Update: Thursday, May 4, 2:30 p.m.:

A Marion County circuit judge has rejected a petition by two state lawmakers and the state’s main anti-abortion group to stop Senate consideration of HB2002. The abortion access and transgender health rights bill was approved by the House on Monday and sent to the Senate. The petition sought to block consideration because it violated a 1979 law on clarity of language in bills.

“I don’t see any likelihood of success in persuading the court … to enjoin that legislative function,” said Marion County Circuit Judge David Leith, according to a report by Oregon Public Broadcasting.

The decision clears the way for the bill to be considered by the Senate – if a quorum to meet can be reached.

Update: Thursday, May 4, noon:

For a second day, Republicans denied the Oregon Senate a quorum to conduct any business during a scheduled floor session.

The roll call at the 10:30 a.m. meeting on Thursday again showed 18 senators present, two short of the two-thirds required under the Oregon Constitution to conduct business. 

Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, adjourned the chamber until Friday at noon.

From Wednesday:

Oregon Senate Republicans staged a walkout Wednesday to deny the chamber a quorum to do any business.

Only 18 senators were present when Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, called the 30-member Senate to order at 10:30am.

The roll call fell two short of the 20 senators needed to create a quorum to do any business.

The walkout came as the Senate is about to consider abortion access, trangender health rights and gun control legislation passed by the Senate. In a related move, Sen. Suzanne Weber, R-Tillamook, joined with another lawmaker and an anti-abortion group in a lawsuit seeking to block consideration of the abortion and transgender legislation, House Bill 2002, because it violates what they say are laws on clarity of language in legislation.

The failure of the Senate to meet Wednesday is due to Oregon’s unusual definition of a quorum necessary to do any business. Oregon is one of a handful of states where a simple majority is not enough to reach a quorum to do business. Under the Oregon Constitution, each chamber is required to have two-thirds of members present. 

Wagner sent out the sergeant of arms to find the missing senators. When the officers reported back that they had not been able to locate the lawmakers in the building, Wagner adjourned the Senate until Thursday morning.

House Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, was on the floor, a role he has played before as a monitor of the Democratic majority’s activity during walkouts. Sen. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City, was also present

But the 16 Democrats and two Republicans were not enough to make up for lawmakers who were absent either with permission or unexcused.

Democrats have been working around the illness of Sen. Chris Gorsek, D-Troutdale, who has been on an excused absence. That leaves just 16 Democrats who can attend sessions. 

Six Republicans, including Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, and Sen. Suzanne Weber, R-Tillamook, had been excused from the session by Wagner.

The key number to push the Senate below the quorum was provided by unexcused absences of four Republicans and one independent who usually votes with Republicans.

The unexcused absentees were Republicans Dennis Linthicum of Klamath Falls, Lynn Findley of Vale, Daniel Bonham of The Dalles, Cedric Hayden of Roseburg, and Independent Sen. Brian Boquist of Dallas.

Why the walkout

Knopp said the action was caused by a ruling by Wagner on Monday regarding a protest by Weber, the Tillamook Republican, that legislation being considered did not meet the standard of clarity and transparency required by law.

Democrats have rejected the language clarity argument. Wagner asked Oregon Legislative Counsel Dexter Johnson — the top attorney for lawmakers for an opinion on the issue. Johnson responded that the former practice of writing bills to an average eighth-grade reading level had given way for several years to the need for more specific language in more complex legislation.

With Johnson’s opinion, Wagner moved ahead on bills with language that Weber and other Republicans had criticized. Knopp said Johnson and Wagner were wrong.

“Let’s be clear – Wagner’s ruling was inappropriate, unjustified, and unlawful,” Knopp said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “It unequivocally violates Senate Rules, Oregon’s Constitution, and Oregon statute. We will not sit by and allow these actions without consequence.”

Wagner became the first new Senate President in two decades following the retirement of Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem.

Republicans had mounted a major effort in the 2022 campaign to get the Senate to a 15-15 tie that would have required power sharing. The GOP picked up one seat, but lost several key close races, leaving Democrats with a majority of 17 members of the 20 senators.

