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Judicial Reform in South Carolina



 Judicial Reform in South Carolina

By Dennis Mitchell


The Article of Rights, Section 8 - Separation of Powers, of the South Carolina Constitution states, “In the government of this State, the legislative, executive and judicial powers of the government shall be forever separate and distinct from each other, and no persons or persons exercising the functions of one of the said departments shall assume or discharge the duties of any other.”


Separation of Powers is the basis of American Democracy, established by the Founding Fathers in the U. S. Constitution and copied by the states throughout the nation. In South Carolina, the letter of the law is followed with no person in one body exercising the functions of another. However, the method of selecting judges in the state, almost entirely in the hands of the legislature, has increasingly brought the question of undue influence by lawyers/legislators over the members of the judiciary.


For that reason, judicial reform, changing the way the judges are selected in this state has been a topic of debate in the legislature and among citizens. The General Assembly is currently considering tweaking the selection process but still leaving most of the responsibility for selecting judges in the hands of legislators. Hence, it is questionable if South Carolina is truly in line with the spirit of the above law.


Over 91 percent of the voters in the February 2024 Presidential Primary answered “Yes” to a ballot advisory question of whether the process of selecting judges should be changed. The General Assembly is doing the minimum in that area in an attempt to assuage the voters. Horry County Senator Luke Rankin, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, made a speech on the Senate floor essentially defending the current system.


The current system needs more than tweaking. A reasonable change would seem to be to allow Judges to be elected by the people on the ballot. There is no reason the voters should not be allowed to elect judges. By taking the process out of the hands of lawyers/legislators the spirit of Separation of Powers would be more fully realized

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