A federal judge has dismissed a First Amendment retaliation lawsuit filed by a former Midlands school board member against several of his board colleagues
U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis on Friday dismissed federal claims by former board member Ken Loveless, saying he lacked standing. Loveless lost his re-election bid in 2022 but is running again in November.
The former Lexington-Richland 5 school board member filed a lawsuit last year against former board members Michael Cates, Beth Hutchison and Ed White, along with former school board attorney Michael Montgomery, for actions allegedly taken against him over his criticism of the construction of an elementary school. Loveless served on the Chapin-Irmo board from 2018 to 2022, but lost his re-election bid in 2022. He is running again in November.
Loveless alleges the four of them conspired to frame him for ethical violations related to his relationship with Contract Construction, the company that built Piney Woods Elementary School, which opened in 2021. Loveless’ company had a contract to work with the construction company on another project, while at the same time he had reservations about the company’s work at the elementary school.
He was eventually charged with violating the state Ethics Act and fined more than $6,000 by the S.C. Ethics Commission. Loveless is appealing that decision and denies he did anything wrong.
Instead, Loveless alleges in his lawsuit that it was the “cabal” of school district officials who sought to protect their relationship with Contract Construction by attempting to silence his criticism of the Piney Woods project. For a time, Loveless withdrew from discussion or oversight of the project.
Hutchison and White were critics of Loveless’ involvement in the Piney Woods project when he was associated with Contract Construction. Cates was the school board president.
According to her, Lewis wrote that Loveless could not link specific damages to the defendants’ alleged actions. Loveless said in the lawsuit that he had suffered social exclusion as a result of the controversy, claiming that he was “shunned” from professional and philanthropic events because of public criticism of him. Loveless ultimately lost his 2022 re-election bid by just 16 votes.
Loveless also cited alleged defamatory comments made online by school district resident Kevin Scully, including calling Loveless a “cheat” and “a loser.” Loveless filed a separate defamation lawsuit against Scully, who was subsequently elected to the Lexington-Richland 5 School Board. Loveless’ lawsuit against Scully is still pending.
Lewis said the reasons a voter cast a ballot for one candidate or another cannot be reviewed by the court, nor can they be directly tied to any specific action taken by the defendants in the lawsuit. She also wrote that comments made by Scully, who is not a party to the lawsuit, are not relevant to any actions taken by the named defendants.
Furthermore, the judge wrote in her decision: “There is no evidence that Scully caused Plaintiff’s alleged exclusion from these professional and charitable activities, other than Plaintiff’s unpersuasive attempts to connect facts, timelines, and assumptions.”
Lewis notes that Loveless’ own lawsuit appears to minimize the impact of the alleged violations. She pointed to this statement in the original lawsuit:
“(I)t is to be hoped that the reputational damage caused by the defendants and others will be limited to inexperienced and minimally competent individuals who think that social media is the real world, and some of whom appear to have difficulty distinguishing between what is on social media and reality.”
Lewis said that because Loveless “fails to prove the actual damages element of his First Amendment claim, the Court declines to address the parties’ remaining arguments here,” Lewis wrote.
Any claims under South Carolina law for abuse of process and conspiracy can be refiled in state court, she said in the ruling, denying the defendants’ request to dismiss the claims entirely.
Loveless is currently running to win back a seat on the Lexington-Richland 5 School Board on Nov. 5. He is one of three candidates running for two at-large seats on the Lexington County side of the district, along with USC professor Scott Herring and incumbent Catherine Huddle.
