The Georgia House on Monday passed legislation that aims to let a newly created panel overseeing the state’s prosecutors begin its work.
Last year, lawmakers created the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission and empowered it to sanction prosecutors once the state Supreme Court approved rules to guide the panel.
The law was challenged in court, and the Supreme Court said it had “grave doubts” about whether it had the constitutional authority to approve rules and standards of conduct for the commission as required by the law.
To fix the constitutional problem flagged by the Supreme Court, state Rep. Joseph Gullet, an Acworth Republican, introduced legislation that removed the requirement that the rules be approved by a third party. House Bill 881 passed 95-75, on a nearly party-line vote. Republican state Rep. Charlice Byrd of Woodstock voted against the measure.
Gullett said HB 881 would “reinforce the integrity of our legal system.”
Republican-led efforts have been occurring nationwide to exert more control over liberal prosecutors they accuse of neglecting their duties because they refuse to enforce low-level drug offenses, anti-abortion restrictions and tough-on-crime crackdowns.
“Once HB 881 has passed, this commission will now be able to begin their real work — that is bringing accountability to those prosecuting attorneys who abuse their office, sexually harass their employees and do not show up for work,” he said. “We’re here to have oversight over our rogue district attorneys to make sure they do the job that they’re supposed to do.”
State Rep. Stacey Evans, an Atlanta Democrat, said that lawmakers who approved the bill creating the commission believed the panel needed oversight last year. But once the Supreme Court ruled it did not have jurisdiction, they abandoned the idea.
“For a body so concerned about oversight, when the person we picked to do the oversight said they can’t do it, we didn’t pick a substitute overseer,” she said. “We just said, ‘We’re good, don’t oversee us.’ ”
The battle over the commission is being closely watched partly because Donald Trump’s allies aim to use the law to punish Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for seeking election interference charges against the former president and more than a dozen others in their efforts to reverse the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.
HB 881 now goes to the Senate for its consideration.
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