Court rules Pa. Senate cannot hold trial on articles of impeachment against Philly DA Larry Krasner

The impeachment of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner that the Pennsylvania House of Representatives started in 2022 expired with that year’s legislative session, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

“The impeachment effort of DA Krasner is dead, null, void, over,” John Summers, Krasner’s attorney before the Supreme Court, said. As a result, a Senate trial on charges of misconduct in office against Krasner will not take place.

Taken with a January 2023 opinion from a Commonwealth Court panel that the allegations in the articles of impeachment that the House approved in November 2022 were unconstitutional, the Supreme Court’s ruling is a double victory for Krasner, Summers said.

“The ruling today is really an affirmation of the role of an independent court system in a Democracy,” Summers said, noting that Krasner has been elected twice by broad margins. He called the impeachment “an effort hatched by non-Philadelphia legislators to step in and nullify the votes of Philadelphia voters.”

State Rep. Craig Williams (R-Delaware), who served as lead impeachment manager in the House, said the Supreme Court decision leaves the substance of allegations in the articles of impeachment unresolved.

“It is important to note the court did not answer if the allegations of misbehavior in office met the constitutional standard for impeachment and conviction for the same,” Williams said in a statement. “Those questions must be resolved by the Supreme Court. The rule of law and the public’s confidence in the criminal justice system requires it.”

Krasner, who was first elected in 2018, was criticized for his progressive criminal justice policies and was one of several Democratic prosecutors targeted by Republicans in the backlash of racial unrest following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

Approved by a 107-85 vote, the articles of impeachment charged Krasner with dereliction of duty and refusal to enforce the law, obstructing the select committee empaneled to investigate his office, and violations of rules of professional conduct, judicial conduct, victims’ rights and the state constitution.

In her opinion for the Commonwealth Court, Judge Ellen Ceisler found that the allegations against Krasner did not rise to the required constitutional standard.

“Instead, the House simply appears not to approve of the way [Krasner] has chosen to run his office,” Ceisler wrote. “Regardless of whether any of the House’s concerns have substantive merit, it remains that such disagreements, standing alone, are not enough to create a constitutionally sound basis for impeaching and removing [Krasner].”

Summers said Thursday that in addition to affirming the Commonwealth Court’s decision, the Supreme Court said the plain language of the state constitution instructs that when the House exercises its power of impeachment during one session of the General Assembly, a trial must be held by the Senate of the same session.

Pennsylvania legislative sessions are held for about two years, running from the first Tuesday of January following a presidential or midterm election to Nov. 30 of the following year.

The articles of impeachment against Krasner were approved in the House on Nov. 16, 2022, and were transferred to theSenate on Nov 30, 2022, the same day both the House and Senate formally ended the 2021-2022 legislative session.

In her decision for the Supreme Court majority, 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 two year session.

“All powers granted by the Constitution to the House of Representatives and the Senate last only for the duration of the session of the General Assembly in which those bodies came into being,” Todd wrote.

“The Constitution 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, given that they are constitutionally distinct entities,” the majority opinion says.

The case was decided by five members of the seven justice court, with Justice Sallie Mundy issuing a separate opinion dissenting in part. Justices Kevin Dougherty and Kevin Brobson did not participate in the decision.