SC House committee violated open-meetings law to rush debate on redistricting

Update, 5/19/2026, 6:30 p.m.: The ACLU of South Carolina and League of Women Voters of South Carolina have filed a complaint in Richland County Court against the S.C. House Rules Committee and other defendants for their violation of the S.C. Freedom of Information Act's requirement to give 24-hour public notification requirement. The plaintiffs are represented in this matter by the law firm Burnette Shutt & McDaniel.

Among other things, the complaint seeks a temporary restraining order prohibiting the named defendants from enforcing rules adopted at the illegally noticed May 18 committee meeting.

The summons and complaint are available below in a PDF. The case number is 2026CP4003393. Related case fillings and updates on the Richland County public index.

COLUMBIA – While rushing to redraw Congressional district maps for partisan gain during an ongoing primary election, South Carolina lawmakers called a special meeting to rewrite the rules of debate — and failed to adequately notify the public in the process.

“By ignoring open-meetings rules in their quest to rig Congressional election maps, lawmakers reveal utter and naked contempt for the voters they claim to represent,” said Allen Chaney, Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina. “’Might makes right’ is the stuff of dictatorships, not a representative democracy.”

The violation took place on the evening of Monday, May 18. While the State House of Representatives was in session debating a bill to shuffle voters into new districts across the state, the House Rules Committee held a special meeting at 7:15 p.m. to pass new rules about debate, specifically limiting lawmakers’ ability to offer amendments.

The public was not properly notified about the meeting. The South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, Section 30-4-80(A), states, "An agenda for regularly scheduled or special meetings must be posted ... at least twenty-four hours prior to such meetings."

A meeting agenda for the special Rules Committee meeting was posted to the Statehouse website at 7:07 p.m., eight minutes before the meeting was to start. Journalists covering the debate on the House floor did not arrive at the committee meeting until after it had started.

The South Carolina Freedom of Information Act (SC FOIA) was originally passed by the South Carolina legislature in 1978 to ensure public access to public meetings and records. The Act begins with a statement of purpose: “The General Assembly finds that it is vital in a democratic society that public business be performed in an open and public manner so that citizens shall be advised of the performance of public officials and of the decisions that are reached in public activity and in the formulation of public policy.”