Kane Supporters Fight Effort to Take Her Law License

Nearly 1,000 have signed Change.org petition in AG's favor.

Photo by Matt Rourke/AP

Photo by Matt Rourke/AP

Nearly 1,000 people have signed a Change.org petition opposing reported efforts to suspend the law license of Attorney General Kathleen Kane.

The petition emerged after TribLive reported Friday that the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court has notified Kane that she has been targeted for action. The process is supposedly a secret. “Harrisburg is abuzz about whether the secretive lawyer discipline process is under way,” Brad Bumsted reported. “It becomes public only if the Supreme Court acts.”

In response, petitioners ask the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to let the legal charges against Kane — accused of leaking secret grand jury information as part of a political vendetta — play out before making any decisions on her law license.

Under the state constitution, only persons holding a law license can serve as attorney general.

“By calling on you to step aside in the matter, we are ultimately requesting for you to grant Attorney General Kathleen Kane her right to a fair trial before making any motion to remove her from her elected position,” the petition says. “If you remove Kathleen Kane from the AG position, you are violating her constitutional right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and more importantly, you will be nullifying over 3 million votes that were cast in her favor in 2012.”

“The disciplinary board keeps its deliberations secret, so it’s not clear what type of action is being sought or how it originated. At least one individual, activist Gene Stilp, has said publicly that he filed a complaint against Kane,” PennLive reports. “It can recommend an emergency temporary suspension in the case of misappropriation of funds or ‘other egregious conduct.’ The Supreme Court would ultimately decide whether or not to take up the independent board’s recommendation.”

Kane reportedly has 10 days to respond to the Disciplinary Board’s notice to her.

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