Every so often in public life, someone stands up and tells the truth without worrying about who it offends. Representative Joe White has been doing exactly that in a series of Facebook posts, and South Carolina would be wise to pay attention. You can read them here 

His recent explanations of how power really works in Columbia are not exaggerations or conspiracy theories. They are an honest description of a system I have seen up close as a prosecutor for more than three decades.

When I led the State House corruption probe, we exposed a hidden network of influence that operated far outside public view. We took down the Speaker of the House, the Senate President Pro Tem, two Majority Leaders, the House Judiciary Chairman, and others. These were not small players. They were some of the most powerful people in South Carolina. And behind many of them was the same entrenched structure Joe White is now describing: a judiciary influenced by the very legislators who practice before it, and a Legislature dominated by lawyer-legislators whose professional interests too often blur into their public duties.

People ask me all the time how that corruption probe was even possible. The answer is simple. Once you start pulling on the thread of power in South Carolina, you realize it is woven tightly through the legal system, the political system, and the judicial system. You cannot reform one without recognizing how it connects to the others. Joe White is pulling the same thread from a legislator’s point of view. What he sees matches exactly what I saw as a prosecutor: a justice system warped by conflicts of interest that would never be tolerated in any other state.

South Carolina has roughly 11,000 lawyers and 2.8 million working citizens. Yet lawyers make up nearly 30 percent of the Legislature. They control the committees that write the laws. They control the process that selects our judges. They appear in courtrooms as attorneys before the same judges whose careers depend on their votes. And when they invoke “legislative privilege” to delay cases for months or even years, judges rarely challenge them. Everyone understands the unwritten rule: the people who vote on whether you keep your job are not the people you cross.

This is not how justice is supposed to work. It is not how our founders designed the separation of powers. And it is certainly not how we protect the public.

Joe White’s examples are not hypothetical. They happen every day. A child stuck in a dangerous home because a hearing is delayed for the convenience of a lawyer-legislator. A small business crushed under legal bills while a wealthy opponent drags the case out for years. A violent offender left free long enough to commit another crime because procedural delays have worn the case thin. These are not legal maneuvers. They are abuses of power. And South Carolinians pay the price.

During the corruption probe, I warned repeatedly that our judicial structure invites this kind of behavior. I testified before legislative committees. I called publicly for reform of the Judicial Merit Selection Commission. I said plainly that when the Legislature controls who becomes a judge, the justice system becomes an extension of political power. For four years I pushed for change, and for four years the message was ignored.

Joe White is forcing the conversation back into the open. He is saying what many know but few will risk saying aloud. And he is right: this system cannot be defended. It cannot be excused. It cannot be allowed to continue simply because it benefits the people who have the ability to protect it.

The people of South Carolina deserve a government that serves them, not one that shields insiders. They deserve a justice system that is independent, impartial, and immune to political intimidation. They deserve legislators who write laws, not lawyers who shape the system to their personal advantage.

I spent my career standing in courtrooms, face-to-face with victims and criminals alike. I took two men to death row, prosecuted hundreds of violent offenders, and led the most significant public corruption case in modern South Carolina history. I have seen exactly how dangerous it is when justice bends toward influence instead of truth. Joe White is telling the truth about what he has seen. I am telling the truth about what I have seen. And the people of this state deserve nothing less than a system worthy of their trust.

The time has come to break the grip of political privilege on our courts and restore fairness to the people who depend on them. South Carolina can change this. But only if we recognize the problem as clearly as Joe White has laid it out and confront it with the same determination we brought to the corruption probe years ago.

Justice should belong to the people of South Carolina. Not to the insiders who have controlled it for far too long.

— David Pascoe