An earlier John Doe probe resulted in six criminal convictions of Walker aides for crimes that included using public resources for campaign purposes. The MacIver lawsuit related to a second John Doe investigation, relating to alleged illegal coordination between Walker’s recall campaign and so-called issue advocacy groups.

Lawyers for MacIver argued that a John Doe judge is not a “court of competent jurisdiction” under the SCA, which they said limits the types of judges who meet that definition.

Conley disagreed, finding that a 2009 amendment to the SCA broadened the range of judges who fit the definition. In this case, he said, the John Doe judge is a “neutral, independent judicial officer authorized by Wisconsin law to issue warrants for electronic information only upon a showing of probable cause,” with experience in constitutional principles underlying search warrants and criminal investigations. Warrants issued by the judge are, Conley said, issued by a “court of competent jurisdiction” under the SCA.

Even if the John Doe judge, who at that point was Reserve Judge Barbara Kluka, didn’t fit the definition, Conley wrote, the investigators and state officials are entitled to the SCA’s good faith defense, and also likely would have been entitled to qualified immunity from lawsuits under the SCA.

Conley also wrote that because the state Supreme Court has closed the John Doe investigation, there’s no likelihood that information that was obtained would be used in the future, limiting damages to which MacIver was entitled.

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