The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the John Doe investigation Tuesday, and expressed some reluctance about getting involved.

Chief Judge Diane Wood said she was “confused” as to why prosecutors wanted the federal government to get involved in the case. She said prosecutors were incorrectly assuming that Wisconsin courts did not have the power to end the proceeding, especially now that the subpoena has been quashed.

Appeals court judges also questioned why the prosecutors were persistent in appealing the decision of the two lower courts. One judge said all the prosecutors would need to do to end the investigation is persuade Judge Petersen to end it.

“[Judge Peterson has] already quashed the main subpoena, and it does seem to me that it’s not an ordinary exercise of federal jurisdiction to super intend how state trial judges are making their day-to-day decisions, but that seems to be what you’re requesting,” one appeals court judge said.

Additionally, Wood said she worries that if the federal government were to get involved in the case that it would serve as precedent for future cases when individuals did not agree with state rulings.

She said she felt this was not an issue that the federal courts should necessarily get involved in.

“I don’t understand why the federal courts at this microlevel were to be brought in, and I’m frankly troubled by the idea of a precedent that every time somebody gets frustrated with the pace of things in a state court — when individual reputations or financial matters are at stake — they’re going to come running across the street to a federal court and expect us to pick up the supervision,” Wood said.

The appeals court did not indicate when they will make a decision following the hearing. However, even if the court decides to continue the investigation, a Wisconsin judge who halted the problem could continue to keep the investigation on hold.