The Unjust Judicial System
SCFC Members and conservative allies lead the way to reform SC’s courts
Dear friends,
By now, you have probably heard a lot about South Carolina’s judicial system and its extreme lack of transparency and accountability.
To briefly recap, South Carolina is one of only two states that allows the legislature to elect the judges for the state. The process begins with a designated committee called the Judicial Merit Selection Commission (JMSC) that is tasked with screening qualified judicial candidates. The JMSC chooses only three candidates who the legislature can vote on to be a judge in each position. This committee is primarily composed of trial lawyer legislators who strongly oppose any sort of judicial reform.
As the process continues, legislators are expected to make private commitments to judicial candidates, based on very little information other than “who knows who.” The hope in the Columbia swamp is that all but one candidate in each race can be pressured to drop out early with the result that no actual vote has to be taken on the record. Thus, judges are not only selected based primarily on who has the best political connections, but legislators face little to no accountability in the public eye for what happens in our courts.
And the main problem in our judicial election process goes even further: South Carolina has more trial lawyer legislators serving in the legislature than any other state. Trial lawyer legislators have a vested interest in preserving our current court system because they are allowed to pick the judges in front of whom they try their cases. This conflict of interests has led to numerous dangerous criminals being let out on bond only to commit more crimes again, and violent criminals being released years before their initial release date. It has become not only a corruption issue but a safety issue for our families.
The dangerous flaws in South Carolina’s court system provide an example of what happens when there is no separation of powers between branches of government. The American Founders intended to place a distinction between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, and wisely crafted the U.S. Constitution in such a way. Unfortunately, this wisdom has long been set aside in the Columbia swamp, where a small group of power players in the legislature largely dominates all three branches.
Thankfully, because of the efforts of members of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus and other strong conservative leaders, judicial reform has begun getting the attention from the public it deserves, and is therefore gaining momentum. For this reason, the establishment swamp who protect the status quo at every turn are making faux efforts to change the system with no real substance. They would like to confuse the grassroots and voters with token change. We cannot let that happen.
To understand the difference between efforts for real reform and faux reform, let’s step back and look at the history of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus and its members’ fight over judicial reform.
SCFC member Mike Burns of Greenville was one of the first Representatives to file a judicial reform bill, H4806, in 2014. Since his initial bill, Representative Burns has filed several more and has fought extensively on this issue. A number of other SCFC members have filed similar bills – but none ever received a hearing.
Closer to the present, on February 5, 2020 during the judicial elections, the Liberal Republican leadership attempted to push the whole slate of candidates by acclamation without the recorded votes required under the state constitution. A member of the body clearly objected to this and attempted to demand an on-the-record vote for each candidate but was ignored. In a show of solidarity, SCFC members Stewart Jones, Adam Morgan, and Josiah Magnuson walked out of the chamber rather than be party to the proceedings. Their message was clear: electing judges through voice vote without going on the record is, in their words, a “farce” and a “sham.” It became clear that day: the establishment wants no transparency on the judicial process.
Furthering that point, Chairman Adam Morgan filed an anti-nepotism bill for the judicial system, H5090, which said simply that no legislator’s immediate family member can run for judge. He was able to secure roughly half of the members of the House to support the bill. Yet again, it never got even a hearing in the Judiciary Committee.
And perhaps most egregious, SCFC member Josiah Magnuson (who has often submitted judicial reform bills such as H3529 for Governor appointment and H3022 prohibiting legislators from serving on the JMSC) spoke out against re-electing the infamously liberal Justice Kaye Hearn to the State Supreme Court in 2022, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. Justice Hearn had only one year left she could serve and had an incredibly liberal record of judicial activism. It was fully within the power of the legislature to make a different selection. Yet when Representative Magnuson suggested choosing a more conservative candidate, House Republican leadership defended the status quo and joined Democrats to push her re-election through, telling Rep. Magnuson “That’s just not how things are done here.”
Not even a year later, Justice Hearn wrote the majority opinion declaring the Heartbeat bill unconstitutional, bringing Roe v. Wade to our state and leading to the deaths of thousands of babies in South Carolina from January to August 2023. If only the House Republican Caucus had listened, those precious unborn lives could have been saved.
But it hasn’t just been our founding members who have been at the tip of the spear on this issue for years. Freshman member Joe White of Newberry actually decided to run for office because of the judicial reform issue. In only one year, Representative White has held press conferences advocating for victims of this unjust system, filed bills such as H4183 to fix the system, and spoken across the state on this issue. For his efforts to improve our state, the establishment Uniparty has vowed to unseat him, because he is standing up to the status quo.
Now, after conservative Senator Wes Climer has threatened to filibuster legislation until judicial reform is passed, Speaker Murrell Smith - who has historically been opposed to judicial reform - has announced the formation of a study committee to look more into the issue.
In a hilariously predictable move, Speaker Smith has appointed Minority Leader Todd Rutherford to the study committee. In addition to being a far-left liberal, Mr. Rutherford has been one of the most ardent opponents of judicial reform in the state. Why might he be against judicial reform? Mr. Rutherford is not only one of the lawyer legislators who stands to benefit from the system, but he has actually been at the center of several controversial high-profile cases that endangered our families, which SCFC members have pointed to as key exhibits for why judicial reform is desperately needed. Talk about the fox guarding the hen house.
So why is the “Republican Speaker” stacking the deck against judicial reform? Does he truly want meaningful change, or is he positioning for more of the same while crafting headlines to sooth voters’ concerns?
Thankfully, grassroots activists (thanks in large part to the work of John Warren and South Carolina’s Conservative Future) and other elected officials across the state are waking up to the need for real reform which SCFC members have been advocating for years. In fact, just this week, nine South Carolina Solicitors sent a letter to Speaker Smith and the Senate Judiciary Chairman, Luke Rankin, regarding the bizarre appointments to the Judicial Reform Study Committee. We sincerely appreciate the strong efforts of these leaders.
The SC Freedom Caucus encourages everyone to call their representative and Senator and ask them to speak out for real judicial reform. Additionally, we encourage you:
Call Speaker Smith and ask him to take judicial reform seriously by giving a committee hearing to the bills already filed by SCFC members. His office number is (803) 734-3125.
Call Rep. Todd Rutherford and respectfully demand that he resign from the new judicial reform study committee due to his many conflicts of interests on this issue. His office number is (803) 256-3003.
We have an opportunity to right the ship and provide needed accountability and transparency in South Carolina’s selection of judges. The SC Freedom Caucus will keep fighting. But only with your help!
For Liberty,
The South Carolina Freedom Caucus
