ATLANTA— The Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission will be allowed to proceed with its launch date of Oct. 1 while a handful of legislators continue to challenge the legality of the group in court.

Four Georgia prosecutors 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.”

In a Sept. 29 order, Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker denied the injunction, stating the the plaintiffs have not articulated any imminent substantial injury that would result from the commission’s investigations of prosecutors. Their alleged injuries appear to be “conjectural or hypothetical,” she said.

“And the Commission has indicated it will not discipline a prosecutor until the Supreme Court of Georgia approves its proposed rules (sometime into the future),” Whitaker stated.

The commission was created through a Republican-backed bill, SB 92, this year that gives them the authority to investigate and remove local prosecutors from office.

The bill states that prosecutors are required to “review every individual case for which probable cause for prosecution exists, and make a prosecutorial decision under the law based on the facts and circumstances of each individual case. …”

In the lawsuit, the four prosecutors — Stone Mountain (DeKalb County) District Attorney Sherry Boston, Augusta District Attorney Jared Williams, Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady and Towaliga District Attorney Jonathan Adams — said the legislature overstepped its authority in violation of Georgia’s Separation of Powers doctrine when it approved SB 92.

They argue that the new law threatens the ability of local prosecutors 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 like pretrial diversion to resolve cases more efficiently.

In early September, more than 80 current and former elected prosecutors around the U.S. signed on to an amicus brief urging the Georgia court to overrule SB 92.

The governor and lieutenant governor — both Republican — each appointed one attorney to the five-member investigative panel of the PAQC. The Republican speaker of the House appointed two attorneys and the GOP-dominated Senate Committee on Assignments appointed one attorney.

The governor, speaker of the House and Senate Committee on Assignments each appointed a member to the three-person hearing panel of the PAQC.

Opponents of the bill said the new law was created to unfairly target Democrat prosecutors like Fulton County DA Fani Willis who is prosecuting former president Donald Trump, and others who have vowed not prosecute abortion-related cases.  

In a response to the lawsuit, defendants — which includes members of the PAQC— said that the commission will execute its duties in good faith and consistent with the state and U. S. Constitutions.

Proponents say the law is necessary to help reduce crime in Georgia.  

“All Georgians deserve to be safe and it’s a DA’s duty to enforce the law. When elected prosecutors fail to do so, crime goes up and victims are denied justice,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said on X, formerly Twitter, after Whitaker’s Sept. 29 order. “This decision from the Court affirms that DAs who choose to violate their oaths will not be immune from accountability.”

Whitaker, in her order, indicates her belief that the legislature had a legal right to establish the commission for 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.

The commission can begin accepting complaints against Georgia district attorneys and solicitors general beginning Oct. 1, though the process to do so has not yet been made available.