DOGE SC Poised To Unveil ‘Major’ Judicial Reform Bill

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by WILL FOLKS

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South Carolina’s pro-citizen DOGE SC movement is poised to unveil a major judicial reform bill next week, sources familiar with the proposal’s rollout have confirmed to FITSNews.

Specifics of the proposed legislation were not immediately available, but this key plank of DOGE SC’s “Palmetto Revolution” agenda will reportedly involve a comprehensive overhaul of the scandal-scarred S.C. Judicial Merit Selection Commission (JMSC).

Also, the proposed JMSC overhaul is reportedly backed by leaders of several warring factions within the consistently cantankerous S.C. General Assembly… leaders who have decided to unite (on this issue, anyway) under a reform banner unfurled by Rom Reddy, the Isle of Palms, S.C. businessman who founded DOGE SC.

“The founders built three co-equal branches of government to keep the citizens strong,” Reddy said earlier this week. “In South Carolina, the legislature runs all three. Judges depend on lawmakers for their jobs and the people pay the price. The Palmetto Revolution will change that.”

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The JMSC is an incestuous panel currently controlled by powerful lawyer-legislators. It screens judicial candidates – and determines which ones advance to a vote by the whole General Assembly.

South Carolina is one of only two states in America (Virginia is the other) in which the legislative branch elects judges – a notoriously corrupt process which has imperiled individual liberties, eroded public safety, re-victimized victims, decimated judicial independence and destroyed public faith in the integrity of our court system.

Prosecutors and crime victims have been battling for years to change this corrupt system… but lawmakers have refused to heed those calls (with horrifying consequences).

Last year, governor Henry McMaster signed legislation making modest tweaks to the JMSC – but that bill (Act 219 of 2024) fell well short of anything resembling real reform. McMaster urged lawmakers to send him a stronger bill this year – but they failed to do so.

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Will the bill advanced by Reddy’s movement provide the more muscular reform McMaster and others have been calling for?

Sources familiar with the DOGE SC proposal say it goes “dramatically” further than the 2024 bill – and has already drawn the support of key leaders in both the ruling SCGOP legislative majority and the S.C. Freedom Caucus.

FITSNews has previously endorsed sweeping judicial reform – although our ideal proposal would require an amendment to the S.C. Constitution to take effect. According to our sources, DOGE SC’s proposal would not require a constitutional amendment – meaning lawmakers could pass it with a simple majority of both chambers during the 2026 session.

Count on FITSNews to keep our audience apprised as DOGE SC and its legislative allies announce their proposal next week…

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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.

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