STATEHOUSE REPORT | ISSUE 21.32 | AUG. 12, 2022
BIG STORY: S.C. victims of Lejeune contamination to get help with new law
NEWS BRIEFS: Feds loosens guidelines for Covid-19
LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: Funny-looking mermaids
COMMENTARY, Brack: S.C. needs to protect free expression from intimidation
SPOTLIGHT: Charter Communications
MY TURN, Fordham: The story of South Carolina’s first segregation fight
FEEDBACK: Too much hypocrisy among incumbents
MYSTERY PHOTO: Classical building
New law to help S.C.’s Lejeune contamination victims
Editor’s Note: In recent months, we’ve published news and opinion pieces about the Camp Lejeune Justice Act that sought to help veterans from S.C. and other states injured by the base’s water contamination. This story updates what’s happened recently.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Thousands of South Carolinians stationed over 35 years at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina may be eligible for expanded health care benefits for exposure to toxic water thanks to a new law. Also eligible may be family members who lived on the base from 1953 to 1987 as well as civilians who worked there.
Earlier this week, President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, also known as the PACT Act. According to the White House, it is “the most significant expansion of benefits and services for toxic exposed veterans in more than 30 years.”
While much of the media focus on the new law was on toxic burn pits that injured veterans serving in wars overseas, the new law includes help for people at Camp Lejeune who drank or bathed in water contaminated by toxic chemicals, such as gasoline and jet fuel, that leaked into wells around the base. As of Aug. 12, 274,981 people registered with the Marine Corps to receive notifications about the poisonous drinking water at Camp Lejeune. More than 7,700 live in South Carolina.
Those who once lived on the base were elated with news that Biden signed the law.
“God is great working through people of faith,” said retired Navy Chaplain Bruce Hill of Lake City, Florida, who had five years of treatment before his leukemia went into remission. His wife also died of breast cancer. His daughter suffers from an inflammatory bowel disease that compromises her body’s immune system. They all drank the Lejeune’s water
Winter Haven, Florida, resident Mike Partain, who was born on the base and drank the water, has operated a 19,000-member Facebook group seeking health care justice.
“It was a bittersweet moment to see President Biden sign this bill into law, to witness history,” said Partin, who attended the event. “As he signed, I thought about those who didn’t make it and are no longer with us. I wondered will the Navy finally come clean and do the right thing for our Navy and Marine service members and their families? We have reached our final chapter in this 25-plus year fight for justice.”
Retired Marine Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger, a North Carolina resident who stood behind Biden during the Aug. 10 ceremony, added, “It’s about time this happened. Congress needs to look at and modify the legal immunities DOD [the Department of Defense] enjoys. Their nonsensical application of those immunities constitutes an abuse of power!”
Another person featured in past coverage, Rose Ann Boxx of James Island, died in May. Last year, she described how her brother’s death from colon cancer haunted her. They lived on the base in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Boxx got breast cancer in 2016.
Georgetown attorney Ed Bell, an architect of the Camp Lejeune language passed by Congress, worked for years to get Congress to approve the measure.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said before walking into the bill-signing ceremony. “Our veterans, our Marines, our families – our government forgot them. Our government actually forgot them. We hope this will change things and make it better.”
NOTE: Bell is an owner of City Paper Publishing LLC, which publishes Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
Feds loosens guidelines for Covid-19
Staff reports | The federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday that it has a more relaxed Covid-19 protocol. Now, those exposed to the virus no longer have to quarantine. The new guidelines also place less emphasis on contact tracing and social distancing.
Meanwhile, South Carolina doctors continue to urge parents to get their children vaccinated and some school districts across the state have announced their own Covid-19 protocols for the upcoming 2022-23 school year.
While the state had 15,811 new cases and seven deaths from Covid in the week ending Aug. 6, that’s 844 fewer cases than the week before, state health officials said.
In other headlines:
First Family begins vacation on Kiawah Island. President Joe Biden landed in S.C. this week for a Kiawah Island vacation with his family. Biden and his family are expected to stay until next Tuesday. Here are some fun things they can do.
McMaster sues feds over workplace fines. Gov. Henry McMaster recently filed a lawsuit against the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration over a new rule he thought to be an overreach of power. The new rule would require the state to more than double its fines for workplace violations.
Graham, Republicans react to raid on Trump’s home. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said an FBI raid this week on the home of former President Donald Trump would fuel a bid to reclaim the White House. He said he thought Trump would run in 2024, in part because of the raid. Other Republicans jumped to Trump’s defense. The FBI reportedly took a dozen boxes from Trump’s home.
Biden to nominate state judge to key federal appellate judgeship. President Biden is expected to fill a vacant seat on the 4th U.S. Court of Appeals by nominating S.C. Circuit Judge DeAndrea Gist Benjamin, wife of former Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin. Judge Benjamin has sat on the state bench since 2011. In 2021, she ran and lost for a seat on the state Court of Appeals in what was considered a partisan race.
