The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Montclarion student newspaper on March 20 in Essex County Superior Court. The suit alleges the SGA improperly went into a closed session during a February meeting and then failed to provide minutes from that closed session.

The disagreement centers around whether the SGA fits the definition of a "public body" in the state's Open Public Meetings Act and Open Public Records Act. University counsel has said that SGA's status as an independent corporation means it is not subject to those laws. The lawsuit claims SGA meets the "public body" requirements because it is authorized to spend public money and performs a "governmental function affecting the rights, obligations, privileges, benefits or legal relations of any other person."

"It's important that the students know that they should be able to hold the SGA accountable, because the SGA's decisions affect their rights," said Ed Barocas, legal director for the ACLU of New Jersey.

In a prepared statement, SGA President Ron Chicken said the group is reviewing the lawsuit with legal counsel. He said the SGA has the right to go into closed executive sessions and has only done so a limited number of times.

"In such sessions, there are never secret votes or policies passed. Any vote taken in an executive session is always included in the open meeting minutes, as standard procedure, and revealed to the public," Chicken said. "The only thing kept confidential in an executive session is discussion."

The conflict started at a Feb. 4 student government meeting during a discussion about whether SGA should revoke the charter of a Latin-American student group for violations of the finance policies. Montclarion Editor-in-Chief Bobby Melok, who was there taking photos, said it was a large meeting with alumni and faculty attending to speak on behalf of the group.

The SGA officials suddenly retreated to an hourlong closed session without any explanation, Melok said. At the end of the meeting he asked for minutes from that session and Chicken told him to write a letter. Melok requested minutes in a letter to Chicken and a public records request to the university. Like all the Montclarion's previous records requests for SGA information, the request was denied.

University counsel Valerie L. Van Baaren wrote to Melok on March 6 that the SGA is not a "public body" as defined by state law, and its meeting minutes are neither a "government record" as defined by law nor covered under citizens' common law right to public documents.

"Since the SGA is an independent corporation that is not subject to either OPRA or OPMA, as Custodian of Government Records I am unable to provide the documents you requested," she wrote.

SGA officials should not be allowed to make decisions behind closed doors when they determine how much money a student group receives and even whether a club can exist, Melok said.

"The students should have a right to know what the decision-making process is and what goes on with their money," he said.

The Montclarion is intimately familiar with the SGA's power over distributing money to student groups. In January 2008, the SGA froze the Montclarion's funding after editors refused to hand over correspondence with an attorney they had asked to investigate possible SGA violations of the open meetings law. The threat of a lawsuit led the university president to declare the Montclarion independent from the SGA as of June 2008. The newspaper now operates as a nonprofit corporation and receives funding directly from the university.