Gadflies have their place in our political system, as we noted earlier this year while the S.C. Supreme Court was considering Edward Sloan's ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit to force Gov. Mark Sanford to resign his Air Force Reserve commission. By taking actions that others regard as irritating and foolish, gadflies bring clarity to issues that the passage of time has muddied. They make the system more honest.

That's why we were glad this week to learn that Sloan is suing the General Assembly over its habit of decorating legislation with pork-barrel amendments unrelated to its central subject, as exemplified by the infamous 2004 life sciences bill. Sanford last month threatened to sue legislators after they overrode his veto of that very bill to enact it into law. His objection: The S.C. Constitution restricts bills to one subject, but legislators have rationalized that edict into oblivion, and they routinely indulge in the process known as "bobtailing."

The original version of the life sciences bill, which the governor supported, invested state bond money in pharmaceutical and biomedical companies with economic development potential. But senators and representatives tacked on pork-barrel projects that more than doubled its cost, ignoring Sanford's veto threat as they did so.

Legislators met Sanford's lawsuit threat with scorn and invective. They declared his agenda for South Carolina dead. Some hinted at enlisting someone to oppose him in the GOP primary when he runs for re-election.

After a bitter clear-the-air meeting with the House Republican caucus last week, Sanford put a lawsuit on hold - a smart political move that may have rescued the rest of his agenda from legislative limbo.

Sloan, a Greenville businessman, filed his lawsuit this week, asserting that passage of the life sciences bill "was a flagrant violation that needed to be dealt with." The gentleman is correct.

Whether the Supreme Court will hear his case is unclear, as justices historically have been reluctant to intrude on legislative prerogatives. Legislators elect the S.C. judiciary. Judges who tamper with legislative decisions, no matter how wrong-headed they may be, are tampering with their own job security.

Just the same, we hope Sloan's lawsuit is successful. A responsible legislature would insist that all proposals to change the law be heard and debated in committee before legislators pass them. This ensures that bad ideas get scrapped, that errors in judgment get corrected and - most important - that the cost of a proposal is in line with state resources. Attaching pet measures to other bills as amendments short-circuits that process, busting budgets and launching courses of action that the public may not understand.

The court needs to be heard on this issue. If South Carolina's top jurists can't find the courage to overrule the practice of bobtailing, they should at least explain how, exactly, the Constitution allows this regrettable practice.