by WILL FOLKS
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On the eve of South Carolina’s judicial elections, the race for the highest court in the Palmetto State was thrown into disarray when the incumbent – associate justice John Few – withdrew his name from consideration for another ten-year term on the bench.
That means the scandal-scarred S.C. Judicial Merit Selection Commission (SCJMSC) – the legislatively controlled panel which picks the judges who stand for legislative election – must reopen the nominating process for his seat and delay the election of a new justice until it has re-screened new candidates.
That process could take months…
“It has become clear to me over recent weeks that I do not – and will not – have the votes to be reelected to the Supreme Court of South Carolina,” Few wrote on his social media pages on Tuesday afternoon (March 3, 2026). “It is customary in judicial elections for the candidate who cannot win to withdraw from the race. Earlier this morning, I submitted my withdrawal letter to the Judicial Merit Selection Commission.”
Few’s term on the high court is set to expire on July 31, 2026. Had he won another term, he was in line to become the next chief justice of the Palmetto State.
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To recap: South Carolina is one of only two states in America in which legislators pick judges – and the only state in the nation where lawmakers control the nominating process preceding these legislative elections. This incestuous arrangement has led to rampant corruption – and prompted long-overdue calls to fix the system.
As we have previously reported, this election has capably demonstrated the dangers of giving one branch of government what amounts to unchecked control over another.
South Carolina lawmakers are livid with Few for forcing them to go back to the drawing board and rewrite a controversial abortion statute in 2023. While Few has been falsely accused of judicial activism on this issue, the truth is he faithfully interpreted the state constitution – which lawmakers reluctantly acknowledged when they passed a new abortion statute
“State lawmakers are eager to send Few – and all justices and judges who have the audacity to faithfully execute their oaths – a message that dissent of any kind will not be tolerated,” I noted recently.
“I accept this reality with only the most positive thoughts and feelings about what the future holds,” Few wrote. “I take pride in everything I have done over my 26 years of judicial service; no regrets. During the same time I have been coming to grips with the reality that I cannot win this race, my excitement over returning to the private sector has grown exponentially.”
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“There will be no soft landing for me,” Few concluded. “As I plan to return to the active practice of law with the same energy and enthusiasm that has defined my career as a judge and a justice.”
Until today’s decision by Few, the judicial election – scheduled for tomorrow (March 4, 2026) – was expected to be a coronation of former S.C. House of Representatives’ speaker Jay Lucas. Now, Lucas’ ascendency to the high court is a much less certain proposition.
The 68-year-old ex-legislative leader has virtually no judicial experience, is three years away from the court’s mandatory retirement age and recently experienced health issues that nearly forced him from the race.
Lucas’ presumed ascendency has also drawn rebukes from several key members of the S.C. General Assembly, eager to avoid upsetting their corrupt apple cart.
FITSNews hinted at the possibility Few might withdraw from the race over the weekend, quoting sources familiar with his thinking as saying he was “carefully weighing what is best for the judiciary as a whole, putting the long-term health and independence of the court above any personal consideration.”
According to the S.C. Code of Laws § 2-19-80(C), Few’s withdrawal means “the election for the office may not be held at (the) scheduled time.” Now the SCJMSC must “make other nominations for the office as though a new vacancy without an incumbent exists in that office, including reopening the application process with all required notices.”
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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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15 comments
Over the last 3 to 4 decades there has been a number of event SC Circuit Court judges and a few SC Family Court Judges who did not seem second terms.
One who did not like the the corruption at all. Another (a female from the upstate) who screamed from the bench, “ain’t no FBI agent knows the law” when told agents were prepared to arrest a female attorney, who was caught several times engaged in fabricated facts and outright lies, and her client based on her written threats to another lawyer.
It is imparative that the entire system be cleaned out of these scums and imprisoned. It is that bad, I tell you. And there are, in part, transcripts that galvanize the said.
Have the courage of a Lion. Surround yourselves with others on the same mission as you.
Over the last 3 to 4 decades there has been a number of even SC Circuit Court judges and a few SC Family Court Judges who did not seek second terms.
Ones who did not like the the corruption at all. Another (a female from the upstate) who screamed from the bench, “ain’t no FBI agent knows the law” when told agents were prepared to arrest a female attorney, who was caught several times engaged in fabricated facts, outright lies to judges, other lawyers, law enforcement, state agencies, etc,, and her client based on her written threats to another lawyer.
It is imperative that the entire system be cleaned out of these scums and imprisoned. It is that bad, I tell you. And there are, in part, transcripts that galvanize the said.
Have the courage of a Lion. Surround yourselves with others on the same mission as you.
Sooo, if I understand the rules correctly, there will be no election tomorrow. The process has to start all over again. Hope Few files and runs again.
This is unfortunate. I had a lot of respect for Few. Never afraid to speak his mind and be independent from outside considerations.
Mr. Doe – I agree. At least this re-sets the clock … whether that will result in a different set of nominees remains to be seen.
This withdrawal was one more act of cowardice, selfishness, and arrogance by John Canon Few and one more act of brutality and cruelty by William Folks, Jr. aka FITSNews.
