SC judicial income disclosure largely hidden from public

By Rick Brundrett | The Nerve

In South Carolina, if you want to know who is paying judges and their spouses, and what they own, you won’t find it easily.

Judges, for example, in the “unified judicial system” who are elected by the General Assembly are exempted from the state ethics law requiring state lawmakers and other elected officials to annually file income-disclosure statements with the State Ethics Commission. For those judges, their forms are required to be filed with the House and Senate Ethics committees, but only during judicial elections. Supreme Court justices serve 10-year terms; Court of Appeals, circuit and family court judges serve six-year terms.

The legislative ethics committees will release judges’ income-disclosure forms only upon request. They’re not posted on the General Assembly’s website, unlike similar forms for other elected officials that are posted online with the State Ethics Commission.

at The Nerve.

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