Beatty elected S.C. Supreme Court chief justice

The S.C. General Assembly on Wednesday elected Donald Beatty to be chief justice of the state Supreme Court.

Beatty, the five-person high court’s senior associate justice, was the only person in the running for Supreme Court’s top job. He takes office Jan. 1.

Beatty will be the only the second African-American chief justice since Reconstruction in the 19th century.

Beatty has also been nominated President Barack Obama to be a federal district court judge. However, Republicans in the U.S. Senate have objected to most of Obama’s judicial nominations, throwing the selection process into limbo. With Obama in his final seven months of office, it is uncertain at best whether the Senate will vote to approve Beatty.

In an interview this spring, Beatty has said his goal was to be chief justice.

Beatty will replace current Chief Justice Costa Pleicones, who retires Dec. 31. Justices must retire in the year they turn 72. Pleicones turned 72 in February.

In 1995, lawmakers elected Beatty a circuit judge. He became an associate justice in 2007.

Earlier this spring, during a hearing by the Judicial Merit Selection Commission, no one mentioned Beatty’s race.

Asked about what life experiences he would bring to bring to the chief justice post, Beatty cited the several years he spent in the U.S. Army and his five years as a S.C. House member.

In recent years, Beatty has angered some conservative lawmakers who were upset at two court rulings in which he was in the majority. In one, Beatty sided with consumers in a case involving auto dealers’ hidden fees. The other was a school funding case, in which he sided with a court majority that said the law required state legislators to do more to improve public education for children who live in the state’s poverty-stricken rural areas.

Conservative lawmakers tried but failed to find someone to challenge Beatty.

For decades, the seniormost associate justice has assumed the chief justice position. Beatty’s election on Wednesday continued that tradition.

This story was originally published May 25, 2016 at 1:44 PM with the headline "Beatty elected S.C. Supreme Court chief justice."