Archive for the ‘Jurisprudence’ Category

South Carolina Supreme Court looks to state constitution’s right to privacy in finding due process requires judicial review of lifetime electronic monitoring of sex offenders

South Carolina is one of the few states with an explicit right to privacy within the state constitution. S.C. Const. art. I, §10. One of my early legal interests and my first published piece on the law regarded our state’s constitutional protection of the right to privacy.  When“Privacy Rights in South Carolina After Singleton v. State” [...]

No lesson learned two years after the spanking

Two years after the United States Supreme Court reversed the South Carolina Supreme Court in Turner v. Rodgers, 131 S.Ct. 2507 (2011), I see no evidence that our family court system has taken any of Turner’s ruling to heart.  This is partially the fault of our state Supreme Court, which has failed to exercise its [...]

Custody to the bigger breeder

Unbeknownst to me until last week, on December 2, 2012 the South Carolina Supreme Court denied certiorari in the case of Moeller v. Moeller, 394 S.C. 365, 714 S.E.2d 898 (Ct. App. 2011), thus enshrining into South Carolina appellate case law one of the stupidest bases to award (heck, reverse) custody that our appellate courts [...]

What’s so bad about split custody?

While our family court jurisdictional statute, S.C. Code § 63-3-530(42), allows judges “to order joint or divided custody where the court finds it is in the best interests of the child,” South Carolina case law looks unfavorable on splitting custody of children. See e.g., Patel v. Patel, 359 S.C. 515, 599 S.E.2d 114, 121 (2004) [...]

Pro se judge shopping

Ever since a local family court judge got defrocked for presiding in a case in which she had an alleged conflict, South Carolina family court judges have often been recusing themselves when there is a claim of conflict, bias, or improper conduct.  This has, unwittingly, led to what I label pro se judge shopping, in [...]

Does equitable distribution case law overvalue retirement accounts?

Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) and 401k account assets are not as valuable as an equivalent amount of cash.  With some exceptions there is a 10% penalty for withdrawing from such accounts prior to the account holder turning age 59 ½.  Other than Roth-IRAs these accounts are also subject to income tax when funds are withdrawn. [...]

How long would it take you to read 18 opinions?

If you read every 2012 published appeal of a South Carolina family court case you would be reading 18 opinions: five from the Supreme Court and the remainder from the Court of Appeals.  Eighteen opinions is barely half of the 35 such published opinions of 2011. This dearth of published opinions insures that unanswered questions [...]

“Irresponsible procreation” as a defense of DOMA

On October 18, 2012, in 2-1 decision in the case of Windsor v. United States, 699 F. 3d 169 (2nd. Cir. 2012), the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit concluded that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) violates equal protection and is therefore unconstitutional.  Many Supreme Court watchers believe this [...]