Ask Not for Whom the Bell Toals. It Toals for the Charleston School of Law

She has a voice of a songbird and the look of an angel.

She’s Jean Toal – the Teflon coated South Carolina Supreme Court chief justice — and she has a message.

In a discussion on Friday at the South Carolina Bar Association convention, Madame Chief Justice said of the state’s high court’s decision to toss out an entire section of the spring bar exam, “But one thing of which you can be absolutely sure is this — Your Supreme Court made this decision with the sole motivation of trying to be fair.”

I like her. She’s sassy.

Never mind that the court’s action boosted the Charleston School of Law’s bar exam passing average to right at 70% — right at the level it needed to achieve accreditation.

She’s about fairness.

Pay no attention to the fact that the children of prominent members of the legislative and judicial branches were direct beneficiaries of the court’s decision, and one of the children even bragged about the legal coup.

She’s about fairness.

Cast aside her multiple personal judgment lapse missteps like a May 2001 incident in which she hit a parked car close to her home at 9:00 p.m. (and saying she didn’t know she hit the vehicle and was not given a blood test even though she admitted to attending a function where alcohol was served) AND a March 2007 incident in which, while apparently using an electronic entry card belonging to an airport commissioner/her law partner, she hit another parked car at the airport and was ticketed for leaving the scene.

She’s about fairness.

Forget that she struck against the First Amendment when she blasted a group who urged people to get involved in last year’s judicial elections by making their opinions known to legislators (who, instead of the voters, are the ones who actually elect judges in South Carolina) claiming, according to THE STATE newspaper, “‘It’s an enormous threat to judicial independence,’ she said, describing the May ad about Beatty as ‘racist and inaccurate.’”

She’s about fairness.

Thank you, Madame Chief Justice. I’m sorry for the string of borderline run-on sentences, but you are a true example of fairness. My hope is that one day we are treated as fairly as you are and can treat others as fairly as you do.

– Bo Burdette