2 women, 1 man among finalists for SC Supreme Court

The South Carolina Supreme Court in Columbia. (Mary Ann Chastain / Special to the SC Daily Gazette)

COLUMBIA – A pair of state Appeals Court judges and a Circuit Court judge are among finalists for South Carolina’s next Supreme Court justice.

A legislative panel that screens judicial candidates forwarded Blake Hewitt, of Conway; Jocelyn Newman, of Columbia; and Letitia Verdin, of Greenville, to the full Legislature for a vote next month. They were chosen from among six candidates vying to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Chief Justice Don Beatty.

Hewitt, a white male Appeals Court judge, was first elected to the bench in 2019 after years as an appellate lawyer. Newman, a Black female judge and the daughter of recently retired Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman, has spent eight years as a Circuit Court judge in Richland County. Verdin, a white female judge from the Upstate with more than 15 years of experience, has spent the past year on the state Court of Appeals.

The election by a joint General Assembly is scheduled for June 5.

South Carolina is one of only two states where the Legislature elects nearly all judges. Virginia is the other.

Who lawmakers choose will shape the look of the state’s highest court for some time. A seat isn’t likely to come available for more than four years. That’s when Justice John Kittredge, who will become chief justice this summer, ages out. (State law requires judges to retire from full-time work by Dec. 31 of the year they turn 72.)

Beatty, a former legislator from Spartanburg, is retiring when his term ends this summer, after he turns 72.

‘Bona fide conservatives’

The election of a new justice comes as South Carolina’s judiciary has been under intense scrutiny. The state high court’s recent decisions on laws banning abortions politicized a judicial selection process historically based on personal relationships and geography.

When the U.S. Supreme Court overthrew Roe v. Wade in June 2022, it left the state court to decide the legality of the state’s abortion laws. After the ruling, a law legislators passed in 2021 that banned abortions once an ultrasound detects cardiac activity temporarily took affect, prompting abortion providers to sue.

In a 3-2 decision in early January 2023, the state Supreme Court threw out the so-called “fetal heartbeat” law as violating the state constitutional protection from unreasonable invasions of privacy. The only woman on the court, Justice Kaye Hearn, wrote the majority opinion that was blasted by GOP lawmakers as judicial activism. It was her last opinion before she retired.

In the race to replace Hearn, two female judges ultimately dropped out before the Legislature elected Justice Gary Hill, the male judge who had the votes. Then in August, the country’s only all-male state Supreme Court upheld a tweaked version of the law that bans abortions around six weeks into pregnancy.

In selecting Hill, lawmakers had cited his reputation as a “strict constructionist,” meaning he interprets the literal meaning of statute when it was written. It’s the same label that soon-to-be Chief Justice Kittredge used to describe himself before he was unanimously elected in March as the judicial branch’s next leader.

South Carolina House Speaker Murrell Smith trumpeted the election of Kittredge during a tele-town hall Wednesday hosted by Americans For Prosperity, the conservative political group founded by the Koch Brothers.

“I’m proud to say we’ve elected for the first time, I believe, in modern history in South Carolina a chief justice who is a conservative — a well-known conservative,” Smith said.

With the exception of a one-year interim, South Carolina’s judicial branch has been led by a former House Democrat since 2000.

Chief Justice Jean Toal and Beatty were both initially elected from the House directly to the bench — back when that was still allowed — though in different decades: Toal to the high court in 1988 and Beatty to the Circuit Court in 1995. (Costa Pleicones became chief justice when Toal retired in December 2015 after turning 72, until he aged out a year later.)

Smith told listeners on the call that when the Legislature elects its new justice, he’s hopeful there will be five “true, bona fide conservatives” on the court.

“That really shows how we have turned this ship in South Carolina in trying to get a judiciary that doesn’t make laws but that interprets laws. So, that will be a huge win for us,” Smith said.

That deference to the Legislature was a theme in the latest Supreme Court candidates’ answers.

