HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania lawmakers seeking to oust Philadelphia’s elected progressive prosecutor improperly tried to stretch that trial over two different terms, the state’s highest court ruled Thursday.
The decision overturned a lower court ruling in a lawsuit filed by Larry Krasner after he was impeached by the state House in November 2022, a year after he was overwhelmingly re-elected to a second term. Republican lawmakers had argued that Krasner, a Democrat, should have prosecuted some minor crimes, had questioned his bail policies and the way he has managed his office, and their impeachment resolution was almost exclusively along party lines.
Krasner quickly dismissed the Republican Party’s claims as being against his policies. A month later, the lower court issued a split ruling in the case, rejecting two of Krasner’s objections — that the possibility of a trial died when that term ended in 2022 and that as a local official he could not be deposed by the general. Assembly.
In its ruling, the state Supreme Court ruled that the articles of impeachment “became null and void” when that term ended. The Republican Party controlled the House of Representatives at the time, but is now led by Democrats.
“The Constitution simply does not textually permit the House or Senate of a subsequent session of the General Assembly to take any further action on matters that the House or Senate of a previous session of the General Assembly may have initiated, but during that session have not completed. session,” Chief Justice Debra Todd wrote in her opinion.
Krasner’s office did not immediately respond Thursday to an email seeking comment on the ruling. Jason Gottesman, a spokesman for House Republicans, declined to say whether the Republican caucus would try to raise the impeachment issue again.
