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Secrecy Prevails In High-Profile South Carolina Political Divorce
More preferential treatment for the powerful from the Palmetto State’s judicial branch?
3 comments
This is a serious question – why are you entitled to know the details of two people’s divorce?
If the divorce has to be blessed by a judge and on file with the court, why wouldn’t it be public information?
Because if you or I are residents of South Carolina and we are suing for divorce, every detail would be available online from our court filings. Anyone in our social circle, anyone from our neighbors to our bosses or anyone else that wishes to do so, could log on to the SC Courts website and pull up all of the files about our divorce proceedings. Yet if someone is well connected to those in power, they get to hide the details of their divorce from the public when regular folks do not get this privilege. So to answer your question, the reason IMO — I am not affiliated with FITS News to be clear — is that the government of South Carolina has determined that anyone filing for divorce is subject to having the intimate details of their divorce filings known to the public. The government decided this, and it’s how it works for most of us whether we like it or not. Surely anyone would want their divorce filings sealed, yet if I’m a typical SC resident that will not happen for me, or you. So why should the well connected get an exemption that the rest of us are not given? It’s not a matter of “we want to read filings that are always sealed and private”. It’s a matter of “these are supposed to be public filings and the well connected are getting privileges in the justice system that the rest of us do not get.” Hope that helps to answer your question, but I’ll add one more thing — if SC residents feel divorce proceedings should be private than the laws about this should be updated so that everyone’s divorce proceedings are sealed and private. But right now that’s not how it is.