By admin 
Four judges have publicly acknowledged they will run for the prized vacant associate justice seat on the five-member S.C. Supreme Court.
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The application process — handled by the Judicial Merit Selection Commission — opened July 20 and will close at noon Monday, Aug. 24.
The term is for 10 years and the associate justice pay is $233,606.
So far, those who seeking the seat are Court of Appeals judges Blake Hewitt of Conway and John Geathers of the Blythewood area; Administrative Law Court Chief Judge Ralph King “Tripp” Anderson III of Columbia; and Eighth Circuit Court Judge Eugene “Bubba” Griffith of Newberry.
One person whose name is not on the list is that of attorney and former S.C. House Speaker Jay Lucas, who ran last year against incumbent Supreme Court Associate Justice John Few.
Unlike nearly all other candidates for a justice’s post over the years, Lucas is not a judge. His political ties, however, were enough to assure him support in the 124-member S.C. House of Representatives and enough votes in the 46-member state Senate to force other candidates in the race to drop out. In South Carolina, whoever wins a majority of the 170 state lawmakers prevails.
The last candidate to drop out before the March 4 election was Few, whose term expired July 31.
Few withdrew from the race March 3, one day before the election. That triggered a rarely used judicial selection rule that required the election for the justice’s position to be called off and a new monthslong selection process to begin.
Although Lucas and his political allies had succeeded when Few dropped out of the race, leaving only Lucas as a candidate, Lucas failed to win a seat because Few’s action cancelledd the election.
Lucas did not respond to requests for comment about his intentions to run again Friday.
Lucas campaigned out of sight of reporters, preferring to hold private meetings with lawmakers in their offices. Lucas repeatedly ignored requests for comment by reporters.
On Feb. 18 Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, took to the Senate floor and said Lucas lacks judicial experience, saying that putting him on the Supreme Court would “soil” the state’s judiciary.
“It looks like backroom deals are being made for someone who is not as qualified for or deserving of the position. It looks like the legislators are cooking the books,” Massey told his fellow senators.
Sen. Luke Rankin, R-Horry, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and whose father was a judge, said in a public filing with the Judicial Merit Selection Commission that electing the judicially inexperienced Lucas to the Supreme Court would cause some to believe that Lucas’ ascension was “driven by legislative influence.”
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Earlier, Rankin noted when Lucas told members of the Judicial Merit Selection Commission that he would refuse to abide by long-established law and precedent that 72 is the mandatory retirement age for judges and justices.
Instead, Lucas told the Judicial Merit Selection Commission last November he would stay at the Supreme Court until he turned 80.
“Please accept my sense of being dumbfounded and surprised as genuine because that was not known by me,” said Rankin at the time.
Lucas’ defenders answered the criticism by praising his common sense and smarts, saying he would bring fresh perspectives to the high court.
“Jay Lucas is the most proven, conservative voice for the bench at a time when our state needs rock-solid constitutionalists who will uphold the rule of law. I know his heart, I know his mind, and I’ve witnessed him work through our state’s most complex legal challenges. I’m proud to support him,” said House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter at the time.
Not many jurists have the experience of Few, who climbed the judicial ladder, first spending 10 years as a circuit court trial judge, followed six years as chief judge on the Court of Appeals and the last 10 years as a Supreme Court associate justice.
Few’s opinions in recent years in an abortion case and a legislative pay case left him vulnerable to a challenge, some lawmakers said. In the abortion case, Few first ruled in a 3-2 majority decision to overturn a new state abortion law, angering right-to-life lawmakers who make up a substantial legislative voting bloc.
Few later approved an overhauled abortion law. Few’s other purported transgression was to join a unanimous opinion in November that said lawmakers could not vote themselves a pay raise in an ongoing legislative session.
Lucas, who became speaker in 2014 and retired from the House in 2022, was making his first run for any type of state judgeship in his quest for a seat on the state’s top court. Ordinarily, judicial candidates must “get in line” and make several runs at the coveted seat.
During the past five years, Lucas has practiced law only part time and been a senior executive vice president for governmental affairs at health giant Prisma Health from October 2022 through October 2024, he told the Joint Merit Selection Commission.
Few, 63, because he was the second-ranking justice on the high court in terms of seniority, was next in line to succeed Chief Justice John Kittredge, 69, when Kittredge retires in a few years.
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