Last year, 10 Republican state senators in Oregon walked out of the Legislature for six weeks to obstruct Democratic bills promoting reproductive rights, transgender equality, and gun safety. The GOP senators’ boycott paralyzed the chamber, stalling hundreds of bills by preventing lawmakers from conducting any work. Their hardball tactic succeeded in the short term, forcing Democrats to water down their signature measures. On Thursday, however, it backfired badly: The Oregon Supreme Court unanimously prohibited all 10 senators from running for reelection, enforcing a constitutional provision designed to punish this kind of petulant legislative obstruction.

Thursday’s decision marks a major defeat for the hardball tactics that Oregon Republicans have deployed to prevent Democrats from governing the state. Under the Oregon Constitution, each chamber of the Legislature may only conduct business if two-thirds of its members are present. Republicans, who’ve long held a minority of seats, have recently exploited this rule to bring the statehouse to a standstill. In 2019, they walked out to block a school funding bill, and used the resulting leverage to kill Democratic bills on gun safety and vaccine exemptions. The next year, they walked out to kill a Democratic climate change–related bill, forestalling the passage of more than 100 other measures. And in 2021, they walked out to protest COVID-19 restrictions and redistricting plans. Each time, Republicans lacked the votes to defeat progressive proposals outright, so they shut down all legislative business instead—holding the statehouse hostage in retaliation against the Democrats whom voters elected to run the government.

To end this chicanery, Oregon voters overwhelmingly supported a constitutional amendment that would penalize any lawmaker who walked out. Under the new measure, a senator or representative who misses more than 10 floor sessions without an excuse may not run for reelection. Or, at least,........

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