Kimbrell calls for ‘sexual identity’ books to be moved. State Sen. Josh Kimbrell, R-Spartanburg, called on Spartanburg public libraries to move children’s books that explore sexual identity to the adult section. Kimbrell said sexual identity books are too mature and inappropriate for children.
Average U.S. gas price falls below $4. The national average for U.S. gas prices have dipped below $4 after peaking in mid-June. Prices are seeing a return to what it was in March.
Funny-looking mermaids
Cartoonist Robert Ariail often interprets things a little differently, but always has an interesting take on what’s going on in South Carolina. Love the cartoon? Hate it? What do you think: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Protect free expression in S.C. from intimidation
By Andy Brack | Imagine a development was coming to your neighborhood and you didn’t like it. So you attended a public meeting in your town and complained.
Or consider the community advocacy organization that publishes a video about a fallen carriage horse in a continuing and long effort to get more humane treatment for working animals.
In both cases, you’d probably figure their opinions were part of the public debate in the marketplace of ideas, protected by free speech rights in the U.S. Constitution that allow citizens to speak out, protest and publish information.
But in both instances, companies in South Carolina brought a special, cynical kind of lawsuit intended to chill debate by, in part, making people hire expensive lawyers to defend themselves. They’re called SLAPP lawsuits, which stands for “Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation.” More than 30 states have laws that protect people from these lawsuits. South Carolina does not.
In the first instance, a 2016 lawsuit by a developer over a Mount Pleasant project ended up being settled after citizens who commented on the process were subpoenaed. In the second, a Charleston County judge recently ruled the Charleston Animal Society did not defame a carriage company in 2017 by publishing videos of a fallen horse and saying it had “collapsed.” It took four years for the ruling to be issued, but the company has already appealed it.
In a 36-page order, Charleston County Master-in-Equity Mikell Scarborough ruled in May that “with the immense public interest in Charleston’s carriage horses and, specifically, the Big John [horse] incident, the video is a fundamental example of the type of public discourse protected by the First Amendment.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is among groups around the country trying to limit SLAPP lawsuits like the two brought in South Carolina.
“These lawsuits aren’t meant to win on the merits — they’re meant to put financial pressure on a defendant, thus quashing their constitutional rights,” the organization says.
In an essay pushing for an anti-SLAPP law in South Carolina, University of South Carolina journalism professor Eric Robinson wrote the state has provisions against frivolous lawsuits, but that’s different from a lawsuit filed to chill speech.
“Protection of speech about public issues is an important First Amendment principle, and we should strengthen that protection by barring frivolous lawsuits that use the threat of litigation – and its inherent expenses and risks – to shut down legitimate discussion of public issues and controversies,” he said. “South Carolina should bolster its protections for free speech by passing an anti-SLAPP statute in the near future.”
He’s right on the money.
EFF explains the importance of states like South Carolina passing such a measure, which has been introduced but not acted on in the past: “These laws apply broadly to expression on matters of public concern, in any forum. They require plaintiffs to show they have a legitimate case early on in litigation. If the defendant loses the anti-SLAPP motion, they have the right to an immediate appeal. And in cases where a judge finds that a defendant has been the victim of a SLAPP, that defendant is entitled to an award of costs and attorney fees.”
EFF and more than 25 organizations from the American Civil Liberties Union and Public Participation Project to the National Right to Life Committee and National Taxpayers Union, have signed a letter pushing for stronger anti-SLAPP legislation.
“Anti-SLAPP laws protect the public from frivolous lawsuits that arise from speech on matters of public concern. These laws protect speakers by providing special procedures for defendants to defeat weak or meritless claims. The stronger the statute, the more deterrence there is against filing SLAPP lawsuits.”
Hear, hear. This is a bipartisan proposal for Republicans and Democrats who want to protect free speech and to reduce pressure on citizens. They should get behind it now.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Charter Communications
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Statehouse Report to you at no cost. Today, we’re happy to shine the spotlight on Charter Communications, the nation’s fastest-growing TV, internet and voice company. Committed to integrating the highest quality service with superior entertainment and communications products, Charter is at the intersection of technology and entertainment, facilitating essential communications that connect 24 million residential and business customers in 41 states, including South Carolina. In addition to being committed to giving back to the communities we serve, the bedrock of our business strategy is to serve our customers and exceed their expectations.
“We, at our core, are a service organization,” President and CEO Tom Rutledge says. “And every product we sell has a huge service component.”
- To learn more, visit Charter’s South Carolina services online.
The story of South Carolina’s first segregation fight
By Damon L. Fordham, special to Statehouse Report | It was a time of major confusion. An uncouth demagogue had come to power with a mouth filled with profanity and preaching a message of division and hatred that encouraged violence among his followers. This resulted in reactionary laws that set back progress for several decades while “people of good will” were themselves divided, confused and lacking in real leadership in strategy, while the few voices of sense and reason were largely ignored and regulated to obscurity.
