South Carolina Judge who struck down state's abortion ban to retire — likely leaves 'all-male bench'

20 January 2023

For over three decades, there has been at least one woman sitting on South Carolina’s Supreme Court. Now, that may change following Justice Kaye Hearn’s retirement, NBC News reports.

According to a 2022 report by the Brennan Center for Justice, there is only one woman on the Supreme Court bench in 9 states, while men hold 59 percent of state Supreme Court seats across the country.

NBC News reporter Bracey Harris pointed out in her reporting that almost a year since Roe v. Wade was overturned, state Supreme Courts “are playing pivotal roles in the fate of abortion rights” — noting that once the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the law, power went to state courts. Indiana’s Supreme Court, which has one woman justice, is currently hearing a case that will determine the fate of the state’s abortion ban.

Justice Hearn, who became the second woman to sit on the court in 2009, is responsible for the opinion that blocked the state’s strict six-week abortion ban this month.

The 3-2 decision, according to NBC, declared the ban “unconstitutional because it violated the right to privacy.”

Subsequently, South Carolina GOP leaders like Governor Henry McMaster, state Senator Josh Kimbrell and others criticized the justice’s decision, which will likely heavily influence their pick for her replacement.

Although Hearn believes the judge vying for her seat is “eminently qualified” for the role, she asserted that she also believes “diversity on the bench gives the public more confidence in the system.” She said in a phone interview with NBC, “I have always felt that it’s important for both lawyers and litigants to look up on the bench and see someone that looks like them.”

Two women from the South Carolina court of appeals were originally candidates for Hearn’s seat but both recently withdrew candidacy, leaving Judge Gary Hill as the only option.

Hearn noted that when she was elected 14 years ago there were two women on the bench, and she “thought we were past the issue that women would have a seat at the table.” She added, “Women deserve to have a seat at the table, as do minorities — African Americans. I thought we were past that. Apparently, in South Carolina, we’re not.”

Meliah Bowers Jefferson, a former clerk for Chief Justice Jean H. Toal and the first woman elected to South Carolina’s top court, is certain that there are plenty of eligible women who could fill Hearn’s seat.

“I think for us to preserve trust and for us to really believe in our judicial system, it is important for people to be able to see themselves in the system by which they’re being judged,” she said.

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