South Carolina General Assembly
116th Session, 2005-2006

Download This Bill in Microsoft Word format

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

S. 1012

STATUS INFORMATION

General Bill
Sponsors: Senators McConnell, Ritchie, Ford and Richardson
Document Path: l:\s-jud\bills\mcconnell\jud0038.gfm.doc

Introduced in the Senate on January 10, 2006
Introduced in the House on February 15, 2006
Currently residing in the House Committee on Judiciary

Summary: Judicial Merit Selection Commission

HISTORY OF LEGISLATIVE ACTIONS

     Date      Body   Action Description with journal page number
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   1/10/2006  Senate  Introduced and read first time SJ-41
   1/10/2006  Senate  Referred to Committee on Judiciary SJ-41
   1/19/2006  Senate  Referred to Subcommittee: Ritchie (ch), Ford, Cleary
    2/8/2006  Senate  Committee report: Favorable Judiciary SJ-11
    2/9/2006  Senate  Read second time SJ-13
   2/14/2006  Senate  Read third time and sent to House SJ-12
   2/15/2006  House   Introduced and read first time HJ-9
   2/15/2006  House   Referred to Committee on Judiciary HJ-9

View the latest legislative information at the LPITS web site

VERSIONS OF THIS BILL

1/10/2006
2/8/2006

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

Indicates Matter Stricken

Indicates New Matter

COMMITTEE REPORT

February 8, 2006

S. 1012

Introduced by Senators McConnell, Ritchie and Ford

S. Printed 2/8/06--S.

Read the first time January 10, 2006.

            

THE COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY

To whom was referred a Bill (S. 1012) to amend Section 2-19-70, Code of Laws of South Carolina, 1976, relating to pledging, so as to prohibit a person or judicial candidate from directly, etc., respectfully

REPORT:

That they have duly and carefully considered the same and recommend that the same do pass:

JAMES H. RITCHIE, JR. for Committee.

            

A BILL

TO AMEND SECTION 2-19-70, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO PLEDGING, SO AS TO PROHIBIT A PERSON OR JUDICIAL CANDIDATE FROM DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY SEEKING THE PLEDGE OF A MEMBER OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGARDING SCREENING FOR ANY JUDICIAL OFFICE UNTIL THE QUALIFICATIONS OF ALL THE CANDIDATES HAVE BEEN DETERMINED BY THE JUDICIAL MERIT SELECTION COMMISSION AND THE COMMISSION HAS FORMALLY RELEASED ITS REPORT.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION    1.    Subsections (C) and (D) of Section 2-19-70 of the 1976 Code are amended to read:

"(C)    No candidate for judicial office person may directly or indirectly seek directly or indirectly the pledge of a member of the General Assembly's vote or, directly or indirectly, contact a member of the General Assembly regarding screening for the any judicial office until the qualifications of all candidates for that office have been determined by the Judicial Merit Selection Commission and the commission has formally released its report as to the qualifications of all candidates for the vacancy to the General Assembly. No member of the General Assembly may directly or indirectly offer his pledge to any person who plans to seek any judicial office or to any candidate until the qualifications of all candidates for that office have been determined by the Judicial Merit Selection Commission and until the commission has formally released its report as to the qualifications of its nominees to the General Assembly. The formal release of the report of qualifications shall occur no earlier than forty-eight hours after the nominees have been initially released to members of the General Assembly. For purposes of this section, indirectly seeking a pledge means the a person, a candidate, or someone acting on behalf of and at the request of the a person or a candidate, requesting a person someone to contact a member of the General Assembly on behalf of the a person or a candidate before nominations for that office are formally made by the commission. The prohibitions of this section do not extend to an announcement of candidacy by the candidate and statements by the candidate detailing the candidate's qualifications.

(D)    No member of the General Assembly may trade anything of value, including pledges to vote for legislation or for other persons or candidates, in exchange for another member's pledge to vote for a candidate for judicial office."

SECTION    2.    This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.

----XX----

This web page was last updated on Friday, December 4, 2009 at 3:34 P.M.