Ernie Preate

Who is Ernie Preate?

Ernest D. Preate, Jr. is a former Republican Pennsylvania Attorney General. As Attorney General, he successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court in the landmark case, Planned Parenthood of Southeast Pennsylvania v. Casey on behalf of Robert P. Casey then. governor of Pennsylvania. Preate also successfully argued another landmark case, Blystone v. Pennsylvania in the United States Supreme Court addressing the death penalty. In 1995, Preate went to jail after pleading guilty to mail fraud charges. Prior to serving as Attorney General, Preate was district attorney of Lackawanna County. He ran for Governor of Pennsylvania in 1994, but came in second for the Republican nomination behind then-congressman Tom Ridge, who won the general election.