South Carolina Legislature - Definition and Overview

The South Carolina General Assembly (also called the South Carolina Legislature) is the legislative branch of South Carolina and consists of the South Carolina House of Representatives and the South Carolina Senate. Prior to Reynolds v. Sims the House was apportioned so that each county had a number of representatives apportioned on the basis of population with each county guaranteed at least one Representative, while each county had one Senator. Moreover, each county's General Assembly delegation also doubled as its county council. With Reynolds v. Sims causing district lines to cross county lines, legislators were now stuck with the task of being on multiple county councils. This lead to the passage of the Home Rule Act of 1975, which gave counties councils independent of the General Assembly for the first time in the history of the state. However some functions that in most states are done by county governments are still handled by county legislative delegations.