SC Supreme Court Clears Nikki Haley

The S.C. Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court ruling that paved the way for a legislative whitewash of serious ethics charges against S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley – effectively ending the case against the Palmetto State’s corrupt chief executive.

This week, the court unanimously upheld the lower court’s decision to throw the Haley case to the notoriously corrupt S.C. House ethics committee – which conducted a show trial last summer that “vindicated” Haley. According to the Supreme Court, the results of the legislature’s sham hearing will stand.

“The South Carolina Constitution and this Court have expressly recognized and respected the Legislature’s authority over the conduct of its own members,” S.C. chief justice Jean Toal wrote in issuing the court’s majority opinion, adding that “ethics investigations concerning members and staff of the Legislature are intended to be solely within the Legislature’s purview.”

Haley was accused of multiple abuses of power during her six years as a member of the S.C. House of Representatives from 2005-2011. Specifically, she was accused of illegally lobbying on behalf of Lexington Medical Center, her former employer from 2008-10. She was also been accused of illegally lobbying on behalf of Wilbur Smith Associates – an engineering firm with extensive business before the state – and failing to report $42,500 in income received from the company between 2007-09.

The governor has repeatedly denied all allegations of wrongdoing – although in this case there was at least one smoking gun attesting to her guilt.

Despite the abundance of evidence against Haley, the ethics committee nonetheless voted last June to dismiss all of the charges against her. This decision was based exclusively on testimony from the governor and sympathetic witnesses – and was reached without a public examination of the evidence (including evidence sought by the committee).

Haley’s accuser John Rainey, a prominent GOP fundraiser, was never allowed to present his case to the committee. Instead he was sequestered in a private room – unable to even listen as the governor called him a racist for daring to raise questions about her transparent lawlessness.

Not only that, Haley repeatedly threatened the “Republicans” charged with investigating her crimes with political retribution if they went against her.

Here’s the thing about this ruling, though: As much as we can’t stand the S.C. Supreme Court – and its frequent tolerance of corruption – the justices had very little latitude to decide this case any differently than they did. Until state lawmakers abolish their corrupt self-policing practice, this “fox guards henhouse” arrangement is state law – making it very hard for the courts to overturn legislative decisions.

In fact, one of the main reasons this website blasted a recently defeated ethics bill was its failure to abolish these corrupt “cover-up” committees.

Until a clear and unambiguous line of accountability for lawlessness on the part of public officials is established and enforced, South Carolina’s elected officials will continue to engage in widespread corruption – and continue to get away with it like Haley did.

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