BLAKE HEWITT ELECTED 

TO THE SC COURT OF APPEALS

Attorney Blake Hewitt was elected by the South Carolina state legislature meeting in a joint session of the house and the senate today. Hewitt won a vote of 87-73 over the other candidate, Circuit Court Judge Alison Renee Lee, of Columbia, for a seat on the second highest court of the state the SC Court of Appeals (there are nine seats on this court). Lee is an African American; and the black caucus in the legislature protested the vote. See the AP article on this here .

The state legislature elected forty-four judges today, but only two races were contested.

Readers will recall that Blake Hewitt was the lawyer who presented the appeal of Judge Goodstein's decision to the South Carolina Supreme Court on September 23, 2015. He represented the Episcopal Church side in the state high court. His effectiveness became evident when the court issued its decision twenty-two months later recognizing the Episcopal Church ownership of 29 of the 36 parishes in question plus Camp St. Christopher. The court also said the Church diocese was the legitimate heir of the pre-schism Diocese of South Carolina. Hewitt had been clerk to Chief Justice Jean Toal. The last time he was considered for the state appeals court, he failed to win the seat.

Circuit Court Judge Edgar Dickson is now considering the SCSC decision. On the highly remote chance this case, or some aspect of it, gets back into the state courts, it could go to the SC Court of Appeals where Mr. Hewitt will be sitting on the bench.