P.J.S. v. Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission

In P.J.S. v. Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission, 669 A.2d 1105 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1996) a complaint was filed against an attorney before the Ethics Commission. The attorney filed a petition for injunction, claiming the Ethics Commission lacked the power to prosecute him and adjudicate the issues before it. The Ethics Commission answered that the attorney's request for an injunction should be denied because the attorney, should the Ethics Commission rule against him, had an adequate remedy at law, an appeal as of right to a court. In ruling against the Ethics Commission, this court stated that the attorney "in this proceeding is challenging the power of the Ethics Commission to prosecute him and to adjudicate the issues before it, and therefore, it is not an adequate remedy to take an appeal from an order of the agency which Petitioner attorney contends has no jurisdiction in this matter." Id at 1113.