Chief Justice Pleicones urges judicial independence, higher judges’ salaries

In his first and only speech to the S.C. General Assembly, Supreme Court Chief Justice Costa Pleicones urged lawmakers to respect the independence of the judicial branch of government and to avoid trying to give potential judges litmus tests to try to predict how they will vote.

The judiciary is “the least powerful” and “most vulnerable” branch of government, Pleicones said on Wednesday in his noon State of the Judiciary address.

“The only thing that legitimates the power of the judiciary is its credibility,” Pleicones said.

Pleicones also urged lawmakers to select only the best-qualified people as judges and avoid trying to elect those “who may simply pass an ideological purity test.”

South Carolina is one of two states whose General Assemblies elect judges and justices of the state Supreme Court.

Sitting in the audience were Associate Justices Don Beatty and John Kittredge, both of whom have signaled their intention to run for the chief justice post.

Although Pleicones told reporters after his speech that his remarks about the judiciary’s independence were meant in a general sense, they were made against a backdrop in the General Assembly whereby various prominent lawmakers in recent months have sharply criticized the Supreme Court. In their comments, some lawmakers have alleged some justices on the court have sometimes “created the law” rather than interpreted it.

Those lawmakers have indicated they want future justices to better reflect the political thinking of the General Assembly.

Pleicones, who turns 72 next week, will retire in December after being chief only a year because state law mandates his retirement.

Pleicones also urged lawmakers to consider hiking the salaries of the state’s 114 justices and circuit and family court judges.

“While no one believes that judicial pay should be on par with the compensation earned by private practitioners, it should be sufficient to encourage an experienced, civil-minded practitioner to opt for public service,” Pleicones said. “The competence level engendered by fair compensation will lift the confidence in our court system in both the loftiest industrial giants and that of the ordinary citizens.”

After his speech, Pleicones cited a national study that recommends higher salaries for justices and judges. An across-the-board pay hike would add about $5.3 million to the judiciary department’s $62 million annual budget, he said.

In other matters, Pleicones:

▪ Announced the convening of a human trafficking summit in August 2016 for judges, prosecutors, social workers and others.

▪ Said the state is making considerable progress in the roll-out of the e-filing of court documents in various counties. So far, Clarendon, Lee, Sumter and Williamsburg have come on line. In March, e-filing in the populous Greenville County is set to begin. It will still take years to expand it statewide.

▪ Urged lawmakers to keep the current system of electing justices and judges by the General Assembly.

“One of the primary virtues of our system is the absence of the influence on money, and the unseemly media campaigns that attend popular election of judges,” Pleicones said. Popular judicial elections could “poison the process,” he said.

After the 27-minute speech, Associate Justice Kaye Hearn said, “I was proud of him.”

Pleicones did a good job talking about judicial department issues, Hearn said, “and also in reiterating the importance of judicial independence in our three systems of government.”

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 6:19 PM with the headline "Chief Justice Pleicones urges judicial independence, higher judges’ salaries."