The Georgia Supreme Court handed down some bad news for Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, by putting a law “empowered to sanction” liberal prosecutors on hold.
Kemp and other Republicans were champing at the bit to overhaul the measure, but with the court’s decision, that’s just not going to happen, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
In a six-page ruling, the court found it had “grave doubts” about whether it had the constitutional authority to approve the rules the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission put forth. That step is required by law.
“Because we are under no legal directive to take action without conclusively deciding any constitutional question,” the order states.
So the law is effectively on hold. The commission began accepting complaints earlier this year but under Senate Bill 92, it is prohibited from taking any action until the Georgia Supreme Court approves a batch of rules and a code of conduct.
This battle is receiving plenty of attention, especially because Donald Trump and his allies hope to use the law to punish Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis as she continues to seek election interference charges against the ex-president.
So this is bad news for Kemp and other GOPers who fervently pushed the law earlier this year so they could punish “rogue” prosecutors even as Democrats vehemently objected to this, saying it goes against the will of voters.
The law is just one of many Republican-led efforts across the country to gain more control over progressive prosecutors. As is typical of Republicans, they are accusing these prosecutors of neglecting their duties by refusing to enforce low-level drug offenses, anti-abortion restrictions, and, per the Journal “tough-on-crime crackdowns.”
The interesting bit here is that it’s attracted scrutiny from supporters and critics who say it could be used against prosecutors investigating Trump.
We saw a preview of this last month when Georgia Senate Republican leaders filed a formal complaint to the commission in an effort to sanction Willis, even though Kemp and House Speaker Jon Burns said they found no evidence that Willis violated state law.
As the story’s author Greg Bluestein writes, “The battle over the commission is being closely watched partly because [ex-President] Donald Trump’s allies aim to use the new law,” that Kemp had backed “to punish Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for seeking election interference charges against the former president.”
No one was surprised by the court’s decision on Wednesday because the court had already been questioning if it even had the legal authority to approve the rules. This prompted a response by the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys that found the commission “unlawful.”
The main question here is whether the judicial branch has authority over Georgia’s district attorneys. It’s an issue that the justices said they weren’t ready to resolve.
“In short, we have grave doubts that we have the constitutional power to take any action on the draft standards and rules,” according to the ruling. “But deciding the question of whether we actually have that power would require deciding difficult constitutional questions of first impression outside of the adversarial process.”
Apparently, at least some lawmakers were expecting the constitutional controversy. The Georgia Senate even passed a floor amendment as it was being debated legislatively. This would have removed the Court’s authority in the process, but this change wasn’t adopted by the House and it wasn’t in the final version that was signed by Kemp.
But it’s thought that Georgia lawmakers will amend the legislation next year to remove the Georgia Supreme Court’s role.
Fortunately, the commission faces plenty of legal opposition from a bipartisan coalition of district attorneys who contend the measure is unconstitutional. DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston, one of the prosecutors who brought the lawsuit, said the ruling by the court exposed the “fundamental failings” of the law.
“While we celebrate this as a victory,” she said, “we remain steadfast in our commitment to fight any future attempts to undermine the will of Georgia Voters and the independence of the prosecutors who they choose to represent them.”
Sure the prosecutors won this small battle. But a larger war is looming that may seriously limit prosecutors from doing the job that the public has elected them to do.
Will this encourage other red states to follow suit? Only time will tell.
Sh!t yes it will!
Good.
If this law is upheld, they would punish any prosecutor who dared indict any white man for murder if the victim is a PoC.
I guess I don’t understand why kemp would want this law to go forward. Trump getting his ass handed to him in court over election interference justifies kemp’s actions which were to ignore trump’s request that election fraud be committed. Had this law gone ahead eventually folks would have come to the conclusion that the turd emperor was on trial because of kemp’s refusal.