For more than a decade, Jasper officials have worked toward bringing a port to their county, and when the county struck a development deal with a private port builder, the State Ports Authority responded with a lawsuit in the high court.
"I'm delighted to see the final paperwork has been filed," said U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C. "I'm very optimistic the courts will come to a solution good for all parties."
Wilson said a Jasper port would be a boon for Georgia as much as South Carolina, and at least one Georgia congressman agrees.
"It's a win-win for South Carolina and Georgia," said U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga. "Let's not accept traditional thinking that this thing is South Carolina versus Georgia. Let's make it a win for the guy who makes $10 or $15 an hour."
The State Ports Authority controls the fourth-largest cargo container system in the country through ports in Charleston, Georgetown and Port Royal.
The agency's enabling legislation, penned in 1932, empowers the agency "to promote, develop, construct, equip, maintain and operate a harbor or harbors within this state on the Savannah River."
Jasper's attorneys contended that nothing in the legislation makes those powers exclusive -- and under home rule, a state law designed to move local government issues out of Columbia, the county has the right to build.
"I guess that's the really the issue, whether they have the superior right or we do," said Harry Butler, chairman of the State Ports Authority board of directors.
In Thursday's legal brief, Jasper's attorneys -- the Columbia-firm of Lewis, Babcock & Hawkins -- claimed the state agency's right is neither superior nor exclusive.
"Surely the (State Ports Authority) does not maintain that it has the exclusive authority to own and operate all watercraft and railroads in the State of South Carolina," the document states. "Jasper County's operation of a single terminal is not irreconcilable or inconsistent with any of the statutes creating the SPA."
The legal brief also attacks the State Ports Authority's law firm, Columbia-based Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, for using a letter of support for a state-run port from six former governors.
"Obviously, the use by (Nelson Mullins) of a letter by recent former governors, including a partner in (Nelson Mullins), is entirely irrelevant in interpreting the intention of the General Assembly in enacting legislation in 1932," the brief states.
Richard Riley, a South Carolina governor from 1978 to 1986, who signed the letter, is also a partner in Nelson Mullins.
Kevin Hall, the partner in the firm working on the port issue, refused comment.
"Our preference is not to comment on matters of litigation," he said.
Jasper County officials reiterated their mantra of late: The county is ready to act.
"We have a plan and a company ready to invest a half-a-billion dollars to turn that plan into reality," Jasper County Administrator Andrew Fulghum said Thursday. "Instead of filing legal briefs, we should be working together to break ground."
