ATLANTA — A new state commission tasked with disciplining prosecutors appears to be on hold as the Georgia Supreme Court declined to take action on the commission’s draft rules.

Senate Bill 92, the enabling legislation for the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission, was approved the legislature earlier this year, giving the commission the them the authority to investigate and remove local prosecutors from office.

The Republican-appointed commission was to create standards and conduct — with assistance from the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of the State of Georgia— and such “standards and rules shall be effective only upon review and adoption by the Supreme Court,” according to SB 92.

In the Nov. 22 unsigned order, the court indicated that the statute does not impose a mandatory duty to approve the draft standards and rules.

“It simply conditions the effectiveness of the standards and rules upon our approval,” the order stated. “In short, we have grave doubts that we have the constitutional power to take any action on the draft standards and rules. But deciding the question of whether we actually have that power would require deciding difficult constitutional questions of first impression outside of the adversarial process.”

Four Georgia district attorneys filed a motion Aug. 24 seeking an injunction to prevent the newly created commission from “conducting any investigation or disciplinary proceedings during the pendency of this litigation.”

The lawyers argued that the new law is unconstitutional and threatens the ability of local district attorneys and solicitors general to handle their dockets efficiently and to focus on serious crimes most affecting public safety. In addition, the prosecutors say that the lack of resources and case backlogs have demanded that prosecutors find ways to focus on the most serious of crimes and use tools such as pretrial diversion to resolve cases more efficiently.

“We are pleased the justices have taken action to stop this unconstitutional attack on the state’s prosecutors,” said DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston, who is a lead prosecutor on the lawsuit against SB 92. “While we celebrate this as a victory, we remain steadfast in our commitment to fight any future attempts to undermine the will of Georgia voters and the independence of the prosecutors who they choose to represent them.”

The court also expressed concerns about its constitutional authority to regulate the general conduct of district attorneys and solicitors general.

“If district attorneys exercise judicial power, our regulation of the exercise of that power may well be within our inherent power as the head of the judicial branch,” the Court said. “But if district attorneys exercise only executive power, our regulation of the exercise of that power would likely be beyond the scope of our judicial power.”

Ga. Rep. Houston Gaines, an Athens Republican who helped guide the law through the state House earlier this year, told the Associated Press he believed the legislature could tweak the law to remove the court requirement when the 2024 legislative session starts in January.

“This commission has been years in the making — and now it has its appointees and rules and regulations ready to go,” Gaines wrote in a text to the AP. “As soon as the legislature can address this final issue from the court, rogue prosecutors will be held accountable.”

Proponents of the new law said it is necessary to crack down on “soft on crime” prosecutors.

However, opponents have argued that the the new law was created to unfairly target Democrat prosecutors like Fulton County DA Fani Willis — who is prosecuting former president Donald Trump on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act charges, and others who have vowed not prosecute abortion-related cases and misdemeanor drug cases.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker in September denied an injunction against the law, stating the four district attorneys in the lawsuit had not articulated any imminent substantial injury that would result from the commission’s investigations of prosecutors.

“The court is persuaded that the Georgia Constitution expressly authorizes the General Assembly to impose duties on district attorneys and to create the grounds and processes to disciple or remove district attorneys who fail to meet those legal duties, and that SB 92 does so within the bounds of the state and federal constitutions,” she said in the Sept. 29 order.

The commission began accepting complaints against Georgia district attorneys and solicitors general Oct. 1. Soon after, Georgia Senate leaders submitted a complaint to commission members against Willis, accusing her of using her judicial power to influence politics.

The commission does not yet have a website or announced formal process for submitting complaints. The commission has indicated it will not move forward with investigating complaints until the Supreme Court of Georgia approves its proposed rules.