The Senate Judiciary Committee has suspended all further screenings for judges, pending a South Carolina Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the Judicial Merit Selection Commission.
Committee chairman Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, said Thursday the Legislature may not be able to begin electing judges again until next year.
A lawsuit filed by a Mount Pleasant Family Court judge now has supporters joining the action, McConnell said. The lawsuit claims the makeup of the 10-member Judicial Merit Selection Commission violates the intent of the constitutional amendment that created the commission.
Six of the commission's 10 members must be sitting lawmakers rather than independent reviewers, under the state's Constitution.
The merit selection commission determines which applicants are qualified to run for judgeships.
"The problem we've got is that we've got elections under way, and the process by which these people have been nominated is tainted by the constitutional question," McConnell said.
"And if the process is wrong, then these nominations we're going to vote on is probably wrong."
The Legislature is set to vote on judgeships Feb. 3.
Some applicants, such as Mount Pleasant Family Court Judge Frances Segars-Andrews, were eliminated by the commission, McConnell noted, and denied the opportunity to run.
McConnell said the Judiciary Committee has answered the lawsuit and is asking the Supreme Court to expedite a hearing and decision on the suit.
"If the commission is improperly constituted, then we need to go back to square one, figure out what we're going to do with the commission, how we're going to constitute it, then go back and renominate," McConnell said.
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