South Carolina lawmakers are having to defend their actions to the state Supreme Court, and the lawsuit against them is delaying a major economic development effort in the Upstate.

It all started earlier this year when the legislature passed the 2004 Life Sciences Act. It was a bill aimed at helping the state's research universities and attracting high-tech companies to the state by offering incentives.

But during the legislative process, the Senate added unrelated items to the bill, like making USC Sumter a four-year school instead of a two-year one, and creating a culinary school in Charleston.

Speaker of the House David Wilkins says, "What we had to decide is whether we take the bills that are very meritorious with some of the things that we prefer not to have, or have nothing. We decided it was just too important to our schools, to our institutions of higher ed and to our state. So we took it with some of the things we had preferred not to."

Retired Greenville businessman Ed Sloan, Jr. sued the legislature on behalf of all taxpayers. He says the process of adding unrelated items onto bills, known as bobtailing, is unconstitutional because the state constitution requires that laws be about one subject.

The state Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the case Thursday morning at 9:30.

The outcome could have an impact on new jobs in the Upstate. Wilkins says, "You've got a company that's been looking at the Upstate on this Life Science, and this was an incentive for that company to locate in South Carolina. So it puts everything on hold. And if the court throws it out, then it puts it even further delay."