The Oregon Supreme Court said Thursday that 10 Republican state senators who staged a record-long walkout last year to stall bills on abortion, transgender health care and gun rights cannot run for reelection.
The decision upholds the secretary of state’s decision to disqualify the senators from the ballot under a voter-approved measure aimed at stopping such boycotts. Measure 113, passed by voters in 2022, amended the state constitution to bar lawmakers from reelection if they have more than 10 unexcused absences.
Last year’s boycott lasted six weeks — the longest in state history — and paralyzed the legislative session, stalling hundreds of bills.
Five lawmakers sued over the secretary of state’s decision — Sens. Tim Knopp, Daniel Bonham, Suzanne Weber, Dennis Linthicum and Lynn Findley. They were among the 10 GOP senators who racked up more than 10 absences.
“We obviously disagree with the Supreme Court’s ruling,” said Knopp, the chamber’s minority leader. “But more importantly, we are deeply disturbed by the chilling impact this decision will have to crush dissent.”
Democratic Senate President Rob Wagner welcomed the decision.
“Today’s ruling by the Oregon Supreme Court means that legislators and the public now know how Measure 113 will be applied, and that is good for our state,” he said in a statement.
During oral arguments before the Oregon Supreme Court in December, attorneys for the senators and the state wrestled over the grammar and syntax of the language that was added to the state constitution after Measure 113 was approved by voters.
The amendment says a lawmaker is not allowed to run “for the term following the election after the member’s current term is completed.”
The debate was over when that ineligibility kicks in: If a senator’s term ends in January 2025, they would typically seek reelection in November 2024. The “election after the member’s current term is completed” would not be until November 2028, the Republican senators argued, so they could run for reelection this year and then hold office for another term before becoming ineligible.
The court disagreed, saying that while the language of the amendment was ambiguous, the information provided to voters in the ballot title and explanatory statement made clear that the intent was to bar truant lawmakers from holding office in the next term.
“Those other materials expressly and uniformly informed voters that the amendment would apply to a legislator’s immediate next terms of office, indicating that the voters so understood and intended that meaning,” the justices wrote.
The senators’ lawsuit was filed against Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade, who last August said the boycotting senators were disqualified from seeking reelection. She directed her office’s elections division to implement an administrative rule based on her stance.
All parties in the suit had sought clarity on the issue before the March 2024 filing deadline for candidates who want to run in this year’s election.
The 2023 walkout paralyzed the Legislature for weeks and only ended after Republicans forced concessions from Democrats on a sweeping bill related to expanding access to abortion and transgender health care and another measure regarding the manufacture and transfer of undetectable firearms, known as ghost guns.
Oregon voters approved Measure 113 by a wide margin following Republican walkouts in the Legislature in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
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I agree. If you do not do your job and in this case, also prevent others from getting it done (because in any case they need quorum to get laws passed) you should be fired and not allow to re-apply for the job.
I live in Florida, where is the opposite case. Republicans kowtow to the Republican Governor, Ron DeSaster and together they enacted all sort of backward laws that will damage the state economy and people…..but there is little we can do as long as stupid ignorant people keep voting for those morons……So NEVERTHELESS unless we came up with an Amendment that requires people to take a test on government and the Constitution and pass it BEFORE they get the right to vote…and that is unlikely….we are stuck with liars, demagogues and tyrant wannabes ruining our lives and the efforts of countless previous generations to keep our country free.
You’re hatred for children and God is showing and it’s very unbecoming.
maybe you should move to germany where you came from era ww2. hehehe. nazis are dead.
German troll is really living in Iran and spewing Obama wishes
Sometimes a walkout is needed to control the insanity of the Democratic Party in blue states. Otherwise, the Republican Party loses their voice all together. This is bull crap. When the union goes on strike and performs a walkout they don’t lose the right to maintain their jobs. If so there wouldn’t be a single democrat teacher left in the school system. Democrats are bullies plain and simple. Nobody likes a bully and the homosexual/trans community are the biggest bullies out there.
It appears that the Commiecrats are marching towards a Maoist style government. Sometimes a walkout is the only way that a minority party can gain concessions from another larger party. I would almost imagine that the United States Supreme Court would find this unconstitutional. Oregon has been far left since all the derelict hippies moved there in the 1960’s, so it isn’t a surprise that the commiecrats would try something like this.
germansmith is a nazi. only nazies think like that.
Walking out for a day or so makes a statement about one’s principles. Walking out for 6 WEEKS STRAIGHT TO SHUTDOWN ALL GOVT BUSINESS is refusing to work in politics at all!! I’m an Oregon voter who helped to pass this law, because I was sick of the nearly annual RW GOP idiocy in my state!!