Sound familiar? Yes, we have been here before.
As a storyteller and historian, I have searched for true stories that have been long buried that might provide some direction for our confused times. Some 20 years ago, I learned of a speech by Thomas Miller, a Black Charlestonian leader of the Reconstruction era, who made an eloquent reply to U.S. Sen. Benjamin Tillman, the architect of the segregation laws of our state, in 1895 at the Statehouse in Columbia as these reactionary laws were debated.
I was amazed by this bravery and masterful oratory and was further intrigued to learn the backstory behind this encounter. Tillman of Trenton, S.C., a man who bragged about murdering Black South Carolinians during Reconstruction, rose to power by endorsing the lynching of Blacks and violence against White sympathizers. By 1895, Blacks had voted in South Carolina for over 30 years and had achieved high elective office. So Tillman played on White resentment of these developments to obtain political power. This was crystalized when Senator Tillman called for the South Carolina Legislature to debunk the progressive 1868 state constitution of Reconstruction that promised rights for all to be replaced by an 1895 constitution that would effectively strip Black South Carolinians of their right to vote and make segregated schools mandatory in the state.
The Blacks of South Carolina formed their own convention and elected six leaders to represent them at the State Constitutional Convention to plead their cause: Robert Smalls, the Black Civil War hero who was a member of the 1868 Constitutional Convention; William J. Whipper, a lawyer who was also at the 1868 Convention; Thomas Miller, who would later become the founding president of S.C. State University; James Wigg and Isaiah Reed, two Beaufort lawyers: and Robert Anderson, a teacher from Georgetown. These men joined the White delegates in Columbia and gave a series of powerful rebuttals against their plans, in the face of vile insults from the press and most of the White delegates. While the results were predictable, this display of bravery inspired many for years to come and planted the seeds of the future civil rights movement in South Carolina. While this story has appeared in passing in several works on South Carolina history, this [book] is the first complete volume on this event.
The similarities between then and the political situation of today are clear. Many are blindly following reactionary leadership that plays on the ignorance of their followers, which is resulting in reactionary laws, while the opposition party is blindsided and without clear direction. The clear voices of these men in their spirited defense of fair play and common sense are an important contribution to the dialogue toward solutions in a present time so greatly lacking in these attributes. If readers would take the words of these forgotten heroes into a modern context of action and badly needed direction for present-day America, it would have served a purpose.
Fordham is a Charleston author, lecturer and adjunct professor of history. The History Press recently published his book, The 1895 Segregation Fight in South Carolina. You can purchase it online for $21.99. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Too much hypocrisy among incumbents
To the editor:
The hypocrisy of far too many of our incumbent officials informs us that they feel they are elected to serve and preserve themselves. When elected, the trust extended by voters is pushed aside with lies and half-truths serving to ignore and fool us.
The Panther Deal collapse reveals the most egregious deception of sacrificing our children to buy jobs.
The state economic development programs require the local government to freeze school taxes to buy jobs.
This most bizarre policy charade lies in the governor’s press release touting the total job count and nothing else. Unwrap the job count hypocrisy:
What is the cumulative amount of education taxes not paid in the announced deal?
- How many jobs had pay scales high enough not to need S.C. affordable rental housing help?
- How many jobs were part-timers?
- How many jobs had medical benefits?
- How many jobs had paid leave (in any amount?)
- How many jobs were filled by the hires living and paying S.C. individual taxes?
- How many are remote jobs, and what were the S.C. tax standards applied for remote hires?
– Fred Palm, Edisto Island
Send us your comments
Have a comment? Send your letters or comments to: feedback@statehousereport.com. Make sure to provide your contact details (name, hometown and phone number for verification. Letters are limited to 150 words.
Classical building
This week’s mystery is a classical building somewhere in South Carolina, but where? Send your guess – and your name and hometown – to feedback@statehousereport.com.
Last week’s photo, “Outreached arms,” showed a statue of the Rev. John Wesley, the Church of England preacher who is considered the founder of Methodism.
Lots of regulars identified the statue, which is in Reynolds Square in Savannah, Ga., including Jay Altman and Elizabeth Jones, both of Columbia; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; Jacie Godfrey of Florence; David Lupo of Mount Pleasant; Daniel Prohaska and Frank Bouknight, both of Summerville; David Taylor of Darlington; and Pat Keadle of Wagener. Thanks!
Peel shared that the “bronze statue of John Wesley (1703 – 1791), the founder of the Methodist Christian denomination was created by American sculptor, Marshall Harrison Daugherty (1915 – 1991). According to Wikipedia, the statue was installed in 1969 on the spot where Wesley’s home is believed to have once stood. The statue depicts Wesley preaching out-of-doors, as he did when leading services for Native Americans, with the palm of his right hand facing skyward, and an open bible in his left hand.”
>> Send us a mystery picture. If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
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