South Carolina editorial roundup: Saturday, June 4, 2022

The Post and Courier

June 1

S.C.'s poster child for magistrate reform strikes again

The last time we checked in with South Carolina's best-known ethically challenged magistrate, the S.C. Supreme Court's Office of Disciplinary Counsel had just dismissed a complaint against Angel Underwood for presiding over cases brought by deputies who were set to testify in her husband's federal corruption trial.

Fortunately, that wasn't the end of the story.

As The Post and Courier's Avery Wilks reports, work continued on a separate 2019 complaint against the Chester County magistrate, and last week a unanimous S.C. Supreme Court suspended her for six months. It was the second time the high court had been compelled to suspend her since she was appointed to the bench in 2011.

This time, the court said, Judge Underwood engaged in conduct that "served to erode public confidence in the judiciary" when her husband was Chester County sheriff and she used her official email account to issue instructions to his employees and meddle in Sheriff's Office matters. The court had suspended her for a year in 2016 for failing to disqualify herself from more than 100 cases brought by the office after her husband became sheriff.

The court's most recent order did not seem to address another part of the 2019 complaint against Judge Underwood: Just months after her initial one-year suspension ended in 2016, she had "secretly aided the sheriff's office in drafting a complaint against her colleagues on the bench." That seems particularly egregious, since it involves trying to get other judges removed from office because her husband was unhappy with their decisions.

The latest suspension did include a bizarre reference to Judge Underwood helping her husband prepare a complaint concerning one of his employees. If the justices were talking about her efforts to get other magistrates removed and somehow mischaracterized the situation (and that's a pretty significant mischaracterization), they need to set the record straight. If they still have not acted on the part of the complaint involving other magistrates, they need to do so - or explain why that was not a problem.

But while we need some clarification on that, and we still need the court to truly open up its disciplinary system the way it said it was doing a quarter century ago, we need to be clear on one thing here: The major failing in the Angel Underwood case is not at the Supreme Court. It's across the street in downtown Columbia, at the Statehouse.

How much of that blame belongs downstairs in the governor's office and how much upstairs in the Senate chamber depends on how courageous you think a governor should be in face of certain defeat: Gov. Henry McMaster reappointed Judge Underwood to the bench in 2019, despite her earlier suspension. The governor's office said it wasn't aware of the suspension, which she did not mention on her application for reappointment, but it takes about 10 seconds to type her name into the search box of the Supreme Court's website and find the 2015 reprimand and suspension.

Of course, while the governor officially appoints magistrates, the reality is that senators pick the magistrates in their districts and the governor rubber-stamps those picks because the Senate defers to the judgment of the local senator and won't confirm a magistrate that senator doesn't want.

And state law says magistrates remain on the bench until their successor is appointed, so Mr. McMaster would not have been able to get Judge Underwood off the bench even if he had refused to reappoint her; instead, he would have effectively given Sen. Mike Fanning more inappropriate sway over a judge, by empowering him to keep her in holdover limbo and remove her whenever he wanted to - which is something some senators do just because they can.

Mr. Fanning's support of Angel Underwood has been indefensible. We hope this latest suspension - coming as it does now that her husband is awaiting his turn in a federal prison instead of holding the most powerful law enforcement position in Chester County - finally convinces him that she is unfit to serve as a judge. She not only has no respect for the concepts of judicial independence and integrity but also has no intention of developing it. Her current term ends next year, and Sen. Manning should go ahead and pick someone with integrity to replace her.

Even if he continues to support her, though, his colleagues should stop allowing him to make a mockery of our judicial system, and of the Senate. The first step is to refuse to let him reappoint her and to let Mr. McMaster know they would confirm anyone else he appoints.

Beyond that, senators need to overhaul an internal system that allows a back-bench senator to hide information from his colleagues about serious problems with his appointments and to put his cronies on the bench with no questions asked.

There are numerous other changes lawmakers need to undertake to make magistrates more professional, competent and honest - starting with eliminating the holdover provision that turns magistrates into at-will employees of individual senators - but those changes inside the Senate would be a good first step.

Times and Democrat

June 1

Government is a problem with economy

Some financial experts are predicting gasoline in the United States could average $6 a gallon by August. No wonder Americans aren't optimistic.

Look at the basics of what is happening.

Gasoline goes up in price, meaning consumers have to spend more and more at the pump. In the end, that will affect what is spent on other projects, which in turn will affect businesses such as the Walmarts and Targets, which are reporting declines in revenue based on dips in sales.

With business prospects dipping, the stocks of such companies have fallen along with the market as a whole, largely out of fears of rising interest rates and an impending recession.

When the stock market falls, millions of Americans invested via 401(k)s and savings/retirement instruments see their investments plunging.

With inflation already at the highest levels since the 1970s, another problem is supply. A shortage will continue to escalate prices - and the country is now facing the reality of diesel fuel in short supply. Not only will that affect producers such as farmers, but it will also mean more difficulty in getting products to market.

Toward quantifying assessments of what is happening in the economy, the eighth-annual First Citizens Bank Small Business Forecast had some good news. Two-thirds (67%) of owners described their business as being successful in the past year, an 8% year-over-year increase.

But among small business owners, concerns are real going forward.

Only 42% of those surveyed reported feeling confident in the economic conditions for the next 12 months, which is a 19% decrease compared to 2021. Similarly, the long-term outlook on economic conditions for the next two to three years has also significantly decreased to 49%, down from 63% in 2021.

The decline was felt across business owners in all states surveyed, with 45% of Californians (down 26%) and 43% of South Carolinians (down 22%) showcasing the steepest decline in near-term economic conditions. South Carolina business owners' sense of optimism for the economy over the course of the next two to three years also dropped significantly to 39%, which is down from 65% last year.

The factors driving general economic uncertainty include:

- Inflation (51%)

- Global conflict (34%)

- Unpredictable market conditions (33%)

- Ongoing pandemic concerns (30%)

While the Biden administration blames inflation on so many factors other than its policies on energy and government spending, Americans are not buying it. A Morning Consult/Politico poll found 62% of registered voters believe President Joe Biden's policies are at least somewhat responsible for inflation, compared to just 11% who believe the president isn't responsible at all.

The numbers aren't much better among Democrats, with 46% of Democratic respondents saying the president is at least somewhat responsible and only 16% believing he holds no responsibility.

Among Republicans, 70% believe the president is "very responsible," according to the poll.

Biden from the outset of his presidency declared war on the oil and gas industry, and even today is doing little to inspire investment in the energy sources that are needed to keep the economy running.

Then massive federal spending programs on coronavirus relief and infrastructure had/and are having impact. More money chasing fewer goods is a recipe for inflation.

But it seems Washington won't learn. Democrats are promoting a $1.75 trillion social spending proposal as a solution for inflation. Analysts say the spending would not contribute to inflation, since it would be spread out over 10 years and is paired with tax increases.

Based on the present public assessment of the economic situation in the United States, convincing people that more government spending to "help" consumers will be a solution is a tough sell. It looks like we won't get a real reading on direction until the midterm elections in November.