The President requested, and Governor McMaster deployed South Carolina National Guard troops to the District of Columbia. While South Carolina law allows such deployments to suppress riots or mayhem, neither was occurring at the time of deployment in D.C. Democracy Forward and the ACLU of South Carolina sued the Governor and asked the SCPIF to serve as a co-plaintiff.
The Supreme Court granted Original Jurisdiction on February 9, 2026, and gave us 20 days to file our brief. We filed our brief on March 2, 2026. Opposing counsel filed their brief March 20, with an Affidavit from Adjutant General Rob Stillwell. The affidavit claimed that S.C. National Guard troops have been deployed to a variety of places, for a variety of reasons. His affidavit, notwithstanding, fell short on addressing the core legal issue. Opposing counsel’s first argument (which is supposedly their best argument) is that public importance standing is unconstitutional. It appears, however, that because the Court granted us Original Jurisdiction, public importance standing is seemingly a foregone conclusion.
The Supreme Court has finally begun scheduling oral arguments, starting on September 15th-16th. As part of a larger statewide initiative to get the entirety of South Carolina interested in Supreme Court decisions, arguments are to be held at Clemson University.