In yet another frontal assault on the rule of law by the fascist Trump administration, a federal grand jury has brought charges against Wisconsin Judge Hannah C. Dugan on one count of obstruction of proceedings and one count of “concealing an individual to prevent arrest.”
The charges stem from actions she took in her capacity as a judge in Milwaukee County Court. According to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), Dugan angrily approached a group of agents who had come to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an immigrant from Mexico who was appearing before her on criminal charges. Dugan asked the agents if they had a judicial warrant, signed by a judge. When they responded that they were using an administrative warrant (from ICE, not a judge), she said this would not be enough and directed them to speak to the chief judge. This, according to ICE, was obstruction and constituted a criminal offense!
After Ruiz’s court session was over, she directed him to leave the courthouse via a route which would not put him directly into the hands of the ICE thugs. ICE agents pursued him outside the courthouse and put him under arrest. This, according to ICE, was “concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest” and constituted a criminal offense!
All this led to her very public arrest on April 25 by FBI agents in front of the courthouse—a brazen attempt by the Trump administration to deliver a chilling message to judges everywhere that they better not stand up against mass deportations, denial of due process and all-around terrorizing of immigrants.
On May 15 in a packed federal courtroom, Judge Dugan was arraigned on the charges and pled not guilty. A July 21 trial date was set.
As soon as the federal charges came down from the grand jury, lawyers for Judge Dugan filed a motion to dismiss the charges, asserting that the “government cannot prosecute Judge Dugan because she is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts. Immunity is not a defense to the prosecution to be determined later by a jury or a court; it is an absolute bar to the prosecution at the outset.” In other words, the charges are such a flagrant violation of Judge Dugan’s ability to act in her capacity as a judge that the case should not be brought to trial.
To support the clear fact the Judge Dugan should have immunity, the filing cites common law going all the way back to 17th century England, as well as last year’s Supreme Court ruling in Trump’s 2020 election interference case that found that presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for official acts that fall within their “exclusive sphere of constitutional authority” and are presumed to have immunity for all official acts. It further cites the 10th Amendment, which states that powers that are not specifically given to the federal government are reserved for states and the people at large.
The motion states clearly that “this is no ordinary criminal case, and Dugan is no ordinary criminal defendant.”
On the day of her arraignment, more than 100 protesters gathered outside the courthouse to protest and speak out against the charges against her. One protester carrying a large “No Kings” flag was quoted as saying, “I think it was the right thing to do,” of Dugan’s alleged action in her courtroom. “You can’t just hand people over and just have them disappear, no due process or any of that sort of thing. It’s like they’re out hunting people.”
More than 150 state and federal judges have signed a letter to Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, calling the arrest an “effort to threaten and intimidate the state and federal judiciaries into submitting to the Administration.... This cynical effort undermines the rule of law and destroys the trust the American people have in the nation’s judges to administer justice in the courtrooms and the halls of justice across the land.”
Drop the charges against Judge Dugan!