A History Of The Court

The Supreme Court of South Carolina

A History of the Court

The Supreme Court of South Carolina is the highest court in the state. It is composed of a Chief Justice and four Associate Justices. The Court has original jurisdiction over certain matters, including cases involving the constitutionality of state laws and cases involving the death penalty. The Court also has appellate jurisdiction over cases from the lower state courts. The Supreme Court was created by the South Carolina Constitution of 1868. The first Chief Justice was Franklin J. Moses, Jr. The current Chief Justice is Donald W. Beatty. The Supreme Court has played a significant role in South Carolina history. In 1895, the Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that the "separate but equal" doctrine was constitutional. This ruling upheld the segregation of public facilities in the United States. The Court reversed its ruling in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

Chief Justices of the State of South Carolina

| Name | Term | |---|---| | Franklin J. Moses, Jr. | 1868-1877 | | William D. Simpson | 1877-1883 | | Henry McIver | 1883-1893 | | Y.J. Pope | 1893-1905 | | Eugene B. Gary | 1905-1925 | | R.C. Watts | 1925-1941 | | J. Henry Johnson | 1941-1946 | | Claude A. Taylor | 1947-1953 | | G. Dewey Oxner | 1953-1958 | | Joseph R. Moss | 1959-1968 | | James B. Edwards | 1969-1974 | | Alfred G. Burger | 1974-1985 | | Julius B. Ness | 1985-1992 | | Ernest A. Finney, Jr. | 1992-2000 | | Jean H. Toal | 2000-2015 | | Donald W. Beatty | 2015-present |