The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has a limited role in the ongoing saga of embattled Pa. Attorney General Kathleen Kane, according chief justice of the state’s highest court.
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Pa. Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Saylor said Monday the court won’t try to push Kane out while she faces criminal charges that she leaked confidential grand jury information in order to embarrass a political rival.
The 5-0 decision to suspend the first-term Democrat does not prevent her from continuing to serve as attorney general, Saylor said, and he emphatically declined to offer an opinion about whether she should step down.
“I think that there’s provisions – once her license is suspended – for fairly competent people to run that office”, says Saylor. Even though Kane’s law license is temporarily suspended, Saylor said she is still a member of the state bar association.
He added, “You can’t function as an attorney during the period of your suspension”.
Kane spokesman Chuck Ardo said there is an intensive review underway within the office to determine which of Kane’s duties are legal or administrative in nature. “You know, the Commonwealth attorney’s act says that first deputy attorney general, which I used to be, can run the office in the absence of the attorney general”.
The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts has asked that any emails involving judges be sent to the state board that investigates judicial misconduct, Saylor said.
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Judges have to ensure “that they don’t do it in a few fashion that will cause somebody to question how close that relationship is, or the lack of objectivity”, Saylor said.
