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Black lawmakers protest after legislative vote on judges; Govan says system locks out minorities

Walking out of the House

COLUMBIA — Twenty-nine black lawmakers staged a walkout after the South Carolina General Assembly rebuffed both black candidates for judgeships Wednesday.

"There should be diversity on the bench," said Rep. Jerry Govan, D-Orangeburg, who joined the protest.

About a third of South Carolina's residents are black, but blacks hold just six of the state's 141 judicial seats, including one of 52 Family Court judgeships. Of the six black judges, two are women.

"The General Assembly missed out on a great opportunity to help remedy that disparity" by electing a second black Family Court judge as well as a black administrative law judge, Govan said.

Govan spearheaded the press last year for diversity in judgeships during his term as chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus.

"Last year, there were a lot of promises by the legislative leadership about increasing diversity on the bench and looking at the whole process by which we elect judges," Govan said. "But surprise, surprise, that turned into more or less lip service, and we have what we have, which leaves minorities locked out of the process.

"There's no reason, in these days and times, for that to be," he said. "We feel those candidates were well qualified for the positions for which they ran. We've never advocated underqualified individuals."

Race isn't the only concern, the Orangeburg Democrat said. Increasing diversity also means electing more women — both of the black candidates are women — as well as more residents of rural areas.

"All of the judges should not come from metropolitan areas" or from a particular area of the state, Govan said.

When the votes were counted, "the numbers broke out basically the same, with the Senate splitting almost even, but the House supporting the majority (white) candidate in each case," Govan said.

"We got whitewashed," said the caucus chairman, Rep. David Mack, D-Charleston, adding that it's nothing new; the Legislature perennially "looks at race first, and that's a problem. ... We're very tired of being left out."

So the Legislative Black Caucus "relied on a time-honored method of protest," said Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg. "We thought it a good way to show, in a non-violent way, our displeasure in our failure, yet again, to elect judges of color."

The caucus has 32 members. Two were out sick, and one, Sen. Kent Williams, D-Marion, didn't leave, said Rep. Leon Howard, D-Columbia and chairman-elect of the caucus.

The black legislators who walked out were greeted by more than a dozen members of the South Carolina Conference of the NAACP who held signs stating, "More diversity in the courts. We care, we want you to be fair."

Lonnie Randolph, state NAACP president, called the vote "a despicable exercise of power to maintain an almost all-white judiciary in South Carolina."

The racial disparities among those being held in prisons — blacks "are overrepresented at nearly 70 percent" — "can be directly linked to the selection of judges and prosecutors," Randolph said.

After making their point, the lawmakers returned to their seats.

"We are too much public stewards to walk out on the entire proceedings," Cobb-Hunter said. "We were elected to do a job, and we are committed to doing it. Our aim was to show our feelings about the judicial elections, nothing else."

Gov. Mark Sanford wouldn't comment on the walkout. "It's a legislative issue," said Will Folks, his spokesman.

"A lot of this is about judicial philosophy, not race or gender," said House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville.

The walkout "might keep the public spotlight on the issue, but it doesn't do anything to solve the problem that they perceive," said Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston.

Rep. Leon Howard has sponsored a bill that would remove the restriction on the Judicial Merit Selection Committee that it can send only three candidates forward as nominees for a particular judgeship.

That's a good idea, said Rep. Greg Delleney, R-Chester and a screening panel member for 10 years. "The screening committee still has the power to be the gatekeeper," he said.

But Sen. John Matthews, D-Bowman, said that might "only add more names for them not to elect."

Howard's bill, which was first proposed last year, got the ball rolling and a subcommittee recently gave its approval, Cobb-Hunter said.

But, "I'm convinced the system we have does not work as far as getting people of color elected to the bench," she added.

"I'm open to a different approach. ... Over half of the states elect judges by popular vote, and they seem to get along OK with it. I think we ought to give it a try."

A popular vote would result in more diversity, says the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a Greenville native and head of a national civil rights organization.

Jackson says the state's "system of selecting judges violates the intent of the Voting Rights Act of 1965," and his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition is reviewing a possible legal challenge as well as a "street challenge."

McConnell said part of the solution is encouraging more black candidates to run. In the past, "black candidates have been chilled out of running on the theory that only one black candidate should be running at one time" for an open seat, McConnell said.

"If more offer in future races, they're going to win more judgeships," McConnell said.

Just as more women have become lawyers and ultimately judges, more black lawyers will rise to the bench, Wilkins said. "It's a natural progression," he said.