Gov. Code, § 6204.3 · Chapter 3.01. Public Records Protection and Recovery
Gov. Code, § 6204.3
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, an organization or institution having physical custody of a record shall be exempt from Sections 6204 to 6204.2, inclusive, if the organization or institution meets both of the following requirements:
(1) It follows professional practices recommended by the Society of American Archivists, as used by the archivist, for the management, care, and preservation of historical records.
(2) It requires that all records it receives or maintains are subject to inspection to the same extent that the records would be subject to inspection and not exempt from disclosure pursuant to Division 10 (commencing with Section 7920.000) if received or maintained by a public agency.
(b) If an organization or institution refuses public inspection of a record in its custody in violation of the requirements described in paragraph (2) of subdivision (a), the archivist or local agency, or a designated representative, shall contact the organization or institution to inform it of those requirements and, if appropriate, facilitate inspection of the record. If an organization or institution continues to deny public inspection consistent with paragraph (2) of subdivision (a), the secretary, on behalf of the archivist or the local agency may pursue recovery of the records under this chapter.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2021, Ch. 615, Sec. 144. (AB 474) Effective January 1, 2022. Operative January 1, 2023, pursuant to Section 463 of Stats. 2021, Ch. 615.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV§ionNum=6204.3.
- Text hash
- sha256 396f272b65aa03cf1bd99fcd19fd645dd897235bafb005b01f7313c2b4ae1b97
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
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