Monday, October 1, 2012
Ruling comes on first day of session.
In its first day of the new term, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld South Carolina's plan to redistrict state House and Senate lines. In March, a group of six African-American voters filed suit, saying the new boundaries segregated them and therefore diluted their impact on elections. Previously, a three-judge federal panel ruled that the redistricting was not discriminatory. But the voters proceeded with their suit, saying the new districts were a form of "voting apartheid." According to the Associated Press, the citizens who brought the suit were not immediately available for comment on the Supreme Copurt's ruling. Under the Civil Rights Act of 1965, a group of states, including South Carolina, are required to get any …
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Court rules that individual mandate is a 'tax' but the overall law can stay.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as Obamacare, was not gutted by the nation's highest court Thursday when the Supreme Court ruled that the 2010 legislation's linchpin - the individual mandate - was not unconstitutional. Though confusion abounded soon after the Supreme Court's decision regarding health care reform, with some outlets initially reporting that the key part of Obamacare has been overturned, all media are now reporting that the law has been upheld. Gov. Nikki Haley said despite the Supreme Court's stance, "what was bad policy yesterday is bad policy today." See the rest of her comments on the decision in the attached video. Health care expert Mark Tompkins, who is director of the University …
Monday, June 11, 2012
Tommie Reece, a Senate 6 candidate, has joined candidates from two other counties in a federal suit seeking to either prevent the primary from moving forward Tuesday or have their names returned to ballot.
UPDATE: It's back to the drawing board for Tommie Reece. Reece, who is running for Senate 6 in Greenville County against incumbent Mike Fair, confirmed to Patch on Monday night that the lawsuit she was a party to had been met with failure in U.S. District Court. The ex parte restraining order requested by the lawsuit that would have prevented Tuesday's primaries from going forward - filed on the basis basis that Reece and four other candidates in the Upstate had been denied due process and rights under the Voters Rights Act - was denied Monday. "We knew it was a long shot, but hoped that we would be able to convince judges," Reece said. "They did consider it. They didn't just say no up front, which they could have done." Reece said it's …
Friday, May 4, 2012
An attorney acting on behalf of S.C. Senate candidate Amanda Somers filed a lawsuit this morning in federal court that challenges the S.C. Supreme Court's decision.
A South Carolina Senate candidate has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Columbia that would set aside this week's S.C. Supreme Court's ruling on the ballot controversy that has hijacked the electoral conversation just weeks ahead of the June primaries. Todd Kincannon, an attorney acting on behalf of Amanda Somers but including as plaintiffs all candidates improperly left off of ballots, filed a non-jury complaint in U.S. District Court on Friday morning that requested an emergency hearing a temporary restraining order from ballots being issued until the impasse is resolved. The lawsuit alleges that the S.C. Election Commission, among other things, had violated the Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, and that that the state's …
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Divided Court refuses to block Presidential Primary
The South Carolina Supreme Court voted Tuesday to require the State Election Commission and all counties to hold the 2012 Primary despite county contentions that the election lacked a mandate. The Court voted 3-2 in favor of the South Carolina Republican Party and the Election Commission, and as a result, counties must provide voting equipment, locations and staffing for the Jan. 21 primary. The court heard arguments on Nov. 14 after four South Carolina counties — Beaufort, Chester, Greenville and Spartanburg — filed suit to block the primary. The main controversies in the case arose over whether a statute enacted for the 2008 primary carried over to 2012 and whether budget provisos that authorized the state election commission to fund the…
Mark Wendell
10:51 pm on Thursday, June 28, 2012
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