MEGAN MCARDLE: Scott Walker Inquiry Shows the Danger of Secrecy.

In 2010, Wisconsin convened a “John Doe” investigation into the misuse of funds in the Milwaukee county executive’s office. In the state, a judge can allow prosecutors to carry out a John Doe investigation, requiring secrecy from everyone involved. Stuart Taylor explains: “This ‘gag order’ provision, almost unique in American law, effectively disables targets or witnesses from publicly defending themselves or responding to damaging leaks.” In 2012, this somehow spawned a second John Doe probe of Wisconsin conservative groups, who were accused of illegally coordinating with Governor Scott Walker’s campaign, as he tried to hold his office during the recall election.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court has finally ended that investigation, which has been stalled for many long months as its targets sued their way through the courts. The ruling mostly relied on technical legal questions: Was the campaign finance statute upon which prosecutors relied unconstitutionally vague? (Yes.) Did Judge Gregory Peterson, the second judge to supervise this investigation, step outside of his remit when he quashed subpoenas and effectively ended the investigation? (No.) Did the judges and prosecutor act wrongly when they accepted their jobs running this investigation? (Also, no.)

But the summation is brutal. It seems clear that the Wisconsin Supreme Court would like to make a broader ruling targeting the behavior of the prosecutors (which you can read about here), and the court’s decision fires a few well-placed shots in that direction. . . .

I found myself nodding along at every word. This investigation never should have taken place. This would be true if conservatives are correct that the investigation’s amoeboid spread and pattern of selective leaks indicate a politically motivated prosecutor doing his best to take down a controversial Republican governor. It would still be true if we are looking at merely one more instance where a special prosecutor roamed out of control, dizzy with a superheroic mandate to hunt down all malefactors wherever they might be found. Either way, the fundamental problem is the same: Government power gone wildly beyond the limits of common sense.

This was a politicized effort by corrupt prosecutors to kill the political opposition for political reasons. For this abuse of power they should wind up broke, disbarred, and in jail.