COLUMBIA, S.C. - A Columbia lawmaker again plans to push for legislation that would change how judicial candidates are nominated in an effort to increase the number of black judges in the state's courtrooms.

This past year, Rep. Leon Howard's bill passed the House but died in the Senate. It would have removed the current cap of three candidates that the state Judicial Merit Selection Commission can send for the Legislature to consider electing to the bench.

"We want to be fair to everybody, not only to African-Americans, but to all qualified candidates," the Democrat said Tuesday.

But Rep. Jim Harrison, R-Columbia, said he doesn't think Howard's bill is needed. He pointed out that the screening committee has nominated 15 candidates, including two black lawyers, for nine trial and appellate court seats.

"There's great diversity there," said Harrison, a lawyer who is white. "It's obvious the merit selection commission is doing everything we thought it would do."

In South Carolina, the Legislature votes on nominees for higher court seats. The next election is tentatively set for Feb. 2.

Rep. Greg Delleney, R-Chester, a screening committee member, said he doesn't see a problem with diversity in the state courts, but he supports Howard's bill.

Delleney, a white lawyer, says the Legislature is "perfectly capable of discerning between three candidates or five candidates or 10 candidates."

A study this year found the state's courts are among the least diverse in the nation when compared with the state's black population.

Of the 140 Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, administrative law, circuit, master-in-equity and family judicial seats in South Carolina, fewer than 7 percent are held by blacks and fewer than 14 percent by women.

Blacks make up about 7 percent of the state's active lawyers and 30 percent of the population. Women account for about 26 percent of the active lawyers and make up 51 percent of the state's population.

---

Information from: The State, http://www.thestate.com/