A legislative screening panel selected Blake Hewitt, of Conway, as one of three finalists for the state Supreme Court. Hewitt ascended to the Appeals Court bench in 2019 after working as an appellate lawyer. (Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette)

“Yes, we interpret statutes. Yes, we apply them, but we do so with the recognition that is the General Assembly’s prerogative to set public policy and the General Assembly’s actions get every presumption of constitutionality,” Hewitt said.

“Our purpose is to interpret the intent of the Legislature. We don’t make laws,” Newman said to questions. “The court often makes decisions to highlight certain deficiencies in legislation that has been passed. … But the judiciary should never overstep its bounds.”

“I understand I am not a policy maker. I am not a lawmaker, but an interpreter of the law, and I take that very seriously,” Verdin said.

Backlog

A second theme in questioning by the screening panel was related to the backlog of court cases across the Palmetto State.

Both Hewitt and Verdin serve on an Appeals Court committee trying to find solutions to the backlog at that level. Verdin said one area of success she’s noticed is in the use of technology and video proceedings to handle more administrative proceedings.

“Our legal profession is changing. I welcome those changes because change is inevitable,” she said.

Being behind on issuing orders is one area where Newman was dinged in her screening.

The Fifth Circuit of Richland and Kershaw counties, where Newman holds court, has seen a number of judicial retirements in the last couple years, and Newman has been left to handle the lions-share of the caseload. She’s also been without the aid of a clerk since December, she explained.

A screening panel that vets judges in the state selected Jocelyn Newman, of Columbia, as one of three finalists for a seat on the state Supreme Court. Newman, the daughter of recently retired circuit court Judge Clifton Newman, has spent eight years as a circuit court judge in Richland County. (Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette)

The Legislature certainly didn’t help last month, when GOP lawmakers broke precedent and refused to elect former House Democrat and Columbia lawyer James Smith to a new seat on the Fifth Circuit bench. No one was running against him, after his challenger dropped out months ago. Still, Republicans chose to restart the application and screening process. So that seat, among those the Legislature created, won’t be filled until next year sometime.

Pete Strom, a Columbia lawyer who sits on the judicial screening panel, recognized Newman’s workload.

“It’s not fair that it’s all on your plate. But it’s all on your plate,” he said.

That’s not an excuse, said Andrew Safran, also a Columbia-area lawyer on the panel.

“If you want to make a viable run, these things have to be addressed because we can’t ignore them,” he said about the backlog.

Both also assured Newman they felt the issue was fixable.

Inexperience

When it came to criticisms lobbed at the other two candidates, the concerns centered around their lack of experience.

Hewitt was never a judge before he was appointed to the Court of Appeals. As a lawyer, he largely argued cases at that level.

A special screening panel that vets judges in the state selected Letitia Verdin, of Greenville, as one of three finalists for the state Supreme Court. Verdin has been a judge for more than 15 years, spending the past year on the state Court of Appeals. (Jessica Holdman/SC Daily Gazette)

“I think of appellate courts as being greater than the sum of their parts and that their secret sauce is the blending of different experiences and perspectives,” Hewitt said when questioned about his experience. “I hope that my experience as a litigator is adding something to the value that the Court of Appeals produces.”

Verdin, who has family and circuit court experience, has only been on the Appeals Court for a year.

“They’re right,” Verdin said of her lack of experience, adding that she would have rather waited before making a run, but high court openings don’t come up often.

But Verdin also received glowing reviews from the anonymous polling of lawyers — 927 lawyers weighed in on her candidacy, including more than 200 who chose to add comments praising her and only four commenting in the negative.

“In a state full of talented, intelligent judges and justices, Judge Verdin is the finest judge South Carolina has to offer,” one wrote.

“I don’t have any doubt that you’re up to the task,” Safran said.

By comparison, Hewitt had 550 lawyers weigh in on his candidacy, with 23 out of 141 comments being negative.

Lack of appellate experience was also a shortcoming for Newman. More than 800 weighed in on her candidacy, with 43 out of 159 comments being negative.

Editor Seanna Adcox contributed to this report.

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