia’s Open Meetings Act does not govern the judicial branch and therefore does not require a Supreme Court-created judicial commission to conduct its meetings in public, affirming dismissal of the action seeking to open the Commission’s meetings.


Fathers Are Parents Too, Inc. v. Hunstein, 202 Ga. App. 716, 415 S.E.2d 322 (Ga. Ct. App. 1992)