SC legislators ask why agency gave 2 hate groups OK to rally

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina legislators say state officials didn’t use common sense when they allowed two opposing hate groups to hold overlapping rallies at the Statehouse.

A legislative panel that oversees Statehouse grounds asked a Department of Administration official Tuesday why he authorized the Ku Klux Klan and a group affiliated with the New Black Panther Party to rally July 18 on opposite sides of the Statehouse.

A director at the agency said it came down to people’s free speech and assembly rights under the First Amendment. Nolan Wiggins says the agency wanted to avoid a lawsuit.

But the panel’s chairman, Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, faulted the Cabinet agency for not even asking the groups to rally on separate days or at least several hours apart.