The Ralph M. Brown Act is a California law that guarantees the public's right to attend and participate in meetings of local legislative bodies.

[1] The Brown Act was enacted in response to mounting public concerns over informal, undisclosed meetings held by local elected officials.

City councils, county boards, and other local government bodies were avoiding public scrutiny by holding secret "workshops" and "study sessions."

The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.The Sacramento Bee said of the act in 1952: A law to prohibit secret meetings of official bodies, save under the most exceptional circumstances, should not be necessary.

"The unfulfilled promise, I'm afraid, that 50 years has revealed, is enforcement," commented Terry Francke, of the California First Amendment Coalition, on the 50th anniversary of the bill's passage in 2003.