In speaking with members of the S.C. General Assembly regarding today’s big legislative election for chief justice of the S.C. Supreme Court – one factor working in favor of challenger Costa Pleicones has been his adamant insistence that he would, if elected, step down upon reaching the state’s mandatory retirement age.
For him, that’s December 31, 2016.
Meanwhile current S.C. Chief Justice Jean Toal had previously said that she “planned” to step down upon reaching the retirement age – which for her would become effective on December 31, 2015.
Judges in South Carolina are required to retire at the end of the year in which they turn 72 – assuming they want to be paid benefits from the state’s retirement fund.
According to the lawmakers we spoke with, Toal’s less-than-firm commitment to retiring at this cutoff date was costing her votes.
“A lot of us viewed the language she used – this ‘I’m planning on (retiring)’ language – as less than ironclad,” one lawmaker told FITS. “She needed to make a definitive statement one way or the other as to her intentions.”
Toal did that recently, telling reporter John Monk of The (Columbia, S.C.) State that she would indeed step down at the appointed time.
That means if Toal prevails, lawmakers would be able to appoint a new justice to the court one year earlier than if Pleicones were to win … which strikes us as a fairly pointless distinction.
This website has made its indifference related to this race abundantly clear. Both candidates are too old and too liberal for the job – and we’ve got zero use for either of them. Not only that, the legislative election process exposes the very worst of South Carolina’s corrupt government – with powerful lawmakers twisting arms and trading favors to line up votes (often at the expense of taxpayers).
As we’ve said all along, judges at every level in the Palmetto State should be appointed by the Governor’s Office … with the S.C. Senate providing its advice and consent on those selections.
Anyway, we’ve published the dueling legislative “whip counts” related to this race … which most Palmetto political observers expect to go down to the wire.
18 comments
Respectfully to the editor;
As often as this subject matter is posted on FitsNews, FitsNews is anything but indifferent to this race. It is appreciated that FitsNews clearly has no interest in seeing a liberal justice on the court at all, let alone in charge of it.
I concur.
Just sayin’
Frank Pytel
Jean Toal has a way of deflecting truthful answers and always had. When John Monk asked her about her “stocks,” she answered that she and Bill did not own any publicly traded stocks. She avoided answering what stock she owns in her closely held family companies – yes plural. Toal is a liar and is addicted to her corrupt power.
Any legislator who votes for her today will be held accountable at his/her next election. Only the dumb and corrupt are voting for Toal. We have enough honest folks watching this election today to make sure no vote goes unnoticed.
Pleicones is clearly the lesser of evils here. He may be liberal, but at least he is not a shameless crook, whose decisions are for sale to the highest bidder.
He is far the more intellectual in any event.
As many of you may recall, I have been at the State House for decades. I have never seen such a crass, low life, dishonest, promise anything to get elected race for a judgeship as I have seen from Jean Hoefer Toal. I remember when she got her in 1974 and tried to take charge immediately. I remember her running down The State reporters claiming she and some others were Young Turks and all that babble. I remember her lying about her cancer scare to get onto the House Judiciary Committee. She looked down on us working women who were not on her level.
Co Pleicones is an honest gentleman. Please call your representatives office NOW and tell her/him what you think.
Mike Fair is going to vote for Toal, The State says. Confirms our theory: Only the dumb and corrupt will vote for Toal.
She probably has video of that Bible-thumping hypocrite jerking off on gay porn of underage boys.
How long has that SOB Fair been in office? I’ll answer that – THIRTY YEARS IN THE STATE HOUSE AND SENATE! And 6 years before that on County Council. When is this bastard going to retire?
“That means if Toal prevails, lawmakers would be able to appoint a new justice to the court one year earlier than if Pleicones were to win … ”
Wrong again. If Toal loses she is gone in July and lawmakers would be able to appoint a new justice one and half years earlier than if she wins. Are you ever right about anything?
Egg on their face! Are you kidding. These folks have no compunction for anything but power. They will wear this egg like a Battle Ribbon.
She’ll probably renege on this just
like she reneged on her public statement that she would retire at the end of
her current term. What would happen to her if she did? Nothing.
What time is the big smack down….err, Vote??
WIS reporting that the lowlife scum in the Legislature put the bitch back in.
You can bet they will change the mandatory retirement age!
Wonder Woman is back on the job. The Legislature in SC is so corrupt they can not afford to take a stand.She rules for them when they want it or need it and the rest of the court are nothing more than lackey’s!
Shameful. The only good thing about today is that there is a clear list who believe that corruption and dishonesty is okay within the South Carolina Judiciary.
Oops. Someone must have missed the news. Justice was reelected in a not so close vote.
Toal wins