PHILADELPHIA (September 27, 2024) — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued on Thursday a landmark opinion concluding that the Articles of Impeachment against Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner are null and void. This second win for DA Krasner means the General Assembly’s impeachment effort is dead.
On December 30, 2022, the Commonwealth Court ruled that the Articles were unconstitutional because they did not allege that DA Krasner engaged in “misbehavior in office.” That Pennsylvania Constitutional standard requires a showing that an officer engaged in what amounted to a common law crime. The Articles, written by legislators from outside Philadelphia, fell far short of that. Instead, they largely complained that Philadelphia’s Krasner did not exercise his prosecutorial discretion or implement policies that they agreed with. Impeachments cannot be grounded in policy differences, particularly those of a district attorney who has been elected by voters who favored those policies.
DA Krasner had also raised in the Commonwealth Court a second basis for challenging the Articles – the Articles died nearly two years ago (November 30, 2022) when the Session of the House of Representatives that issued the Articles ended. The Commonwealth Court did not accept this second challenge.
Today’s ruling gives DA Krasner a double win. First, it reversed the Commonwealth Court and held, with only one dissent, that the Articles in fact had died nearly two years ago. That makes the Articles null and void. The Pennsylvania Constitution, the Court ruled, “simply does not textually permit the House and the Senate of a subsequent session of the General Assembly to take any further action on matters which the House or Senate of a prior session of the General Assembly may have begun, but not finished during that session.” Any other interpretation, the Court said, leads to “nonsensical results.”
Second, the Supreme Court’s ruling leaves fully intact the Commonwealth Court’s holding that the Articles failed to allege that DA Krasner engaged in the kind of conduct that would violate the crime known as “misbehavior in office.” This maintains a very high bar. DA Krasner, of course, did no such thing as the Articles were largely a compilation of gripes about criminal justice policy differences.
Finally, today’s ruling is a victory for democracy and for the citizens of Philadelphia. As the Supreme Court recognized, DA Krasner is the elected and “overwhelmingly” re-elected DA of Philadelphia. Philadelphia voters elected him to be Philadelphia’s chief law enforcement officer. The outcome of every election – including Philadelphia’s – must be respected. The General Assembly’s effort, composed mostly of legislators from outside Philadelphia, to try to upset the Philadelphia election by impeaching DA Krasner was an audacious and undemocratic act. By stopping this impeachment effort, the Supreme Court joins the Commonwealth Court in rejecting the General Assembly’s attack on our democracy.
CONTACT:
Dustin Slaughter, [email protected]
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The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is the largest prosecutor’s office in Pennsylvania, and one of the largest in the nation. It serves the more than 1.5 million residents of the City and County of Philadelphia, employing 600 lawyers, detectives, and support staff. The District Attorney’s Office is responsible for the prosecution of approximately 40,000 criminal cases annually. Learn more about the DAO by visiting PhillyDA.org.