The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Tuesday on behalf of 23 Pennsylvania residents, naming Kane and Republican Gov. Tom Corbett as defendants. Kane announced her position to reporters at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center.
Attorney General Kane said she was obligated to drop the case “because I endorse equality and anti-discrimination laws...If there is a law that I feel that does not conform with the Pennsylvania state constitution and the U.S. Constitution, then I ethically cannot do that as a lawyer." Kane said that in a choice between defending the law and serving the public, “I choose you.”
Now the burden of defending the law falls on the governor’s general counsel. Corbett supports the law. Pennsylvania General Counsel James D. Schultz issued a statement that [he and his colleagues] “are surprised that the Attorney General, contrary to her constitutional duty under the Commonwealth Attorneys Act, has decided not to defend a Pennsylvania statute lawfully enacted by the General Assembly, merely because of her personal beliefs.”
Sorry, AG Kane. You are derelict in your duty. No grandstanding or political posturing can replace your duty. You are bound by Pennsylvania law to defend its laws. The Commonwealth Attorneys Act of 1980 (Ch2, Section 204 (3) reads: It shall be the duty of the Attorney General to uphold and defend the constitutionality of all statutes so as to prevent their suspension or abrogation in the absence of a controlling decision by a court of competent jurisdiction.
The Attorney General doesn't get to choose which laws she will defend or obey and which she can take a politically correct position on. She is not to judge whether the General Assembly passed an unconstitutional law. She has presumed the court's position before the case has even begun. Her job, her duty, is to defend her client, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to the best of her ability.
What if tomorrow AG Kane decides not to defend another duly enacted law? Say she decides, in her judgment, voter registration laws are discriminatory. Or the next day she judges Act 122, which mandated that abortion clinics upgrade their facilities under the same guidelines that regulate surgical facilities, was unconstitutional?
You see, she does not have authority to judge the law or reflect on how it makes her feel. Her OBLIGATION is not to drop the case as she says; her obligation is to DEFEND THE LAW.
This is serious. If Attorney General Kane cannot find it within herself to do her duty then she should resign. If she does not resign then the House of Representatives should initiate the impeachment process (Article VI, Section 4) for her failure to carry out her constitutional duties and send her to the Senate to be tried (Article VI, Section 5).
