Going Past Midnight on the Last Day of Session

Going Past Midnight on the Last Day of Session By Chris Micheli

            Can the Legislature continue meeting past midnight on Friday, September 12, 2025? If so, how does it do that? Joint Rule 51 deals with the Legislative Calendar and establishes the start of the Interim Recess and Joint Rule 61 deals with Deadlines including the date to adjourn in the first year of Session.

            When the California Legislature adjourns its 2025 Session, it is not “adjournment sine die.” Instead, that will occur after the conclusion of the second year of the biennium session on November 30, 2026. There is a distinction between adjournment and adjournment sine die.

            According to the Legislative Counsel’s Glossary of Terms, adjournment means the termination of a meeting, occurring at the close of each legislative day upon the completion of business, which is accomplished by a successful motion to end the session, with the hour and day of the next meeting being set prior to adjournment.

In order for the Assembly and Senate to adjourn, a motion to adjourn must be made. The motion to adjourn is not debatable and may not be amended. It is always in order, except when another Member has the floor, when voting is taking place, or during a call of the Assembly or Senate. A motion to adjourn requires a majority vote. (See, for example, AR 84.)

This is distinguished from adjournment sine die which, in Latin, means literally to adjourn without days. According to the Legislative Counsel’s Glossary of Terms, the phrase means that there are no more days left. It is used to describe the final termination of the two -year legislative session.

There is a misconception of “stopping the clock” on the last day of Session in either the first or second years of Session. In neither event does that happen. In the second year of Session, the Constitution requires adjournment by midnight on August 31, with five specified bills that are exempted from that deadline. In the first year of Session, it is only a Joint Rule, which can be suspended, if deemed necessary.

“Stopping the clock” is the term used to describe the process of continuing legislative business after the passage of a deadline imposed by legislative rule. However, there is no provision in the law or the rules of the Legislature to “stop the clock” and the Constitution (i.e., not a legislative rule) prohibits bills from being considered after August 31 in the second year of a Session except for the following: statutes calling elections, statutes providing for tax levies or appropriations for the usual current expenses of the State, urgency statutes, and vetoed bills. As such, these are the only measures that can be considered after midnight on August 31.

As a result, in the first year of Session (i.e., the odd-numbered year), either or both houses can continue to work past midnight to complete their legislative business. They can do so by either suspending Joint Rule 61(j), which requires approval of the Committee on Rules and two-thirds vote of the membership of the house, or simply continuing based upon the notion that their internal rules will not affect the validity of a bill enrolled and sent to the Governor’s Desk.