It seems a little odd for a legislator to ask the courts to interfere with legislative business. But that's what Larry George, a Republican senator from Sherwood, has done. He filed suit in Marion County asking the court to block the legislature from convening for one month starting on Feb. 4, but the court should stay out of it.

George says there's no emergency and thus no point in having the legislature meet in this experimental session in an even-numbered year. He's right about there being no emergency. But the point is that the legislature agreed to meet in order to try out annual sessions without there being an emergency.

The February 2008 session is part of an experiment that called on the 2007 session to wrap up by a certain date, June 29, and to do a test run of annual sessions in 2008.

In fact the regular session adjourned a day ahead of that schedule, which means the first part of the plan worked fine. So there's no reason not to go ahead with the second.

This experiment was suggested by a legislative reform commission that met in 2006. The argument was that, in general, Oregon had grown to such an extent in recent decades that the leisurely pace of legislative work, one session every two years, no longer was enough, and that sooner or later annual sessions would be required. Another thought was to limit the regular sessions so they don't drag deep into the summer by scheduling sort of a make-up session during even-numbered winters, and then to try how this would work.

The constitution calls for regular sessions of the legislature every two years, starting in September, unless a different day is appointed by law. Now they start in January. The constitution does not limit the length of each session, so there's nothing to keep the lawmakers from being in permanent session, pausing only long enough to start a new session every other year to swear in new members elected the previous fall.

Senator George says he has nothing against annual sessions, he just wants the constitution changed first. But considering there is nothing in the current language to prevent continual sessions, it's more prudent to follow the present plan. (hh)