Jean Toal, South Carolina’s first female chief justice, is calling for changes in the makeup of the state judicial screening committee to increase the number of women and minority judges statewide.

Last week, days after receiving the American Bar Association’s top award for women lawyers, Toal said state lawmakers should add more non-legislators to the Judicial Merit Selection Commission. The commission is composed of 10 members, six of whom are legislators.

All six lawmakers are men; five are white. In total, there are eight white men, one black man and one black woman on the commission. The commission nominates judicial candidates for consideration by the Legislature, which elects the judges.

Toal said more women and minorities should be appointed to the screening commission because those groups are under-represented in the state’s courts. But she didn’t propose specific numbers and said she doesn’t believe all lawmakers should be removed from the commission.

“Since the Legislature does the electing (of judges), it enhances public confidence if the front end of the process is strongly representative of the public,” she said. “It puts different voices in the mix.”

Of the 140 Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, administrative law, circuit, master-in-equity and family court seats in South Carolina, nine, or less than 7 percent, are held by blacks. Nineteen of the seats, or less than 14 percent, are held by women. Candidates for those seats must be screened by the commission before election by the General Assembly.

Women make up 51 percent of the state’s population; blacks, about 30 percent. About 7 percent of the state’s active lawyers are black; women make up about 26 percent of the state Bar.

Toal said she believes lawmakers likely will take up the judicial selection issue again when they convene in January. A bill supported by black lawmakers that would have removed the cap on the number of judicial nominees died this year after contentious debate. Under current law, the screening committee can nominate no more than three candidates for each seat.

“I think the Legislature itself is looking for ways to enhance public confidence in the way it selects judges,” Toal said.

State Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Aiken, a member of the screening commission, said he supports Toal’s proposal.

“I think the majority of the General Assembly would agree with her,” he said. “We would have to sit down and talk about the particulars ... but I think she makes a very valid point.”

Toal said she believes lawmakers — most of whom are white men — generally are not “so much anti-woman,” but rather have shown a “lack of sensitivity” on diversity issues. Another problem is the pool of experienced women lawyers who would be qualified for those seats has been relatively small, she said.

Administrative Law Judge Carolyn Matthews supports Toal’s proposal and the bill to lift the nominee cap. That the state’s two top courts — the Supreme Court with Toal and the Court of Appeals with chief judge Kaye Hearn — are headed by women can give a misleading picture, she said.

“Since we have two women who are very visible, people kind of think it has been a level playing field, and it is not,” Matthews said.

Columbia lawyer Barbara Barton, former president of the S.C. Women Lawyers Association, said the screening commission should have more women lawyers and fewer legislators.

“There is a bias against women,” she said, explaining that state lawmakers often have put their former colleagues on the bench.

Women running for probate judgeships — the only judicial seat filled by popular election — have fared much better than women seeking seats filled by the Legislature. Of the state’s 46 probate judges, 24, or 52 percent, are women.

In South Carolina, probate judges don’t have to be lawyers, though they must have bachelor’s degrees. Thirteen of the probate judges are lawyers, five of whom are women.

Richland County Probate Judge Amy McCulloch, a lawyer and past president of the S.C. Probate Judges Association, said she understands why some women lawyers don’t want to run for higher courts.

“Having not gone through the Legislature, it feels and it appears more intimidating than running for general election, and it appears more complicated,” she said.

Of the 575 judges in the state’s magistrate and municipal courts — the lowest-level courts — 169, or 29 percent, are women. Magistrates, who are nominated by county Senate delegations and appointed by the governor, and municipal judges, who are appointed by their town or city councils, do not have to be lawyers.

Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484 or rbrundrett@thestate.com.