COLUMBIA, S.C. — Earlier this week, a group of solicitors said that South Carolina lawmakers who also serve as lawyers have no business sitting on the committee that decides who will be a judge.
Their reasoning is that those same lawmakers may have to eventually try a case before the judge they appointed.
Reaction to the proposal has been swift, from lawmakers to the general public. Many, are calling for change.
"It sounds like it is time to move to a different system where maybe judges are either elected or appointed from a different pool of individuals," Kirk Randazzo, USC political science chair said. "South Carolina is one of only two states in the country where the legislature has a direct say over judicial appointments. The other state is Virginia."
Randazzo tells News 19 he believes people have an ignited interest in judge selection after seeing former President Trump's U.S. Supreme Court appointees and S.C. Supreme Court appointees, but that they want to see a transparent and legitimate proven system that works.
He explains that in order to retain the legitimacy of the South Carolina court system, there should maybe be a new way of electing judges in the state.
"This selection committee was arguably designed to remove some of the politics or the appearance of politics in that selection, so the members of the JMSC get together, they vet particular candidates and at the end of their process, they make a recommendation to the state legislature," Randazzo said.
Lori Williams, the sister of Larry Vaughan, a retired Rock Hill police officer who was killed in July of 2021, tells News 19 she can't trust the JMSC after a bond hearing judge ruled in favor of representative Todd Rutherford and the defendant last November.
"I have to put my faith in that system. That system is not working for my brother. It is not working for my family. It is not working for other families in the state of South Carolina and it needs to change," Williams, the North Myrtle Beach resident said.
Other locals explain they'd like to see change too.
"I would like to see either more citizen input, more recommendations by the bar at large, anything to open this process up, because right now it's a little bit too incestuous," Glenn Dunbar, Columbia resident said.
Locals and state solicitors said they hope the state legislature prioritizes this kind of judicial reform in the new year.