Kathleen Kane, Pennsylvania Attorney General, Is Suspended From Practicing Law

Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane of Pennsylvania at her home office in Clarks Summit.CreditMark Makela for The New York Times

Kathleen Kane, Pennsylvania Attorney General, Is Suspended From Practicing Law


HARRISBURG, Pa. — The state’s highest court on Monday ordered the suspension of the law license of Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane, a step that could set up a Senate vote to remove her as she faces criminal charges.

The unanimous order by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court could also prompt a legal challenge from Ms. Kane, a first-term Democrat and the first woman to be Pennsylvania’s top prosecutor. In the meantime, the order has created the complication of leaving the state’s top law enforcement official, who is in charge of a 750-employee office and a $93 million budget, without the ability to act as a lawyer, at least temporarily.

In the order, the court said its action should not be construed as removing Ms. Kane from office. Her office said it was reviewing the decision and offered no immediate comment. Her personal lawyers had no immediate comment.


The order came barely a month after Montgomery County authorities arrested Ms. Kane on accusations that she had leaked secret investigative information to a newspaper reporter and then lied about it under oath. She was charged with perjury, obstruction and other counts.

Her lawyers have argued that suspending her license while she is contesting the charges will circumvent explicit constitutional provisions for removing her from office and will violate her right to due process.

Ms. Kane has maintained that she did nothing wrong.

The possibility of the court’s action prompted Senate lawyers to research a never-used constitutional provision that would allow a two-thirds vote of senators to remove certain elected officials.

In its Aug. 25 petition to the state justices, the agency that investigates allegations of misconduct by Pennsylvania lawyers argued that Ms. Kane and one of her former defense attorneys had admitted that she authorized the release of information related to a 2009 grand jury investigation.

That allegation is also central to the criminal case against her.

Ms. Kane’s lawyers say she did not disclose grand jury material or information kept secret under state criminal records laws. Instead, they have argued, she authorized only the release of information “relating to a pattern of unjustifiable selective prosecution or nonprosecution” under her predecessors.

Statements by her former lawyer that she had authorized release of the information were incorrect, her lawyers now contend.

After the charges against her were filed on Aug. 6, Gov. Tom Wolf, a fellow Democrat, called on Ms. Kane to resign. Ms. Kane, whose term is to end in 2017, has refused.