Rom Reddy Takes On The Bureaucratic State

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

South Carolina’s bureaucratic state – and its eco-radical enablers and mainstream media mouthpieces – appear to have bitten off more of Rom Reddy than they can chew.

In what can only be described as a masterclass in citizen advocacy, Reddy – an Isle of Palms, S.C. businessman – took a bold stand for private property rights and individual liberty by representing himself in front of the S.C. Administrative Law Court (SCALC) this week.

Armed with boxes of documents, legal pads full of pointed interrogatories and an indomitable will to preserve private property rights in the Palmetto State, Reddy gave a passionate opening statement in defense of the freedom of all South Carolinians.

“What they are doing is a descent into total tyranny,” Reddy told the court, describing himself as a citizen “arrayed against the police powers of the state.”

***

The founder of the DOGE SC movement is embroiled in an ongoing dispute with the S.C. Department of Environmental Services (SCDES) over a sea wall he erected to protect his home on the Isle of Palms, a barrier island located approximately nine miles east of Charleston, S.C.

According to SCDES bureaucrats, Reddy’s wall has run afoul of a state law governing beach management. During her opening statement, SCDES attorney Sallie Phelen claimed Reddy and his wife – Renee Reddy – had demonstrated a “total disregard for the law” as well as a “willful disregard” for the authority of SCDES to enforce that law.

Phelen went on to accuse the Reddys of “covering up what they were doing.”

Reddy fired back that he and his wife were being treated like criminals who had “committed a lot of wrongdoings.”

“She makes it sound like a conspiracy,” he said. “This is crazy what these people are doing. They are targeting me – they are going after me. They don’t like me because of DOGE SC – of which I am the founder.”

***

***

Phelen was part of a phalanx of taxpayer-funded attorneys, lobbyists and bureaucrats who packed into judge Ralph K. Anderson III‘s courtroom this week for the first day of a weeklong hearing into the dispute. Also appearing on behalf of the state were attorneys representing the left-leaning S.C. Coastal Conservation League (SCCCL), which Reddy repeatedly blasted as a “taxpayer-funded charity” that should have no standing in the matter.

“They have taken over the agenda of this entity,” Reddy said of SCCCL. “My lawyer should have never allowed them in here.”

That certainly seems to be the case. On several occasions during the first day of the trial, SCDES attorneys appeared to seek consent from lawyers retained by SCCCL prior to responding to questions from the judge.

“We are here to ensure that the record is clear – protecting the beach is for everyone,” attorney Leslie Lenhardt of the S.C. Environmental Law Project noted, asking judge Anderson to “affirm the agency’s decision” to take Reddy’s property without compensation and fine him hundreds of thousands of dollars for building the wall.

Last Friday, Reddy fired his lawyers and announced his intention to represent himself at the hearing.

“The new standards being used to grab personal property have never been used before in the history of this state and the average citizen cannot defend themselves against their government,” Reddy said at the time. “This is tyranny plain and simple.”

During his first-ever court appearance, Reddy exposed that tyranny – demonstrating a nimble command of the Palmetto State’s coastal tidelands and wetlands laws (S.C. Code § 48-39-10, et al.) in the process.

“I understand a little bit more than a bunch of unelected bureaucrats about laws,” Reddy said during his opening statement.

***

RELATED | DOGE SC ENTERS LAWSUIT REFORM BATTLE

***

Over the next few hours, Reddy proved as much – grilling multiple bureaucrats over inconsistencies in SCDES’ interpretation of those coastal tidelands laws as well as their own statements related to how they applied to his case.

“You cannot come up with your own defined term,” Reddy said, referring to the agency’s attempt to justify its taking of his property.

Failure to correctly and uniformly apply the law as written will “result in the greatest confiscation of private property ever seen in this state,” Reddy said. It would also grant “unlimited jurisdiction” to the state in property matters.

In a cross-examination that would have made F. Lee Bailey proud, Reddy challenged measurements used by the agency to claim more than 12,000 square feet of his property for the state – without compensation. Pressed at one point by judge Anderson to phrase his remarks in the form of a question for the witness, Reddy uncorked a gem.

“Can I have back my 12,050 square feet?” he asked the bureaucrat.

In addition to his deft command of the law, Reddy repeatedly schooled SCDES and SCCCL attorneys when they attempted to object to his lines of inquiry. In one particularly entertaining exchange, Reddy continued to argue his point even after judge Anderson had ruled in his favor.

“You’ve won,” Anderson advised Reddy. “The only thing you can do now is mess it up.”

In another light-hearted moment, Reddy asked Anderson whether it was permissible for him “to take advice from my wife.”

“That would be wise,” the judge responded.

***

***

Reddy’s case is simple and straightforward: state bureaucrats – using shifting definitions, inconsistent application and discriminatory enforcement – are depriving him of his property without compensation. They are also fining him disproportionately despite having failed to prove how he has violated the law. Worst of all, they are attempting to foist a new regulatory regime upon property owners – one in which the state can use the immediate aftermath of a storm to stake new claims on private property up and down the South Carolina coast.

“Do I have to give up my property for free every time there is erosion?” Reddy asked the judge at one point. “Under the constitution, you’re supposed to buy it, not grab it.”

“Rom Reddy proved the bureaucrat-regulatory complex – and its eco-radical puppeteers – aren’t nearly as smart as they thought they were,” a statement from DOGE SC noted. “His impassioned advocacy against tyranny repeatedly exposed outright lies and double standards invoked by South Carolina’s government with the goal of depriving Palmetto State citizens of their property, stealing their money and depriving them of their freedoms. One citizen took a courageous stand in this case against a roomful of taxpayer-funded lawyers and lobbyists – letting them know a line has been drawn in the sand.”

“Make no mistake, Rom Reddy has just begun his fight to protect our God-given freedoms – and DOGESC is just beginning its fight to dismantle the corrupt bureaucrat-regulatory complex,” the statement concluded.

Count on FITSNews to keep tabs on this trial over the next few days and report back to our audience as to whether it is resolved in Reddy’s – or the state’s – favor.

***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

***

WANNA SOUND OFF?

Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.