News & Commentary

Governor McMaster's return-to-in-person-work order ignores public health guidelines and the continuing serious health risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and people with disabilities, people of color, women, and caregivers will bear the brunt of the impact.

There's a new sheriff in town, and she wants to reimagine public safety with the people of Charleston, South Carolina.

Today the South Carolina House passed H. 3105, which would forbid the government, including courts, from imposing any “monetary fine, fee, penalty, damage award, or injunction” against a religious organization in connection with the organization’s religious activities. This legislation goes well beyond protecting the right to worship during public emergencies. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, this bill is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. 

These radical religious exemptions would be dangerous and blatantly unconstitutional. No criminal liability. No civil liability. A complete exemption from complying with any law whenever a religious organization claims to be engaged in religious activity.

South Carolina’s death penalty is racist, arbitrary, and error-prone. Today our state Senate ignored these realities and moved South Carolina one step closer to resurrecting the electric chair as the state's default method of execution. It is unconscionable.

Such an extreme policy violates the United States Constitution and federal civil rights law, puts South Carolina at risk of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding, and harms transgender youth, all to solve a problem that plainly does not exist.

Abolition is the Fix

It has been nearly nine months since the Charleston Police Department and other law enforcement agencies brutalized people protesting police brutality on May 31. At a minimum, this report should have acknowledged this abuse of power. Instead, CPD has continued to deflect responsibility.

Today our legislature and Governor placed politics in front of the health, safety, and privacy of South Carolinians. Shame on them.