"The gun has sort of been removed from the head and put back in the holster," said Hugh Keogh, president and chief executive of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. "There's no panic. To affect the level of confidence, we may still need a special session."

(Senate Majority Leader) Stosch added: "We ought to schedule it as soon as we can. The business community deserves to have this resolved."

"I am pleased that Judge Markow's injunction allows everyone to take a deep breath," (Governor) Warner said. "We will continue to work with leaders of the legislature and others on this issue."

Now, how much harm would there really be if some of these laws were retained? For instance, Virginia code 40.1-28.1 requires employers to give "at least 24 consecutive hours of rest in each calendar week." Other portions of the code require employers to give their nonmanagerial employees the right "to choose Sunday as a day of rest..." or Saturday as long as the employee "actually refrains from all secular business and labor on that day." There are exceptions for emergency situations.

How far we haven't come. There used to be promises of a 35 or even 30 hour work week. American workers are far more productive than ever, and we can't even give people one day off a week.

The right for a worker to have a period of rest is nice, but the government prying into what that worker can do with his time sounds too invasive of privacy.