Colorado Newsline: Nothing in the U.S. Constitution says government meetings have to be open to the public.

The First Amendment more or less implies that the formation of government policy should be done in view of the public — what good is free speech and a free press if citizens are ignorant of the topics about which they purport to speak and report?

But it was left to much later generations to establish open-meeting principles in American law and define the terms by which members of the public could be assured a view on government decision-making.

In Colorado, that moment came 50 years ago.

Visit Colorado Newsline for more.