South Carolina General Assembly

South Carolina General Assembly
Great Seal of the State of South Carolina
Type
Type	Bicameral
Houses	Senate House of Representatives
History
Founded	1753; 271 years ago (1753)
Leadership
President of the Senate	Thomas Alexander (R) since December 6, 2021
Speaker of the House	Murrell Smith (R) since May 12, 2022
Structure
Seats	170 voting members: 46 Senators 124 Representatives
Senate political groups	Republican (30)   Democratic (15)   Independent (1)
House political groups	Republican (88)   Democratic (36)[1]
Elections
Last Senate election	November 2020
Last House election	November 2022
Meeting place
South Carolina State House Columbia
Website
scstatehouse.gov
Constitution
Constitution of South Carolina

The South Carolina General Assembly, also called the South Carolina Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of South Carolina. The legislature is bicameral and consists of the lower South Carolina House of Representatives and the upper South Carolina Senate. All together, the General Assembly consists of 170 members. The legislature convenes at the State House in Columbia.

Prior to the 1964 federal Reynolds v. Sims decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, each county doubled as a legislative district, with each county electing one senator and at least one representative. Moreover, each county's General Assembly delegation also doubled as its county council, as the state constitution made no provision for local government.

The "one man, one vote" provision of Reynolds v. Sims^[2] caused district lines to cross county lines, causing legislators to be on multiple county councils. This led to the passage of the Home Rule Act of 1975, which created county councils that were independent of the General Assembly. However, the General Assembly still retains considerable authority over local government. As a result, the legislature still devotes considerable time to local matters, and county legislative delegations still handle many matters that are handled by county governments in the rest of the country.^[3]

There are 124 members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, who are elected every two years, and the South Carolina Senate has 46 members, elected every four years concurrent to the presidential election. For both houses, there are no term limits. The General Assembly meets in joint session to elect judges, with all 170 members having an equal vote in such elections.