The state Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the 2022 impeachment of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives expired with that year’s legislative session.
“Prosecutor Krasner’s impeachment action is dead, null and void,” said John Summers, Krasner’s attorney before the Supreme Court. As a result, the Senate trial on charges of Krasner’s misconduct while in office will not take place.
Summers said that based on a January 2023 Commonwealth Court panel opinion that found the allegations in the articles of impeachment approved by the House in November 2022 were unconstitutional, the Supreme Court’s ruling is a double victory for Krasner.
“Today’s ruling actually affirms the role of an independent judiciary in a democracy,” Summers said, noting that Krasner was elected twice with immense majorities. He called impeachment “an attempt by non-Philadelphia legislators to step in and invalidate the votes of Philadelphia voters.”
State Rep. Craig Williams (D-Delaware), who served as the House’s lead impeachment manager, said the Supreme Court’s decision leaves the substance of the allegations in the articles of impeachment unresolved.
“It is important to note that the court did not address whether allegations of misconduct in office meet the constitutional standard for impeachment and conviction for the same,” Williams said in a statement. “These questions must be decided by the Supreme Court. The rule of law and public confidence in the criminal justice system require it.”
Krasner, who was first elected in 2018, has been criticized for his progressive criminal justice policies and was one of several Democratic prosecutors who were targeted by Republicans in response to racial unrest following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.
Approved by a 107-85 vote, the articles of impeachment accuse Krasner of dereliction of duty and refusal to enforce the law, obstruction of a special committee authorized to investigate his office, and violations of professional ethics, judicial procedure, victims’ rights and the state constitution.
In her opinion for the Commonwealth Court, Justice Ellen Ceisler found that the charges against Krasner did not meet the required constitutional standard.
Instead, it appears that the House simply does not approve of this approach [Krasner] decided to run his own office,” Ceisler wrote. “Whether or not any of the House’s objections have merit on the merits, the fact remains that such disputes, by themselves, are insufficient to create a constitutionally sound basis for impeachment and removal [Krasner]”
Summers said Thursday that in addition to upholding the Commonwealth Court’s decision, the Supreme Court found that the plain language of the state constitution provides that when the House exercises its impeachment power during one session of the General Assembly, the trial must be conducted by the Senate of that same session.
Legislative sessions in Pennsylvania last approximately two years, beginning on the first Tuesday in January after a presidential or midterm election and ending on November 30 of the following year.
Krasner’s articles of impeachment were approved in the House on November 16, 2022, and transmitted to the Senate on November 30, 2022, the same day that both the House and Senate formally ended the 2021–2022 legislative session.
In her Supreme Court majority decision, Chief Justice Debra Todd wrote that the Constitution provides that the House and Senate cease to exist as functioning bodies at the end of each biennial session.
“All powers granted by the Constitution to the House of Representatives and the Senate shall remain in force only for the duration of the session of the General Assembly in which those bodies were created,” Todd wrote.
“The Constitution simply does not textually allow the House and Senate of the next session of the General Assembly to take any further action on matters that the House or Senate of the previous session of the General Assembly may have started but did not end the session at that time, given that they are separate entities constitutionally,” says the majority opinion.
The case was decided by five members of seven courts, with Justice Sallie Mundy issuing a dissenting, partially dissenting opinion. Judges Kevin Dougherty and Kevin Brobson did not participate in the decision.
