Lucas wants SC Supreme Court seat until age 80; Few defends abortion opinions
Former S.C. House Speaker Jay Lucas, vying for a seat on the S.C. Supreme Court, astonished some members of the commission that screens justice candidates by telling them Monday that if elected, he intends to serve until he is 80 years old.
“Please accept my sense of being dumbfounded and surprised as genuine because that was not known by me,” said veteran state Sen. Luke Rankin, R-Horry, who like several others on the commission appeared flabbergasted by Lucas’s assertion that he would serve on the Supreme Court eight years past what is widely believed to be the state’s mandatory retirement age of 72 for judges and justices.
Lucas is 69, but — with a full head of dark brown hair and not a trace of gray — looks much younger. A former speaker of the S.C. House, he stepped down from the role in 2022.
Virtually all justices and judges in South Carolina retire in the year they turn 72. Moreover, a 2022 state Attorney General’s opinion to former state Sen. Katrina Shealy says that under state law, judges must retire in the year they turn 72.
But Lucas on Monday told members of the Judicial Merit Selection Commission that law won’t apply to him because it only applies to retiring judges and justices who draw pensions, and he doesn’t intend to draw a pension.
Unlike most judicial candidates, Lucas has scant judicial experience, once serving as a magistrate in a small town at the beginning of his legal career. But, he told commission members, he brings a lifetime of rich and varied experience as a lawyer and a leading member of the S.C. House. And according to filings with the commission, he is regarded as having a brilliant legal mind.
“A great deal of support that I have is amongst people in the bar, people who want someone on the bench who understands what it is like to be a lawyer,” Lucas said.
Lucas also stressed the normal way of ascending to the state’s highest court — by prior service as a judge — doesn’t apply to him. Not having been a state judge in a trial or appeals courts will actually help him be a better justice, he said. “I don’t think the Supreme Court is a court of elevation. I think it should embrace judgment, embrace wisdom, embrace the entirety of things you learn in a legal career.”
After resigning as House speaker, Lucas became senior vice president for governmental affairs at Prisma Health, a multibillion dollar hospital system in South Carolina with major health complexes in Columbia and Greenville. In that position, he supervised a team of lobbyists, Lucas told commission members, but did not directly influence which lawmakers received contributions from Prisma Health’s PAC.
Lucas refused to answer questions from reporters after his session before the commission.
Sitting justice defends abortion rulings
In another high-profile appearance before the commission, Supreme Court Associate Justice John Few on Monday defended one ruling initially striking down a six-week abortion law as he seeks for reelection to the South Carolina’s highest court.
In addition to Lucas, Few faces two other challengers for his post, including one person with close ties to the body that will make the final vote on who gets the next 10-year term on the bench. The election by the General Assembly is scheduled for March.
Few’s 10-year term is expiring. Normally, justices whose terms are expiring don’t have challengers and are re-elected by the General Assembly without opposition.
The last time a sitting state Supreme Court justice was challenged for reelection was Justice Jean Toal in the fall of 2013. Toal successfully held on to her chief justice’s post by beating Associate Justice Costa Pleicones.
Also challenging Few are Administrative Law Judge Ralph Anderson and Appeals Court Judge Blake Hewitt.
Few, Hewitt, Anderson and Lucas all appeared before the 12-member commission on Monday..
The challenges to Few come nearly three years after he was one of three justices who struck down a six-week abortion ban in the state. The General Assembly later tweaked the law, and replaced the only woman at the time on the bench with a man.
In August 2023, the court upheld a new six-week abortion ban with Few voting to rule it constitutional.
Since Few joined the state Supreme Court in 2016, eight decisions dealing with constitutionality of a statute were not unanimous. He voted to strike down a statute just once, the first ruling on the state’s six-week abortion law.
“That actually shows, I think, a great deal of restraint,” Few told the Commission, which is screening dozens of candidates this week for judge positions.
Few said the General Assembly only provided one policy goal in the 2021 law that was struck down. In the 2023 act, lawmakers included several more.
“I wrote about them in my initial opinion. And that’s the reason that my two opinions are so long is because I wanted to articulate why it is that I can differentiate my vote in case number one and case number two,” Few said. “What the legislature says about its goals and why it’s trying to achieve this goal is important.”
Being elected associate justice comes with a salary of $233,606 a year.
South Carolina is one of two states that has its Legislature elect judges.
Under a change approved last year, up to six hopefuls for the position can be advanced to the full General Assembly to see who has support from the most lawmakers. The JMSC also is now comprised of 12 members. Four appointed by the governor, four appointed by the House speaker, two appointed by the Senate president, and two appointed by the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman. The members are a mixture of members of the bar and legislators.
Few acknowledged the question of judicial independence has arisen amid his re-election bid.
“There’s no there is no outside influence, none that could change the way I look at a case, I think I’ve demonstrated that over through my career,” Few said.
State Sen. Luke Rankin, R-Horry, who is the vice chairman of the JMSC and serves as the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, said Few’s recent decisions is playing a role in his re-election.
“Without a doubt, the most recent decisions that you have been a majority vote in have created some political consternation for you,” Rankin said.
This story was originally published November 17, 2025 at 2:21 PM.
