Category: Legislation

H.4417 would direct the state Department of Transportation to build a pedestrian overpass in Charleston. This is wasteful meddling in DOT affairs. Legislators already effectively control DOT leadership through the nomination…

H.4577 would require that all revenue from aircraft property taxes paid by airline companies be credited to the State Aviation Fund. Under current law annual revenues from these taxes under…

H.4525 and S.973 are companion bills that extend the time period during which 2.25% of insurance premium tax revenue must be given to the South Carolina Forestry Commission from 2017 to 2022.

S.959 would repeal existing law that allows individuals who are behind in child support payments to have their driver’s license revoked or restricted. This is a sensible reform. Revoking or…

S.953 would require that all estate liquidators, defined as individuals who offer to conduct or conduct estate sales, be licensed by the South Carolina Auctioneers’ Commission. Contra the common wisdom,…

S.952 would prohibit individuals from emitting a noise beyond the bounds of their property that “unreasonably interferes with the enjoyment of life or with any lawful business or activity”. Just…

S.938 would create a state minimum wage higher than its federal counterpart. The state minimum wage would be set at $8.75 an hour starting January 1 2017 and would be…

S.922 would prohibit the subcontracting of work done at concession stands operated by the Commission for the Blind to anyone who is not blind or who does not have a…

H.4555 would repeal South Carolina’s right-to-work law, allowing union membership to become a prerequisite for employment. That would, in other words, allow unions to force workers to join whether or not…

H.4466 would make it illegal, with limited exceptions, for a business to consider an applicant’s credit history or credit report when hiring. An applicant’s’ credit history could convey important information…

H.4430 would require that all movie theaters, sporting arenas, and concert venues install metal detectors. The principal effect of this policy will be to increase costs for the businesses that…

S.957 would prohibit employers from inquiring as to, considering, or requiring the disclosure of the criminal history of an applicant prior to the applicant being selected for an interview or…

H.4494 would require that magistrates and municipal judges who were disciplined by the Commission on Judicial Conduct during their term due to a complaint, or who are facing an active complaint…

H.4494 would require any magistrate or municipal judge who is seeking reappointment to be rescreened by the Judicial Merit Selection Commission (JMSC) if during their term they were disciplined by…

H.4442 would make all misdemeanor offenses eligible for expungement. This is particularly relevant for legislators who are subject to the Ethics Act, which only contains one felony. In other words, almost all…

H.4404 would prohibit General Assembly members from being elected to a judicial office for five years after leaving office. The bill would also prohibit family members of a General Assembly…

H.4402 and H.4406 would respectively make Family Court Judges and state Supreme Court Justices popularly elected. South Carolina’s judicial selection process is already politicized by the process of elections via the legislature. These…

H.4400 and H.4401 would remove the roll-call requirement for certain legislative votes. Under the bills legislators would be able to vote on up to ten budget sections, or ten sections worth of budget…

S.949 would make it illegal to engage in deer hunting within 300 yards of a residence without permission of the owner and occupant. Current law prohibits deer hunting within 300…

S.946 would allow the owner of a vehicle that unlawfully overtakes a school bus to be ticketed even if the driver of the vehicle can’t be identified. This directly contradicts the…

S.944 and S.935 each seek to impose limits on the use of statehouse grounds by requiring groups to receive some form of permission before use. S.944 requires the Director of…

S.943 would require that anyone who purchases a firearm register that firearm’s serial number and their contact information with the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) within 30 days of purchase.…

S.942 is truly Orwellian. The bill would require any state resident to obtain a “weapons purchase permit” from the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) before buying a firearm or ammunition…

S.941 would mandate that no person or firearm dealer sell or transfer a firearm prior to the completion of a background check through the State Law Enforcement Division and the…

S.939 would prohibit the ownership, transportation, or sale of “assault weapons” by private individuals in South Carolina. The term assault weapon is vaguely defined by the bill as “semi-automatic firearms…

S.930 would eliminate adverse possession in South Carolina colloquially known as squatter’s rights. Under current law if an individual, other than the legal owner, holds or possesses a piece of…

S.917, S.918, H.4551 and H.4552 would all prohibit a licensed firearm dealer from transferring a firearm before either the completion of a National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) check, or…

S.913 would make police dashcam videos subject to FOIA. While this could help punish and prevent abuses of police power, it could also enable the use of dashcam video by third…

H.4496 and H.4522 each attempt to protect innocent citizens from police surveillance by respectively prohibiting automatic number plate recognition systems and cell-site simulator technology or devices (commonly known as stingrays). Both of these devices, whether through the…

H.4463, H.4485, H.4533, H.4439, H.4618 and S.915 are hate crime laws that impose additional penalties on criminals who committed a violent or threatening act against an individual, because of the individual’s race, religion, sexual…