South Carolina lead counsel for the department of social services asserts that SC DSS is exempt from extending civil rights protection to individuals who are white/Caucasian. The case at hand involves the beating and abuse of an elderly white women who was forcibly taken and put under SC DSS protective custody where she died from the abuse she received that would have violated a black person’s civil rights but not hers according to DSS’s attorney.

“A claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 can only be brought in cases of race or national origin
discrimination. As Plaintiff has made no such claim, any claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 must be
dismissed.” ~ ~Eugene H. Matthews, SC DSS Lead Counsel