Why did S.C. Education Department hire a private attorney to push book ban rules?

On Tuesday, a new regulation went into place stripping local school districts in South Carolina of the authority to decide what books go on school shelves.

Supporters of the new rule, which empowers the Board of Education to determine whether books and classroom material contain “sexual conduct” and should be banned statewide, have said that it streamlines an uneven system. Critics have accused it of laying the groundwork for stricter book bans.

Central to the Department of Education’s effort was a high-powered attorney connected to conservative legal organizations who was paid more than $40,000 for his work, which included explaining the rule change to legislators who allowed the law to take effect without voting on it.

Miles Coleman, an attorney with the prominent Nelson Mullins law firm and president of the Columbia chapter of the Federalist Society, a conservative national legal group, was contracted by the Department of Education to represent it regarding the new regulation.

Coleman, who the Education Department described as a nationally recognized expert in First Amendment law, was retained at a rate of $225 an hour, according to a request to employ outside counsel that state Superintendent Ellen Weaver filed with the state Attorney General’s Office.

The request stipulated that Coleman was being retained for “legal representation and potential litigation relating to the promulgation of regulations relating to library materials.”

Nelson Mullins was ultimately paid $41,855 for its work, according to the Department of Education. Another attorney at Nelson Mullins is representing The State Media Co. in a lawsuit that alleges the Lexington Richland 5 school district violated the state’s open meetings law.

“Protecting the minds of South Carolina’s students from sexually explicit materials in our schools is worth every penny,” a department spokesperson, Jason Raven, wrote in an email to The State.

But critics have seen the decision to hire outside counsel as proof of Weaver’s agenda. “Superintendent Weaver has demonstrated the lengths she will go to impose her beliefs on teachers, librarians, students, and parents,” said Paul Bowers, director of communications with the ACLU of South Carolina when asked about Coleman’s role in the new law.

Coleman, a partner at Nelson Mullins in Greenville, also specializes in appeals, business litigation and complex civil and criminal litigation, according to his bio. Among other clients, he represented the Pickens County school district in a lawsuit brought by the NAACP concerning the district’s decision to ban the book “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You,” by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. He also represented the Christian Learning Centers of Greenville, a private religious education provider, in their fight to obtain a $1.5 million state earmark.

A 2009 graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law, Coleman has been heavily involved in conservative organizations. In addition to being a member of the executive committee of the Federalist Society’s Religious Liberties Practice Group, Coleman was a fellow at the National Review and is currently the secretary of the board of directors at School Ministries, an organization that provides support for public school students to go off campus during school hours to study the bible.

While in law school, Coleman also received a 2007 Blackstone Legal Fellowship. The fellowship is a summer legal training program run by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal advocacy group, which was designated an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The ADF has strongly denied this characterization and describes itself as a leading Christian law firm “committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, marriage and family, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.”

“Mr. Coleman is a nationally recognized First Amendment expert whose work has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court. Mr. Coleman was engaged by the SCDE regarding the State Board of Education’s instructional materials regulation to help ensure it protected students’ and teachers’ First Amendment rights,” Raven said.

While the Department of Education has a general counsel, it’s not unusual for state agencies to work with outside counsel when special expertise is needed, Raven told The State.

Coleman also appeared to take a leading role in pitching the new rule to legislators. In April, Coleman appeared at least twice before legislators to explain the need for the new rule, saying that it aimed to fix a “patchwork quilt of 80 or more different policies,” according to the South Carolina Daily Gazette.

He also defended the regulation’s sweeping prohibition on “sexual content” in library books and classroom materials. By keeping the definition broad, Coleman told lawmakers that the Department of Education was trying to avoid lengthy debates about what did or did not meet standards, according to the Daily Gazette.

“It’s simple enough that it’s not going to get bogged down,” he told lawmakers.

Coleman did not respond to a request for comment on this article.

The rule, which passed out of the education subcommittee, became law on June 25, despite never being voted on by the full General Assembly. South Carolina law allows proposed regulations to automatically become law if they are not voted on within 120 days.

The initial request called for Coleman to work from Oct. 31, 2023, to June 30, 2024, with a maximum fee of $25,000. On April 15 that request was amended to raise the maximum fee to $50,000.

Defending the cost, Raven, the Education Department spokesperson, noted that the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office approves the hourly rates that state agencies pay to outside counsel. Raven added that Coleman’s rate was less than half of what the attorney would typically charge.

Coleman received his undergraduate education from Bob Jones University, a conservative, private Christian university in Greenville. Weaver earned her master’s degree in education at Bob Jones while she was running for the position of superintendent.