The Supreme Court of South Carolina is the highest court in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

. The court is composed of a chief justice and four

associate justice An associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some ...

s.S.C. Const. art. V, § 2

Judicial selection

South Carolina is one of two states where the state legislature elects state court judges, including the justices on the state supreme court. A ten-person committee (composed mostly of state legislators) called the Judicial Merit Selection Commission (JMSC) winnows down the number of candidates to fill a judicial vacancy to three based on candidate qualifications. The General Assembly must then choose from one of these three candidates to fill a judicial vacancy. However, candidates who gauge a lack of support amongst the General Assembly often drop out of the race, leaving the Assembly only one candidate to vote for. The JMSC is composed of five members appointed by the House Speaker of the

South Carolina House of Representatives The South Carolina House of Representatives is the lower house of the South Carolina General Assembly. It consists of 124 representatives elected to two-year terms at the same time as U.S. congressional elections. Unlike many legislatures, seatin ...

, three members appointed by the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, and two members appointed by the South Carolina Senate president. South Carolina statutory law requires that six of the ten JMSC members be state legislators. Justices on the supreme court serve ten-year terms and there is no prohibition against justices serving multiple terms on the court.S.C. Const. art. V, § 3
However, there is a mandatory retirement age of 72 for state trial judges and state appellate judges.
The judicial selection process has been criticized by commentators for its opacity. Following the supreme court's opinion striking down the state's fetal heartbeat bill in 2022 based on its violation of the state constitution's right to privacy, state legislators began to deliberate on reforms to the judicial selection process and Governor

Henry McMaster Henry Dargan McMaster (born May 27, 1947) is an American politician and attorney serving since 2017 as the 117th governor of South Carolina. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he was the 50th List of Attorneys Ge ...

called for reform in his 2023 State of the State address.

Current justices of the court

Jurisdiction

The court enjoys both

original Originality is the aspect of created or invented works that distinguish them from reproductions, clones, forgeries, or substantially derivative works. The modern idea of originality is according to some scholars tied to Romanticism, by a notion t ...

and

appellate jurisdiction An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appellat ...

. It enjoys exclusive appellate jurisdiction for all state cases regarding the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

, state utility rates, judgments involving public bonded indebtedness and elections, and orders limiting state

grand juries A grand jury is a jury empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand ju ...

and relating to

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

s by minors. Original jurisdiction pertains to the issuance

writ In common law, a writ is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrant (legal), Warrants, prerogative writs, subpoenas, and ''certiorari'' are commo ...

s including

mandamus A writ of (; ) is a judicial remedy in the English and American common law system consisting of a court order that commands a government official or entity to perform an act it is legally required to perform as part of its official duties, o ...

certiorari In law, ''certiorari'' is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency. ''Certiorari'' comes from the name of a prerogative writ in England, issued by a superior court to direct that the recor ...

, and very extraordinary bills.S.C. Code Ann. § § 14-3-310 to -330

Additional charges of the court

The South Carolina Supreme Court oversees the admission of individuals to practice law in the state.S.C. Const. art. V, § 4
Much of the administration regarding admissions and practice is delegated to the South Carolina Bar, established by statute as an administrative arm of the court; however, the court retains ultimate authority in South Carolina governing the practice of law.S.C. Code Ann. § 40-5-20
It also supervises the disciplining of attorneys and suspension of those no longer able to practice due to mental or physical condition.

History

The Supreme Court of South Carolina Building is located in the state capital of Columbia. The court moved into its current location, a former United States Post Office building, in 1971.Littlejohn, Bruce ''Littlejohn's South Carolina Judicial History: 1930-2004'', Joggling Board Press, Charleston, SC (2005). It was built between 1917 and 1921, and is a two-story, Neo-Classical style building. The building has been listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

since 1972. Prior to 1971, the court met in a section of the

South Carolina State House The South Carolina State House is the building housing the government of the U.S. state of South Carolina, which includes the South Carolina General Assembly and the offices of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina. Located in ...

in an area totaling approximately ; the justices did not have individual offices, but instead met in a common conference room when not presiding over a session of court. Controversy arose in late 2007 after ''

The State A state is a political entity that regulates society and the population within a definite territory. Government is considered to form the fundamental apparatus of contemporary states. A country often has a single state, with various administrat ...

'' newspaper reported that the Supreme Court reversed the grades of 20 people who failed the South Carolina bar exam, including children of prominent attorneys, by voiding the results of the wills,

trusts A trust is a legal relationship in which the owner of property, or any transferable right, gives it to another to manage and use solely for the benefit of a designated person. In the English common law, the party who entrusts the property is k ...

, and estates section of the exam. From 1930 to 2016, the South Carolina Supreme Court had 17 Chief Justices.

References

External links

South Carolina Supreme Court
{{authority control Courthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina Government buildings completed in 1921 Buildings and structures in Columbia, South Carolina National Register of Historic Places in Columbia, South Carolina

South Carolina state courts 1868 establishments in South Carolina Courts and tribunals established in 1868