On Wednesday, Knopp renewed attacks on Wagner’s personal character he first made last year after Democrats announced Wagner would be their choice for Senate President in 2023.

“Since the beginning of the session, I have argued that Wagner is untrustworthy, deeply partisan, and lacks the necessary skills to run the Senate in a bipartisan fashion,” Knopp said in the statement. “That has been proven true every step of the way, and his behavior this week may be the clearest demonstration yet.”

A second front in the fight with Democrats was opened Wednesday when the clear language argument was the basis of a lawsuit by Weber, Rep. Emily McIntire of Eagle Point, R-Eagle Point, and Oregon Right to Life. The filing in Marion County District Court seeks to stop a Senate vote on House Bill 2002, the abortion access and transgender health right legislation passed Monday by the House and now in the Senate. 

“It is clear that legislation we adopt must be plainly written and easy to understand,” Weber said in a statement Wednesday. “Anything less disenfranchises Oregonians across the state and violates the law in the process.”

Wagner blasted Knopp and Republicans for what he said were cloaking their real intent –  to block bills by the Democrats, who hold a majority in both chambers as a result of choices by Oregon voters. 

“It’s clear the real reason for the walkout is that the Senate is about to consider bills that protect reproductive health freedom and common sense gun safety laws,” Wagner said. “These are policies that Republicans are trying to obstruct despite majority support. Oregon voters gave Democrats a majority in both legislative chambers and at all levels of state government last November: a clear mandate to pursue this agenda.” 

Unlike earlier sessions, a walkout this session has the potential of repercussions on lawmakers who are absent without the permission of Wagner in his role as chief officer of the Senate.

Under a law approved by voters in 2022, legislators in either the Senate or House who are rack-up 10 or more unexcused absences during session are barred from seeking re-election. The five senators without excused absences now have one mark against them.

The walkout stalls any business in the Senate until a quorum can be reached. If a compromise isn’t hammered-out, it is conceivable that the session could hit the June 25 constitutional deadline to adjourn without passing a state budget or acting on hundreds of bills still in the legislative queues.

Walkout history

Republicans have used the walkout to halt consideration of bills in past sessions. The 2020 short session ended with just a handful of bills passed before the 35-day constitutional deadline automatically ended the session and hundreds of bills died.

In 2019, a Republican Senate walkout over a carbon cap bill led to a last minute compromise that brought lawmakers back for a whirlwind weekend session to get the budget passed prior to the constitutional deadline to adjourn after 160 days.

Republicans held a one-day walkout in 2022 to protest Gov. Kate Brown using emergency powers during the COVID-19 pandemic to close businesses, limit hours and require masks in most public places.

Knopp has slowed the pace of legislation in 2023 by requiring nearly all bills be read in full before final passage, another archaic rule in the Oregon Constitution. The House has operated most of the time with Republicans agreeing to waive the readings in favor of just the short titles of bills, with a few exceptions on controversial matters. 

House Republicans joined Senate Republicans in the 2020 walkout. Knopp and then-Rep. Cheri Helt, R-Bend, were the only GOP lawmakers who did not take part. Knopp at the time was not minority leader, a position he assumed in 2021. 

Oregon is one of four states that require more than a simple majority for a quorum. The Oregon Constitution adopted in 1857 was largely taken from a copy of the Indiana constitution. It included the two-thirds quorum. Indiana has since amended its constitution so that a legislative quorum is a simple majority. But the Oregon copycat version has remained on the books.

It’s one of the parliamentary weapons, along with slowing the reading of bills, that have been used by the Republican minority in recent sessions to slow or stall lawmaking. 

The Legislature has introduced legislation to change many of the archaic elements, but the old language has survived. 

A 2021 Oregon Capital Insider report on “potholes” in the constitution, state officials said unusual or archaic rules are available for a minority of lawmakers to gain instant leverage against majority rule.

“These are tools,” House Chief Clerk Timothy Sekerak said in 2021. “If a tool is available, someone is going to use it.”