Lawmaker's resolution calls for impeachment of Wolf
No Pennsylvania governor has ever been impeached, convicted and removed from office since the position was created in 1790.
Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-12th, aims to change that.
The longtime Cranberry representative and 24 other cosponsors introduced a resolution Tuesday before the state House of Representatives containing five articles of impeachment against Gov. Tom Wolf pertaining to the governor's response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The five articles allege the governor failed to adequately address impacts of the pandemic by using power the representatives believe he has as well as argue he used powers not ascribed to him by the state constitution.
Among the charges the coalition of representatives allege is that Wolf violated Pennsylvanians' First Amendment right to the freedoms of speech and assembly; Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable search and seizure; Fifth Amendment right to due process; and Fourteenth Amendment guarantee to equal protection.
The articles additionally charge the governor with creating an “arbitrary and capricious” business-closure waiver process, failing to adequately respond to record unemployment insurance claims, failing to protect residents in long-term care homes, and refusing to release information under the Right-to-Know Law.
Unlike the U.S. Constitution, which requires impeachable offenses to be “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” the Pennsylvania Constitution defines an impeachable offense as more open-ended “misbehavior.”
In a statement Tuesday, Metcalfe called the governor's dictates “unconstitutional” and referred to much of his COVID-19 response as an “Orwellian overreach into our lives and the marketplace.”“While these are certainly unprecedented and chaotic times, Gov. Tom Wolf must be held accountable for his actions that have harmed so many of our citizens and violated so many of our rights,” the statement read.Lyndsay Kensinger, Wolf's press secretary, said in a statement Tuesday that the governor's decisions were made to protect public health and called the impeachment resolution a political ploy.“In the last weeks, House Republicans have continued their efforts to divide the commonwealth and score cheap political points instead of taking the challenge before them seriously,” she said. “This is just the latest example of the House Republicans wasting time instead of helping to protect Pennsylvanians during this public health crisis.”
