Appeals Court Judge Don Beatty was elected during a joint General Assembly meeting to fill a vacant seat on the South Carolina Supreme Court. He was elected after a very bitter, controversial campaign in which he was heavily attacked from the right - in particular by the Greenville-based organization “Conservatives in Action.”

According to the AP, Beatty, of Spartanburg, will become only the second black high court justice since reconstruction.

After the first two rounds of voting failed to meet the 82 vote minimum, Beatty won with 84 votes in the third. Appeals Court Judge Bruce Williams of Columbia had 54 votes and Appeals Court Judge Kaye Hearn of Conway had 25 votes (Way to go FITSNews on the “down to a single vote” prediction).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007 at 2:22 pm and is filed under Judicial, Legislature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.