The only thing that would have happened had Few stayed in the race is that the election would have proceeded as normal and the world would have seen how few, if any, votes Few would have gotten.
But no, no, no. Few’s arrogance had to destroy the temple on his competitors and himself and cost the tax payers a new election and the legislature time and effort to rescreen the same candidates.
Or maybe that is an evil plot to keep sabotaging the new election and extend his time on the bench beyond his elected term.
That last-minute withdrawal is one more reason Few should have been denied re-election anyway.
Go Chief Administrative Law Judge Ralph King Anderson, III, go. You have been robbed many times. Your turn has come. Make the rest of us disabled in body but not in mind proud. God speed and God bless.
And may Few Judge himself honestly before he stands before The Ultimate Judge of the Universe where no sleek lawyering works.
SubZero aka Dr. Faltas…you sure picked an accurate pseudonym. You never fail to demonstrate your ignorance in this forum. Drop your grudges against the legal profession and the American justice system that has defeated you time and time again, and maybe you’ll live the rest of your life as a happy individual, not a bitter old woman. You, too, will stand before “The Ultimate Judge of the Universe” one day. Remember that. Otherwise, GFY.
What Balaboosta said.
The Ultimate Judge of the Universe told us in the Bible, through the Epistle of St James, that (s)he who knows to do good and does not do it, to him/(her) that is a sin.
Would my silence about all the wrongful arrests/convictions around not be a sin?
The system even beat up on Jay Lucas and Tripp Anderson for daring to challenge Few. What great system is that?
SubZero, your narcissism is showing. Might want to tuck that back in. You’re no do-gooder, seeking to right what you perceive are wrongs in the universe. Far from it. Instead, you are nothing more than a bitter loser and serial litigator, cloaking yourself in self-righteousness and attempting to justify it by invoking the Word of God. Both are an abomination to God. I’ll repeat what I said earlier just in case it didn’t sink in the first time (not that I think it actually will): Drop your grudges against the legal profession and the American justice system that has defeated you time and time again, and maybe you’ll live the rest of your life as a happy individual, not a bitter old woman. You, too, will stand before “The Ultimate Judge of the Universe” one day. Remember that.
Balaboosta, the system has not “defeated [me] time and time again,” it has wronged me and oppressed me “time and time again.” Yet, I am neither “defeated” nor “bitter.” I am proud and loving of my neighbor and my enemy as myself, sometimes even more.
You may want to know, just for example, that in two different cases where two different men who are very different from me ethnically and religiously got their convictions, thank God, vacated after my efforts to file amici supporting them brought their cases to the attention of different judges.
Otherwise, in my great Coptic Orthodox culture, we honor and respect older people, we do not insult them just because we can.
Finally, and I will not engage in more debates with you, I ask you to leave what is between God me exactly there.
So the corrupt JMSC has run off a great judge. Lucas has no business being on the Supreme Court. Why does everyone sit back and let it happen? Are there not more than a few legislators who are honest and will stand up to this insanity?
It’s one hell of a slap in the face to have served on the bench for 24 years, the last 10 of which were on the higher courts, holding broad respect from the Bar, and then the legislature does this to put Lucas on the bench. This stinks to high heaven. Glad Few opted out to force this to open back up.
First, shed no tears for John Cannon Few. If anything, he often said, even long before being denied re-election, that he misses private practice and is “a trial lawyer at heart.” Nor did he hold “broad respect from the Bar.” If you read his screening carefully, many members of the bar compared anonymously about his uneven temperament and contempt for some lawyers and colleagues. He is in for a rude awakening though when he sees how far those who fawned over him when he was in power will turn on him when he leaves the bench. They did that to Jurists Manning and Beatty and even Clifton Newman; did they not?
I am still curious why is Jay Lucas treated as a villain after having given 24 years of his life to serve in South Carolina’s House of Representatives, and at a salary of 1/20 of what John Cannon Few was drawing at the same time.
I loathe hypocrisy as much as I loathe the herd mentality of ganging up on an innocent just to join the attackers.
God bless nonetheless.
Few & Co.’s hypocrisy is evident in the ramp-to-nowhere at the front of South Carolina’s supreme court building, now and apparently hurriedly, placed there before the 11 February 2026 Murdaugh oral arguments.
In prior comments on this media outlet, I noted how Kittredge had forced his new clerk, Pat Howard, to send me a letter LYING about an ADA-compliant ramp being built in 2023 at the front of the building when there was, and there still is, a perfectly good ramp in the back of the building only the Court does not want the great unwashed public to use it.
2023 no new ramp.
2024 no new ramp.
2025 no new ramp.
2026 a new ram to nowhere pops up for the photo ops.
It has too steep a slope and no adjacent handicapped public parking spot.
For a wheel-chair bound litigant/visitor to SC’s supreme court building to use that new-found ramp, (s)he had to be dropped on it from a helicopter.
And then the wheel-chair would tumble back from the steep slope.
Quite possibly that unnecessary and non-functional ramp cost tax-payers more than the legislature pay raise SC’s supreme court struck down and is now playing victimhood and martyrdom for having done so.