Georgia DAs file new lawsuit challenging state oversight panel

ATLANTA – Three Georgia district attorneys have filed a new lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of legislation creating an oversight board with the power to discipline and potentially remove prosecutors. The Republican-controlled General Assembly passed a bill last year creating the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission (PAQC) to handle complaints against local prosecutors. The panel can remove district attorneys it deems guilty of a variety of offenses including mental or physical incapacity, willful misconduct or failure to perform the duties of the office, conviction of a crime of moral turpitude, or conduct that brings the office into disrepute. The commission has been stalled since the state Supreme Court ruled last November that it does not have the authority to review the rules the commission adopts, as the 2023 bill had provided. GOP lawmakers responded during the recently concluded legislative session by passing a follow-up bill giving that authority to the commission itself, which Gov. Brian Kemp signed last month. The suit alleges the legislation violates the constitutional separation of powers by giving the General Assembly authority over duly elected prosecutors and violates district attorneys’ free speech rights. “Governor Kemp and the state lawmakers who supported this measure willfully ignored the concerns raised...