The Durango Herald: Ever wanted to know how well a public official is doing in their job? Or what they spend taxpayer money on? You’re entitled to that information, and for good reason.

In 1913, future Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote a piece in Harper’s Weekly titled “What Publicity Can Do,” in which he lambasted the obfuscatory workings of big banks and called for legislation that would mandate transparency.

“Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants,” he wrote.

Brandeis’ opening salvo was a nod to James Bryce’s 1888 “The American Commonwealth,” in which the scholar wrote that “Public opinion is a sort of atmosphere, fresh, keen, and full of sunlight, like that of American cities, and this sunlight kills many of those noxious germs which are hatched where politicians congregate.”

Visit The Durango Herald for more.