Embattled AG Kathleen Kane seeks return of law license, points to suspended supreme court judge
The day before a scheduled state senate committee hearing on whether she should be removed from office, Pennsylvania’s embattled attorney general asked the state supreme court on an emergency basis to restore her license to practice law.
The Monday filing by AG Kathleen Kane’s lawyer, James Mundy, seeks a ruling from the state’s top court by 1 p.m. Tuesday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
The filing contends a decision last year by the state supreme court to temporarily suspend Kane’s law license was tainted, because one of the court’s justices, who is now himself suspended while awaiting an ethics trial on alleged “insensitive and inappropriate emails,” participated in the decision.
At the time, Justice J. Michael Eakin knew that Kane had access to emails in question, because an attorney in her office was also part of the chain of distribution, the article says.
Kane was suspended from practice by the court because of a perjury case in which she is charged with making confidential grand jury information public in an effort to cast a critic in a bad light. That criminal case against Kane has not yet been decided, and she maintains her innocence.
The Special Committee on Senate Address hearing on Tuesday will focus on whether a little-known state constitutional provision should be employed to remove Kane from office, because her job performance is curtailed by the suspension of her law license. An Allentown Morning Call article discusses what is expected to happen there.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Another justice of Pennsylvania’s top court faces ethics complaint linked to ‘Porngate’”
ABAJournal.com: “Pennsylvania justice is suspended for ‘insensitive and inappropriate’ emails in interim order”
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “AG Kathleen Kane is ‘legally disabled,’ top deputy tells Pennsylvania senate committee”
