A Fulton County, Georgia, Superior Court judge has upheld a Republican-backed committee dedicated to overseeing and disciplining “rogue” prosecutors, striking down a bipartisan challenge to the law from 2024.
The body, known as the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission, was created in 2023 through a bill known as Senate Bill 92. It allows members of the commission to investigate and remove prosecutors who commit misconduct or who display “willful and persistent failure to carry out duties.”
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill into law in 2023 in the hopes that the commission would rein in “resistance from rogue or incompetent prosecutors who refuse to uphold the law.”
At the time, Democrats and other critics called the bill an overstep of lawmakers’ authority and an attempt to police elected prosecutors who choose not to prosecute low-level offenses.
The law was challenged by a group of district attorneys. The group argued that the law infringed upon their freedom of speech. But in a Wednesday ruling, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker disagreed, arguing that district attorneys could only be disciplined based on their actions and official policies, not their speech.