Prosecutors withdraw lawsuit against Kemp-backed oversight panel
Withdrawal comes after court blocks SB92
A bipartisan group of Georgia prosecutors announced Monday that they are withdrawing their legal challenge to an oversight panel that had been championed by Gov. Brian Kemp and other state Republican leaders.
DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said that she filed to dismiss the lawsuit against Senate Bill 92 after the state’s top court blocked the panel from conducting any business. She was joined by three colleagues as plaintiffs in the suit: Cobb County DA Flynn Broady, Augusta DA Jared Williams and Towaliga DA Jonathan Adams. Adams is a Republican, and the rest are Democrats.
The four DAs filed the lawsuit before the ink from Gov. Kemp’s pen could dry on SB92. Kemp and his legislative allies at the Gold Dome said that a new oversight panel was needed to help crack down on “rouge” prosecutors who refuse to enforce certain state laws in their communities. The panel, which had started meeting in October, would have had the power to investigate, discipline and even recommend the removal of locally elected prosecutors from office.
But DA Boston and other critics of the new law called it an “assault” on prosecutors and said that district attorneys already face oversight from the voters that elect them to office every four years. “SB92 says to voters, if the state doesn’t like your choice, the state will choose for you,” Boston said at the time.
The state supreme court, however, questioned their ability to enforce the panel’s rules and regulations. The justices said last month that they did not feel obligated to give the panel a green light since they faced no legal pressure to do so, but they stopped short of saying that SB92 was unconstitutional.
“The recent decision by the Georgia Supreme Court rightfully recognizes that SB 92 is a fundamentally flawed law that cannot be permitted to take effect,” Boston said Monday. “While this is good news for Georgia residents, we must remain vigilant against future efforts to abuse state power and infringe upon the will of voters.”
State lawmakers are expected to take up this issue again during their annual 40-day legislative session, which kicks off in January. Boston says she is prepared to file challenges to any legislation that “violates the state and federal constitutions.”