of danger in terms of a subsequent prosecution. she also wrote, indeed, mr. steppian and miss kelly could face prosecution for official misconduct in either state or federal court. and judge jacobson disagreed with the committee's claim that their request was not a fishing expedition. the fundamental problem with the subpoenas is that they're overly broad, she wrote. the requests, as modified, remain a fishing expedition. so in the short-term, this means there will be less information flowing to that new jersey legislative committee, a committee that we've reported on, but it's always been the case that the bigger game, and the bigger investigation, has been the separate parallel inquiry in the u.s. attorney's office, the federal investigation, and that, of course, is not affected in any way directly by today's ruling. joining us now is msnbc contributor, brian murphy, assistant professor at perdue college and paul butler, professor of law at georgetown