U.S. District Judge James L. Robart ruled late last week that federal court was the wrong forum in which to decide whether the two port commissions violated the state’s Open Meetings Act. At issue are a series of private meetings the two port commissions held jointly to discuss a possible alliance.
Port attorneys had argued that the meetings could legally be private because they were conducted under the authority of the Federal Maritime Commission which granted anti-trust immunity for the two ports to hold joint discussions. Federal law provides that minutes of such meetings are confidential, thus port attorneys told commissioners that the meetings too could be private.