The Georgia Supreme Court (pictured above) refused to accept the proposed rules for the state’s new Prosecuting Attorneys Qualification Commission (PAQC) in a ruling made Wednesday, effectively pausing the Republican effort to provide oversight for the state’s attorneys.
Georgia lawmakers passed SB 92 last year, creating the PAQC to provide oversight of elected district attorneys across the state, and it was signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp (R) in May. While independent, the legislation requires the Georgia Supreme Court to accept the PAQC’s draft standards and rules before the committee can enforce its decisions.
In its written ruling, the Georgia Supreme Court expressed “grave doubts” about whether it has “the constitutional power to take any action on” accepting or declining PAQC’s proposals, and instead declined to make any decision on the matter, indefinitely pausing the committee.
“Because we are under no legal directive to take action,” the justices wrote in the court’s ruling, “the most prudent course is for us to decline to take action without conclusively deciding any constitutional question.”
When Georgia State Senator Colton Moore (R-Trenton) began circulating a legislative petition calling for a special session to defund or impeach Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over her indictment of former President Donald Trump and his allies, Governor Brian Kemp (R) called Moore’s plan a “grifter scam,” while other Republican critics pointed to the PAQC as a realistic alternative.
State Senator Bo Hatchett (R-Cornelia) said that “Republicans agree” with Moore’s desire to reign in Willis, but said the Republican leaders in the legislature “refuse to sell a false reality to voters about what we can do about it,” and instead suggested the PAQC could hold Willis “accountable for politicizing her position.”
Hatchett was among the eight Senate Republicans who filed an ethics complaint against Willis shortly after the PAQC started in October. He was joined by Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch (R-Dahlonega) and six other Republican senators, and their complaint alleged that Willis harmed Georgia by choosing which cases to prosecute based on her political views. The complaint did not mention Trump.
At the time, Gooch told local media the PAQC “complaint is just one of the tools at our disposal,” and promised the Senate Republicans “won’t relent until” Willis “feels the consequences of her misplaced priorities.”
DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston (D), who The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported was “among the prosecutors who brought the lawsuit,” celebrated the decision in remarks made to the outlet.
She said the plaintiffs “celebrate” the decision “as a victory,” and “remain steadfast” in their “commitment to fight any future attempts” to undermine the decisions of elected district attorneys.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
