SC to release judicial complaint details, not judge names

Listen to this article

Some previously secret details in complaints against South Carolina judges will be made public for the first time, but the jurists’ names will not be among them, The State newspaper of Columbia reported.

The information will be in the form of summaries, and it will include the action taken against the judges, the South Carolina Supreme Court ordered Wednesday.

“We believe there is a need to better balance the existing rules of confidentiality in judicial disciplinary matters, with the right of the public to know how cases are being resolved,” the state’s five justices wrote in their order, per The State’s report. “Such knowledge and understanding are critical to ensure the public has confidence that ‘an independent, fair and competent judiciary will interpret and apply the laws that govern us.’”

Jay Bender, the attorney for the South Carolina Press Association and The State, praised the ruling.

“The Supreme Court has moved dramatically in the right direction here,” he said in the newspaper’s story. Secrecy surrounding judicial discipline “has eroded public confidence in the process.”

“It’s an effort to balance those circumstances where there’s legitimate need for confidentiality — you don’t want to besmirch someone’s reputation where the complaint is dismissed because it’s from a nut case,” he said.

The court’s order requires the Council for the Commission on Judicial Conduct to submit quarterly reports on judicial discipline beginning not later than Nov. 1. That initial report will contain complaints filed after July 1.