The election this week of State Court of Appeals Judge Don Beatty of Spartanburg to the South Carolina Supreme Court illustrates the power structure at work in South Carolina. Beatty becomes the second African American to serve on the South Carolina Supreme Court since Reconstruction. The Greenville News called his election “the most contentious judicial contest in memory.” Judge Beatty said he felt, “vindicated” after his election by a vote of 84 votes to 54 votes for Court of Appeals Judge Bruce Williams of Columbia and 25 votes for Kaye Hearn, the chief judge of the Court of Appeals. Another outstanding Upstate judicial candidate did not win legislative approval, Family Court Judge Aphrodite Konduros of Greenville, lost 81 to 79 to Circuit Judge Daniel Pieper of North Charleston for a seat on the Court of Appeals. Keep your eye on Judge Konduros or as I like to call her Mighty Aphrododite…you’ll be seeing her again, she’s smart, she’s fair and she’s an up and comer! We haven’t seen the last of her for sure.

The divisive, nasty battle over Judge Beatty’s election to South Carolina’s highest court illustrates the good ole boy’s lock on power and how pissed off the power brokers get when anyone who isn’t white and male attempts to intrude on their turf. Their cover up is always that the intruders are too “liberal” but you’ll notice that the liberals are also usually disguised as female and of another color other than Caucasian. That apparently was the bone of contention that the legislature had against Judge Beatty, he was deemed ‘too radical.’ Things got especially nasty when outside agitators got involved in the race. Conservative groups including; The S.C. Civil Justice Coalition, a business backed group pushing for tort reform and workers comp changes reportedly sent legislators a review of the judicial candidates. The Palmetto Family Alliance (that allegedly defends and strengthens so called family values) attacked two of the candidates on their views on abortion and judicial activism. (Funny how it’s perfectly alright for judges to be ‘activists’ so long as they are supporting the politically correct view points.) The S.C. Business and Industry Political Education Committee weighed in on the candidates pro-business views. By far the most vitriolic views expressed came from Randy Page, president of South Carolinians for Responsible Government, Randy was mighty pissed off by the eventual election of Judge Beatty. Mr. Page apparently felt betrayed by his so-called conservative brethren, “It’s disappointing and discouraging that our elected officials have decided to disregard these facts and elect somebody who clearly does not represent the values of mainstream South Carolina families.”

I did my best to research Judge Beatty and from what I could come up with he looks pretty main stream to me. He’s married, has three children, served in the U.S. Army, graduated from SC State University, USC Law School and served on Spartanburg City Council. He’s a family man, apparently a church going man and to my great dismay while serving as a Democratic state lawmaker from 1991 to 95, persuaded the Legislative Black Caucus to join Republicans to pass a redistricting plan that gave the GOP control of the SC House. It’s hard to discern what makes Judge Beatty appear such a hard core liberal to Randy Page and these other groups.

What I take great offense to is the efforts of these conservative groups to control our courts and our legislators and to mandate that all of our elected officials be cut from the same conservative cloth. I’ve got news for you…South Carolina is a diverse state. The mainstream isn’t all white, conservative males. We are a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-gendered state you just can’t tell by looking out over the body of our State House and Senate or by looking at the faces of our judges. Judge Beatty will be the only face with color on the bench on the high court and he was the only African American on the nine-member Court of Appeals.

Nearly every person who has any sense would agree that South Carolina desperately needs more diversity in its elected officials and in its court rooms. The Republican Party is so drunk with power that they feel righteous indignation when anyone tries to assume any position of power at all. It’s completely out of control. I’m sick and tired of this righteous bull shit about mainstream South Carolinians and who speaks for them. If this were a truly democratic state, we wouldn’t be last in the nation in terms of female elected representatives.

Thank God Judge Beatty fought the good fight. Because the courtroom isn’t the place for ideologues or politics. It’s a place for good men and women who know the law and who are fair minded individuals who have proven that they have no agenda other than to mete out justice fairly to all. Thank heavens good in this case did prevail.