State’s highest court to see contested election
State Supreme Court Associate Justice Costa Pleicones will vie for the top spot on the court, facing off against current Chief Justice Jean Toal in what is usually an uncontested race, The State reported.
The state Supreme Court is elected by the state legislature, and two Richland County state representatives have received letters from both justices announcing intentions to run for chief justice.
Toal, 69, had previously discussed retirement before announcing she’d run for re-election. If she wins another term, she’d be chief justice for another 10 years, putting her close to 80 at the end of the term.
Pleicones has been on the Supreme Court since 2000 when he replaced Toal, who moved from associate justice to chief justice.
The South Carolina Supreme Court is one of two state supreme courts in the nation in which its justices are elected by legislators.
— Amanda Coyne, Editor-in-Chief
Gun manufacturer relocates to Aynor
In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and stricter gun laws, a Connecticut gun maker has moved south, settling in Aynor, S.C., the Associated Press reported.
PTR Industries will bring 100 jobs to the Horry County town of 650 when it opens its doors, which they hope will be by the end of the year.
After Connecticut passed laws that made all of the company’s rifles illegal in response to the shooting that killed 20 children and six adults, PTR Industries’ CEO and co-owner Josh Fiorini chose to move his business and picked South Carolina after being courted by 40 states.
Fiorini chose South Carolina after meeting with state Rep. Alan Clemmons, R-Horry, and the wife of U.S. Rep. Tom Rice, R-S.C.
Clemmons was on hand, as was Gov. Nikki Haley, for the announcement Monday.
— Amanda Coyne, Editor-in-Chief
Supreme Court rules in ‘Baby Veronica’ case
A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a 3-year-old Native American girl does not have to be given back to her biological father, but also does not give her adoptive parents, a James Island, S.C. couple, the right to regain immediate custody, The State reported.
In order to determine a final home for the adopted girl, Veronica, the court voted 5-4 to send the case back to South Carolina.
Originally, South Carolina courts said that the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which prevents Native American children from being taken from their home and placed with non-Native Americans, favored the child being placed with her biological father. However, after an appeal from the adoptive parents who have had the child for 27 months in South Carolina, the courts reconsidered.
The girl has now been living with her father for 18 months.
— Priyanka Juneja, News Editor