NEWS BRIEFS: U.S. Supreme Court to hear whether SC-1 voters exiled

Staff reports  |  The U.S. Supreme Court this week agreed to decide whether South Carolina Republican lawmakers violated the rights of Black voters by unconstitutionally “exiling” them from the 1st congressional district, currently held by U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-Charleston. 

The case involves state Republican lawmakers challenging a lower court decision, which found that the state’s 1st Congressional District was an unlawful racial gerrymander.  A three-judge panel in January found that South Carolina’s reapportionment mapmaker tried to keep the African American population below a certain target in the district, treating Charleston County “in a fundamentally different way than the rest of the state,” according to The Washington Post.

The lower court panel wrote in a Jan. 6 ruling: “The strategies he employed ultimately exiled over 30,000 African American citizens from their previous district and created a stark racial gerrymander of Charleston County and the City of Charleston.” 

The U.S. Supreme Court’s Monday decision could determine whether a different congressional map will be put in place in 2024 for voters in Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester and Jasper counties. 

In other recent headlines:

S.C. inches towards 6-week abortion ban.  South Carolina is moving toward a six-week abortion ban after Wednesday action by the S.C. House. The state Senate, which blocked a near-total abortion ban earlier this year but approved a similar six-week ban, will take up the measure next week. Five women — three Republicans, one Democrat and one independent — say they’re aligned to fight a ban. Also expected to battle it are three Republican senators and all of the chamber’s Democrats. If enacted, Virginia would be an outlier in the South as a place where women have traditional access to abortions.

S.C. teachers qualify for 6 weeks of paid parental leave. A bill signed into law Monday by Gov. Henry McMaster makes South Carolina the first state in the Southeast to offer teachers parental leave without requiring them to burn vacation or sick days or simply go without a paycheck. It takes effect June 26.

2024: Haley won’t back federal abortion ban based on weeks of gestation. GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Sunday that a federal abortion ban isn’t politically possible based on a number of weeks of gestation in a national television interview — a marked difference with other Republican candidates. In other presidential news, Haley said she blames both parties on border issues and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott spoke in Greenville recently.  Here are five takeaways.

Gaines named state’s comptroller general. Administrator Brian Gaines has been named the state’s new comptroller general following the resignation of the former officeholder, Richard Eckstrom, after a $3.5 billion reporting error.

Sextortion bill heading for governor’s desk. The bill honors a freshman legislator’s late son and could help decrease the number of people who fall prey to sexual extortion.

Carolina Squat car modification banned in S.C. The Carolina Squat refers to a modification in which a pickup or SUV is lifted on the front axle and lowered or maintained in place in the rear, jacking the front of the truck up in the air. The modification has been officially banned in South Carolina.

S.C. has nation’s 10th worst drivers according to study. The new report from Forbes Advisor used six metrics to compare the states, including the number of drunk drivers involved in fatal car accidents per 100,000 licensed drivers as well as the number of fatal car accidents involving a distracted driver and number of drivers who looked at a phone per mile. South Carolina was ranked 10th in the nation.