SC to be only state in the US with no woman on Supreme Court bench as abortion bans loom
The South Carolina General Assembly elected Judge Gary Hill to the South Carolina Supreme Court Wednesday, making the state supreme court the only one of its kind in the United States with no woman on the bench.
The all-male bench emerges the same week that women's reproductive rights and abortion bans continue to dominate state politics.
Hill, a 58-year-old Greenville resident, will replace the sole female judge Justice Kaye Hearn, who retired because of state law term limits on judgeships. In South Carolina, supreme court justices are picked by the legislature.
Hearn authored the majority opinion that quashed the 2021 six-week abortion ban on Jan. 5. In the ruling, the top court ruled the six-week abortion ban was unconstitutional because it violated a woman's privacy rights.
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Just hours before Hill assumed his role in the high court, the Supreme Court denied a petition to rehear the abortion ban decision.
A day before Hill's election, a House committee moved a bill that will ban all abortions at conception. Meanwhile, the Senate began to debate an abortion ban with amendments that would armor it against future litigation.
Who is Gary Hill?
Hill was born in 1964. He was a law clerk in the early stages of his career and then joined the law firm of Hill, Wyatt & Bannister. Rep. Bruce Bannister, R-Greenville, is also a partner at this firm.)
In 2000, Hill would start his own practice with his father, Leo H. Hill, the former president of the SC Bar. Gary Hill then served as a Circuit Judge for the 13th Circuit and in 2017, he was elected to the Court of Appeals. Former SC Gov. and US Secretary of Education Dick Riley was among the list of 5 people who were a reference for his job.
Most of Hill's litigation history is related to businesses and personal injury. His work included lawsuits in which several plaintiffs claimed personal injury due to asbestos exposure. Hill, in his interview with the selection commission, said he wrote orders involving issues such as product identification, proximate cause, product liability and sophisticated-user defense.
He votes Republican, according to a LexisNexis search.
How was he picked and what does it mean in a post-Roe world?
A 10-member Judicial Merit Selection Commission that screens candidates sends top picks to legislators. During this time, candidates are not allowed to seek support or a formal pledge from a lawmaker to endorse their candidature.
Court of Appeals judges Aphrodite Konduros, Stephanie McDonald and Hill were the three top picks for the vote, as per a report published by the commission. But before the election began, Konduros and McDonald withdrew from the race, leaving only Hill in the race.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Alan Wilson filed a petition to rehear the six-week abortion ban litigation. On Wednesday, the SC Supreme Court denied Wilson's petition, thus shutting down any avenues for reviving the six-week abortion law. Wilson said in a statement the state disagreed with the court's decision. "This issue is now in the legislature's hands," the statement read.
More:South Carolina Supreme Court shuts down six-week abortion ban
Lynn Teague with the League of Women Voters said that the ruling was justified as there were no legitimate grounds for rehearing and no flaw in the original hearing.
"(Lawmakers are) just hoping that if they keep getting new bites at the apple, they'll get a different result and that's not an appropriate way to deal with the judiciary," Teague said.
Several in the legal circle have a great deal of respect for Hill, Teague said. It was regrettable that South Carolina would be the only state not to have a woman on the Supreme Court bench. "But that's not Justice Hill's fault," she said.
More:SC abortion ban gets hearing for first time this session
More:SC AG Alan Wilson asks court to reconsider abortion ruling
Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, D-Colleton, who voted against Hill's election, said that she was voting against the process.
"I believe that they should have at least given the women an opportunity to stay in the race," Bright Matthews said. "I think that there needs to be some reform around how the caucuses interview these judicial candidates."
"(All three candidates) are dear friends of mine," she said. "And I don't think that's fair to them."
Devyani Chhetri covers the South Carolina State House and is a watchdog SC government reporter. You can reach her at dchhetri@gannett.com or @ChhetriDevyani.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: SC to be only state in the US with no woman on Supreme Court
