SC Senate approves changing how judges are picked

COLUMBIA – The South Carolina Senate quickly gave key approval to a bill Thursday that would change the way judges are brought up for election before the General Assembly.

The decision came after hours of hearings where citizens complained about the screening process to select judicial candidates.

The proposal allows the governor to appoint members to the screening panel for judicial candidates for the first time and requires all qualified candidates be sent to the General Assembly for elections up to a maximum of six.

The Senate vote was unanimous. After a routine final approval, the bill goes to the House, whose members have held their own hearings. The General Assembly has eight weeks left in the session to agree on a proposal.

Senators debated the bill on the floor for a few days. But after little progress was made, Republican Senate President Thomas Alexander suggested a group of 11 lawmakers from the 46member body meet privately to hammer something out, Republican Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said.

Massey brought the bipartisan group into a windowless room in the Senate’s office building – at least until one of the senators asked for windows since Columbia was enjoying two of its nicest days so far in 2024. They argued, cajoled, negotiated and went back and forth for about 12 hours over two days.

“Honestly, it was a very good conversation. We had people who were interested, everybody in there was engaged and we had some very differing points of view and some different opinions,” Massey said.