Elected Sessions and Legislative Sessions in Massachusetts

When did Massachusetts make the switch from one-year elected sessions to two-year elected sessions? And what about legislative sessions? This was a reference question we received recently and I found it interesting. It took some digging into our resources to find the answer (which as a librarian, I love doing), and afterwards, the Reference department thought it was something that may help other researchers.

The short answer is that the 142nd General Court (1921-1922) was the start of the two-year elected session in Massachusetts, meaning that Legislators were (and still are) elected to two-year terms. Looking at the Manuals for the General Court in our digital repository and in print, you’ll notice that they were published annually until 1920, but starting in 1921, they were published biannually.

Now let’s dig into the history of the General Court and the length of legislative sessions to add some context to this. To start, a legislative session is the period of time in which legislators meet to create laws. Here in Massachusetts, we have an annual legislative session, meaning that the General Court convenes once a year. This changed for a brief period of time though. In 1938, Massachusetts shifted its legislative sessions to a biennial system, in which the General Court met every other year instead of annually. This change began in 1939, with no session held in 1940 and only special sessions in 1942 and 1944 to address urgent matters.

The intent behind biennial legislative sessions was to stay in line with the biennial elected sessions that the Commonwealth has, while also reducing unnecessary legislation and saving costs. This system, however, was short-lived. In 1945, following a referendum, the state ended the brief experiment of holding biennial legislative sessions and returned to holding annual sessions. A previous blog post written by one of our librarians in 2016 talks more about the 6 years when Massachusetts had a biennial legislative session.

That blog post also references Leading the Way by Cornelius Dalton, a go-to source for us here at the State Library. This book covers the history of the Massachusetts General Court from 1629 to 1980. Being a library that focuses heavily on Massachusetts history and legislative materials, this book is an invaluable resource for our librarians. It was one of the first books I was shown when I started working at the State Library and we currently have a few copies floating around for staff to use (and for patrons to use as well!)

Pages 453-457 of Leading the Way covers the length of legislative sessions for the General Court (as opposed to the length of elected sessions for members of the General Court). The table that spans these 5 pages shows the length of each session of the Legislature since 1832. You’ll want to read the footnotes too. They include information about when extra sessions took place and why, and other information related to the General Court for specific years. For example, did you know the first year there was a 160-member House of Representatives in Massachusetts was in 1979? This is the number of Representatives the Commonwealth still has today.

Footnotes 4 and 5 on page 457 point to the first year of the biennial legislative session (1939) and the return to annual legislative sessions (1945), as we learned about above. If you’d like to take a closer look, you can use one of our copies in our reading room or you can access this book via Internet Archive. Just sign up for a free account and you’ll find the book here.

If you’re curious about the legislative process in Massachusetts, the Mass Bar Association put together this helpful webpage. It includes a short overview of the Massachusetts General Court, information about filing a bill, and the three-reading process.

 If you’d like a more interactive learning experience, the Citizens’ Legislative Seminar, organized by the Senate Office of Education and Civic Engagement, is hosted twice a year at the State House. The goal is to educate the public on the functions of the Massachusetts Legislature through a series of speakers and a simulated legislative hearing and Senate Session. Those who are interested must be sponsored by their senator in order to participate. More information about this program can be found at this link.

If you have more questions related to this or another topic, the Reference librarians here at the State Library are always here to help! Don’t hesitate to visit room 341 of the State House or reach out to us at Reference.Department@mass.gov.

Jessica Shrey
Legal Research Reference Librarian