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The cut that the Michigan Supreme Court handed down to Attorney General Dana Nessel last week was about as big a blow as it gets.

The unanimous decision and separate concurrence basically accused the AG’s office of subverting justice and manipulating the law to press their unjustified vendetta against then-Gov. Rick Snyder and eight members of his crisis team run Flint.

Chief Justice Bridget McCormack called what Nessel’s team tried to do in denying the defendants due process “a return to the Star Chamber,” a reference to the secret medieval courts that arrested, tried and convicted their targets in an efficient process that cut off defense avenues.

Judge Richard Bernstein accused the AG’s office of digging up obscure statutes in the state constitution to favor prosecution.

Specifically, Nessel’s surrogates, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and Attorney General Fadwa Hammoud, took the case to a one-member grand jury to review the evidence and bring charges.

And then they tried to use the juror to deny the defendants a preliminary exam and send them to trial without the opportunity to see the evidence against them.

This, the court judged, was an abuse of the legal process, the foundation of our legal system, and clearly unconstitutional.

The severity of the reprimand should have humbled Nessel and her proxies. They are supposed to be the custodians of justice, yet they trampled on justice to extract revenge from their political enemies.

But Nessel is a bad steward of the law. Her Flint team is signaling that it will not be deterred by the court’s opinion, and will continue to pursue a case that has already cost taxpayers at least $40 million.

On Friday, Nessel continued her pattern of flouting laws she disagrees with by asking a lower court to ignore the Supreme Court’s ruling and proceed with charges against at least one defendant.

They say they are fighting for justice for the victims of Flint. But that won’t come by putting good people in jail for making mistakes at work. Destroying more lives will not undo the damage done to those whose water is poisoned.

Compensating victims for their pain and suffering is the job of civil courts, where they have already been awarded more than $600 million in federal court settlements.

There are certainly times when politicians and bureaucrats should face criminal charges – when they cheat and steal, or act intentionally to harm those they are entrusted to protect. But establishing a harmful policy or making the wrong choice, while acting in good faith, should carry a political penalty, not a criminal one. A crime is not a crime. If it did, few of our leaders would survive a term without charges.

The criminalization of public services is the reason why our elections for political office are more and more deplorable every year. Politics has become a fast track to prison.

Once prosecution becomes part of the political tool, everyone is vulnerable. Today, Nessel is trying to shut down Republicans. Next year, a GOP prosecutor could use that precedent to send Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to be sent to prison for COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.

This cycle should stop here. Nessel should accept the bruises the Supreme Court has given her and say “Never mind.”

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Watch Finley on DPTV’s “One Detroit” at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays.

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