Metcalfe introduces bill to impeach Pa. attorney general

Pennsylvania Rep. Daryl Metcalfe has introduced a resolution calling for the impeachment of state Attorney General Kathleen Kane.

This summer, Kane said she would not defend Pennsylvania’s marriage law against legal challenges.

Metcalfe, one of the most vocal opponents of same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania, said his resolution was not spurred by Kane’s decision not to defend that particular law, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

“It wouldn’t matter if it was this law or any other law,” said Metcalfe, R-Butler. “If we have a legally enacted statute, the attorney general has a duty to defend the constitutionality of this law.”

“If an attorney general can pick and choose which laws are constitutional and which laws she will defend or enforce, then the will of ‘we the people’ through our elected lawmakers is thwarted by tyranny,” he said in a statement released Tuesday when he introduced the bill.

In a statement, Kane responded to Metcalfe’s call for her impeachment push.

“I do not believe  [Metcalfe] cares about facts or the law,” she said.

“The citizens of this great commonwealth should be revolted that a politician such as Rep. Metcalfe is attempting to thwart an independent attorney general from doing her job by using such a measure,” Kane continued. “I have never been afraid of or backed down from bullies. In fact, bullies strengthen my resolve to protect those who need it the most – the people of Pennsylvania. I will never be deterred by selfish rants of those who want Pennsylvania to belong to the few.”

Kane has argued state statute permits her office to send individual cases to the governor’s office. The governor’s office has since taken on the task of defending the marriage law in court.

Metcalfe says a handful of co-sponsors has signed onto the bill, which needs to be approved by a House committee before it can be sent to the House floor for a vote.