O'SHIELDS v. McLeod

The respondent, a resident of the Seventh Judicial Circuit, brought this action alleging constitutional defects in the structure of the circuit court system of this State. The gravaman of the long, amorphous complaint is that federal and state constitutional provisions, namely, the equal protection clauses of both Constitutions and Article V, Section 13 of the South Carolina Constitution, require each circuit to contain equal numbers of people. The complaint concludes by asking the court “to consider and recommend adequate relief from the present unconstitutional population imbalance,” and to…