HARRISBURG — With Attorney General Kathleen Kane battling criminal charges and increasingly isolated from Pennsylvania’s legal and law enforcement communities, many eyes have turned to whether the state’s highest court will invoke a rarely-used sanction to quickly suspend her law license.

Everyone has an opinion as to whether it will, and even if it does, whether it will force her from office.

It is uncharted territory.

The state constitution requires an attorney general to be a member of the bar. If her license is suspended, it could lead to a legal battle over her status as the state’s top law enforcement officer.

“If she’s suspended, she’s not removed,” said Jim Koval, a spokesman for the Administrative Office for the Pennsylvania Courts. “The Supreme Court doesn’t have the authority to remove her from office. She still holds the title.”

Kane, the first Democrat and first woman elected to be attorney general of Pennsylvania, was charged Aug. 6 by Montgomery County authorities with leaking information protected by secrecy laws to a Philadelphia newspaper and lying about it under oath.

She is also accused of deploying aides to spy on the investigation into her office.

Kane, 49, has said she did nothing wrong.

Courts officials try to keep the existence of disciplinary cases confidential. On Friday, Koval would not say whether the process to move for an emergency suspension of her law license was under way.

Kane’s aides and lawyers also would not discuss it.

“I can’t talk to you about it because anything I say can be held against me,” Kane told The Philadelphia Inquirer.

It is not clear whether a suspended law license would mean Kane would no longer be a member of the bar. Muddying the picture, the constitution grants the Legislature power to impeach an executive branch official, rather than the courts, lawyers say.

“You’ve got constitutional provisions at conflict,” said Samuel Stretton, a West Chester lawyer and former chief counsel for the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

If Kane’s law license is suspended, she potentially could still exert influence over the office, even without the ability to act as a lawyer. For instance, she might be able hire and fire, and retain the perk of traveling with a security detail.

Still, Kane would be unable to make legal decisions or establish policy on how the attorney general’s office acts in court, said Bruce Ledewitz, a Duquesne University law professor.

“You can’t enforce the law if you’re not a lawyer,” Ledewitz said.