CONSTITUTIONAL LAW – PENNSYLVANIA CONSTITUTION – ARTICLE 1, SECTION 1 – WORKER’S RIGHTS – CRIMINAL CHARGES – EXPUNGEMENT – EXPUNGEMENT OF CRIMINAL RECORDS

T.G.A. v. Dep’t of Educ., 2025 Pa. LEXIS 1989 (December 16, 2025) Todd, Chief Justice.
Judges: CHIEF JUSTICE TODD. Justices Donohue, Dougherty, Wecht, Mundy, Brobson and McCaffery join the opinion. Justice McCaffery files a concurring opinion.
CHIEF JUSTICE TODD In these related appeals, we consider whether records indicating that two educators — T.G.A. and R.W. (“Educators”) — had been subjected to immediate suspensions of their professional certificates triggered by the filing of criminal charges could remain on the websites of two agencies — the Pennsylvania Professional Standards and Practices Commission (“Commission”) and the Pennsylvania Department of Education (“Department”) (collectively, “Agencies”) — despite an acquittal (in the case of T.G.A.) or nolle pros (in the case of R.W.), and subsequent expungement of Educators’ criminal records.1 Following our review, we conclude that Agencies must remove the disciplinary records from their websites, and so we reverse the Commonwealth Court in part, and remand.
Even though, as we discussed supra, there exists no statutory basis to expunge these disciplinary records, our Court has recognized that, in circumstances where the government maintains records accessible to the public that are injurious to a person’s reputation, and where no compelling basis exists for them to do so, the affected person has a right to expungement of those records. This right is “an adjunct of due process and Article I, Section 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution and is not dependent upon express statutory authority.” Carlacci, 798 A.2d at 190. Rather, “this authority derives from a bedrock principle of our legal system which has undergirded it since its inception: where there is a right, there is a remedy.” Grand Jury II, 197 A.3d at 723 (internal citation and quotation omitted). We have consistently afforded affected individuals their due process right of expungement to ameliorate reputational harms. See Wolfe, Carlacci, Grand Jury II. Accordingly, we will provide Educators the same remedy.
For all of these reasons, we conclude the Agencies’ maintenance of Educators’ disciplinary records on their websites violates Educators’ right to reputation secured by Article 1, Section 1 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, and that there exists no compelling governmental reason justifying the continued display of these records. We therefore reverse the Commonwealth Court’s order in part, and remand with instructions to grant Educators the further relief they requested from that tribunal: an order directing the Agencies to remove those records from their respective websites.
• Two educators were subject to immediate suspensions of their professional certificates triggered by filing of criminal charges.
• Those criminal charges were on websites of two agencies.
• In spite of an acquittal or nolle pros in subsequent expungement of educators’ criminal records, the agencies must remove their disciplinary records from their websites
• While court reversed in part, based upon the Pennsylvania Constitution, Article 1, Section 1.