Kathleen Kane, the Pennsylvania Attorney General, temporarily lost her license to practice law by order of the State Supreme Court. Kane is facing criminal charges for allegedly leaking confidential grand jury information to the press. Kane discovered sexually explicit and otherwise offensive emails between the Court and former state prosecutors and exposed the culture of racism and misogyny earlier this year. The good ol’ boys club has been after her ever since.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court took action against the state’s Attorney General, Kathleen Kane earlier this week. As you may recall, Kane is fighting criminal charges of leaking confidential information pertaining to an ongoing investigation to the press. In a unanimous ruling, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court temporarily suspends AG Kane’s law license.
There is very little doubt in my mind that this is a retaliatory move prompted by Kane’s diligent work in exposing corruption, racism and misogyny in her state’s legal system. Kane, an elected Democrat, was allowed to stay in office despite the fact that the Pennsylvania constitution states that the AG must be a member of the Bar Association. However, the state Supreme Court gets the final say in matters of attorney discipline.
The Court’s order stated, “This order should not be construed as removing [Kane] from elected office and is limited to the temporary suspension of her license to practice law.” The Court consists of three Republicans, two Democrats and two vacant seats.
Earlier this summer, Kane was indicted on charges of sharing protected grand jury information to a local newspaper and lying about it in sworn testimony. She has maintained that the charges were retaliation for her uncovering and exposing offensive and sexually explicit email messages sent between former prosecutors under her predecessor and the state Supreme Court.
Kane was investigating former AG Tom Corbett’s handling of an investigation of former Penn State assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky was eventually convicted of sex crimes against boys. During her investigation, Kane discovered the offensive and unprofessional email messages and later exposed them.
Kane has since issued a statement regarding her disappointment in the temporary loss of her license, but also expressed gratitude that she was allowed to continue serving as the AG. True to her goals, she swore she would continue to “root out the culture of misogyny and racially/religiously offensive behavior that has permeated law enforcement and members of the judiciary” in her state for years.
Apparently, the good ol’ boy network doesn’t like it when a strong woman steps up and calls them out for being racist, sexist idiots. Unfortunately, that same network has a very powerful tool for exacting revenge in the form of license suspension.
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