South Carolina’s supreme court to be entirely white for first time in 20 years

The state’s supreme court already came under scrutiny as the nation’s only all-male high court. Photograph: NSA Digital Archive/Getty Images/iStockphoto

For the first time in nearly two decades, South Carolina’s supreme court will be entirely white.

Diversity on the bench is a key topic in a state where African Americans and Hispanics make up a third of the population. The state legislature, the general assembly, selects South Carolina’s judges, and it has so rarely chosen jurists of color that Black lawmakers briefly walked out of judicial elections five years ago, outraged over representation.