Late in the day June 26, the Conference Committee on S.1046, South Carolina’s judicial reform bill, reached an agreement on the final text to be sent to the Governor. Shortly thereafter, both legislative chambers approved the conference report unanimously. The bill now goes to Governor McMaster’s desk, where he is expected to sign it into

Palmetto Promise Policy Analyst Felicity Ropp is quoted in this article from the Center Square by Todd DeFeo. (The Center Square) — South Carolina lawmakers have approved a version of a judicial reform measure following months of back-and-forth debate. S. 1046, passed during this month’s special session, ostensibly increases transparency and accountability by changing how

This press release was originally published by the Texas Public Policy Foundation on June 17, 2024. AUSTIN – Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation and other state-based think tanks sent a coalition letter to the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce stating their support for the spirit of the American Privacy Rights Act of

This week, we have taken a journey back through our 2023-24 Palmetto Freedom Agenda to see how each of our twenty-three policies fared during the legislative session. Did our Freedom Agenda policies make it into law? Or, at the very least, did they start a conversation that future General Assemblies can act upon?  Today, for

Now that the General Assembly has adjourned sine die, we are taking a look back at the 23 policies Palmetto Promise proposed in the 2023-24 Palmetto Freedom Agenda at the beginning of the legislative session. Did our Freedom Agenda policies make it into law? Or, at the very least, did they start a conversation that

South Carolina is behind the times on free speech protections, particularly regarding protections from SLAPP lawsuits, also known as strategic lawsuits against public participation. These predatory lawsuits arise when one party levels privacy, defamation, or libel charges at individuals or advocacy groups with the intention to financially cripple them and scare them away from public

Palmetto Promise Policy Analyst Felicity Ropp is quoted in this article from the Center Square by T.A. Defoe.    (The Center Square) — A legislative conference committee will soon hash out differences in a measure to reform South Carolina’s Judicial Merit Selection Commission. Last week, the South Carolina House passed S. 1046, a bill reforming the

Palmetto Promise Policy Analyst Felicity Ropp was quoted in this article by T.A. Defoe in the Center Square. (The Center Square) — The South Carolina House passed a bill to reform the state’s Judicial Merit Selection Commission, changes that stem from the Ad Hoc Committee to Examine the Judicial Selection and Retention Process House Speaker

UPDATE: The SC House overwhelmingly passed S.1046, amended as outlined below. The Senate did not concur in those amendments, and the bill now heads to a Conference Committee, made up of Senators Rankin, Massey, and Malloy and Representatives W. Newton, Caskey, and Stavrinakis.  At the end of March 2024, following two weeks of debate and

The South Carolina General Assembly has the chance this year to right a wrong and take tremendous strides ramping up free market entrepreneurship in the area of hair care and cosmetology. Will they seize the opportunity?  You may recall that, in 2021, the General Assembly passed, and the Governor signed into law, a bill that