SC Freedom Caucus

On this episode of the South Carolina Lede for December 14, 2024: we look at why the federal government is suing South Carolina; reporter Maayan Schechter tells us of two South Carolinians among the 39 folks Biden pardoned along with nearly 1,500 people prison sentence commutations; Senate Republicans are going all-gas-no-brakes on a third attempt at a school voucher bill; and more!

Sumter Republican Murrell Smith was reelected Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024, to serve his second two-year term as speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives.

The South Carolina 2025 legislative session starts Jan. 14, 2025.

The South Carolina House ground to a halt at times Wednesday on its next-to-the-last day as members fought over rules and traded thinly veiled insults.

House Ethics Committee Chairman Jay Jordan said that in light of the court ruling, so-called special interest caucuses can now operate similar to traditional caucuses.

A federal judge in South Carolina has reiterated her June ruling that laws governing the organizing, fundraising and election activities of caucuses must apply to all legislative caucuses.

Even though the General Assembly isn’t in session this summer the Republican controlled House of Representatives finds itself in turmoil following a recent federal court ruling which may have un-intentionally blown a hole in the state ethics act.

A federal judge has ruled that South Carolina legislative special interest caucuses can formally campaign. It's a victory for a hardline conservative group of state representatives that want to push the Republican-controlled Legislature further to the right. The Tuesday order allows the South Carolina Freedom Caucus to fundraise and distribute election materials. The fledgling ultraconservative group of lawmakers had argued that a state ethics law limiting those abilities only to caucuses organized by political party, race, ethnicity or gender violated its freedom of speech.

South Carolina legislative special interest caucuses can formally campaign, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in a victory for a hardline conservative group of state representatives that want to push the Republican-controlled Legislature further to the right.

Republicans have controlled the South Carolina House of Representatives for almost thirty years. Following last November’s election, they achieved a super-majority with 88 of the 124 house seats held by Republicans. Ever since last year’s Republican Primaries a deep rift has been developing between members of the Freedom Caucus and many members of the mainline Republican Caucus leading to most Freedom Caucus members refusing to agree to sign-on to a set of G-O-P rules that they feel is aimed at muzzling them.