“This is not normal.” Those words from Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., are undeniably true after the arrest of Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan. However, the reason it is not normal is far more debatable. Dugan is accused of becoming a lawbreaker in seeking to obstruct an effort to arrest a man wanted by federal authorities. If true, that is manifestly not “normal.”
As soon as the news of the arrest was reported, Democrats declared another constitutional crisis. Klobuchar added that the arrest “is a drastic move threatening the rule of law” and a “grave step and undermines our system of checks and balances.”
That is a curious claim unless Klobuchar believes that the officers are lying. If not, Klobuchar is suggesting that a judge should be allowed (or at least not held accountable) in actively shielding a wanted person and facilitating his evasion of law enforcement.
Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., also condemned Dugan’s arrest, stating, “If [FBI Director] Kash Patel and Donald Trump don’t like a judge, they think they can arrest them. This is stunning — we must stand up to this blatant power grab. Republicans: How is this not a red line for you?”
Yet, what is the “red line” for judges if the allegations are true? This judge is accused of conduct that has resulted in charges for other citizens. The judicial robe is not some form of invisibility cloak that allows judges to engage in alleged criminal acts.
The Wisconsin media is reporting:
Sources have told the Journal Sentinel that ICE officials arrived in Dugan’s courtroom on the morning of April 18. When they went to the chief judge’s office, Dugan directed the defendant and his attorney to a side door in the courtroom, directed them down a private hallway and into the public area on the 6th floor.
If true, that would be an active effort to help the suspect elude police who were carrying out a lawful function.
According to the criminal complaint, Flores-Ruiz allegedly attacked three individuals after an altercation with his roommate about playing loud music. Flores-Ruiz allegedly struck his roommate approximately 30 times with a closed fist and then attacked his girlfriend and a third person. Some of the injuries required hospital treatment.
The evasion of police at the courthouse required officers to chase down Ruiz, which could have resulted in a more serious confrontation on the street.
This is not the first time that a judge has been accused of participating in or directing such obstruction.
I previously wrote about the case of Massachusetts judge Shelley M. Richmond Joseph who was charged with allegedly helping an illegal immigrant evade ICE agents in April 2018. Joseph and court officer Wesley MacGregor were charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice, aiding and abetting and obstruction of a federal proceeding.
I was critical of the handling of the case. While Joseph was suspended for three years, charges were dropped in 2022 during the Biden Administration.
The Dugan case occurred at the same time that a New Mexico judge was arrested for harboring an unlawful immigrant and an alleged TdA gang member.
Former Doña Ana County Magistrate Judge Joel Cano and his wife were arrested on Thursday. Notably, Cano reportedly admitted to officers that he smashed the phone of Cristhian Ortega-Lopez after the 23-year-old was arrested in a raid at the judge’s home.
As I said on Fox last night, I am perplexed by Democrats rushing to denounce the arrest of Dugan before we know whether these allegations are supported. If she escorted the suspect to a non-public door to facilitate his escape, that is conduct and would constitute a shocking abandonment of judicial ethics. She can certainly use her authority to address matters properly before her in the form of judicial orders, but actively assisting in an escape is well beyond the pale.
I have often criticized the reckless rhetoric directed against judges, including those who have ruled against the Trump Administration. We need to maintain our civility and respect as we work through these often difficult questions.
However, that works both ways. Judges have to reinforce respect for the judiciary in their own conduct. That includes showing restraint and respect in relation to the countervailing powers of the Executive Branch. It certainly includes avoiding actions that could be viewed as criminal or unethical in resisting this Administration.
That is also a “red line.”
Jonathan Turley is the author of best-selling book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
TDS runs deep, and its tentacles slither everywhere, including the judiciary. The Democrats’ shrieking that the arrests of two judges on charges of aiding illegal aliens to avoid deportation proves, yet again, that the political cabal claiming that “no one is above the law” has forever forfeited any claim of right, ability or competence to govern a free people in a constitutional republic such as remains of the United States.
Brilliant post. With your permission I will copy and share that on my FB page. With attribution
Fine.
“TDS runs deep, and its tentacles slither everywhere, including the judiciary.”
Glib, trivially easy answers are typically wrong answers. Don’t blame this on TDS. That exists, and is undoubtedly a factor, but this is primarily a lust for naked power on the part of these judges that is unconstrained by any regard for moral or ethical principles or constitutional structure. If they didn’t have Trump for a trigger, they would find something else.
Of note, the Supreme Court of the state of New Mexico has banned the judge in that state from his bench now and forever more. Even though New Mexico is a blue state it would appear their Supreme Court took a dim view of the judge who harbored illegals in his house and actively supported them. I applaud the New Mexico Supreme Court for it’s rapid action.
I remain incredulous about the judge in Wisconsin.
I remember the case in Massachusetts in 2018 but never knew the outcome, so it was a slap on the wrist as I suspected it would be.
The actions of the judge in Wisconsin signifiy a sense of arrogance and entitlement that would make any of the rest of us blush. Obviously she felt she was above the law. Any reasonable person whether attorney or judge should, as an officer of the court, exemplify nothing but total respect of the law and live it almost as a monk would follow their god.
We have similar god complexes in medicine, often manifest in certain physicians, especially in academia, who virtually demanded you bow and scrape and kiss their ring. They could be disgustingly like these wayward judges. They had cast humility aside long ago.
Some people forget that “to whom much is given, much is expected”.
No matter what exalted position we gain we remain simply a human being and usually we all still end up in a pine box, whether we are Pope, Judge or just a man or woman on the street.
GEB.
Great comment.
Will the judge be fired or just a slap on the hand.
You know the libs/dems will come to her defense.
In Wisconsin or Minnesota this type of recalcitrant act will probably get her promoted to the state Supreme Court.
Remember, this is Wisconsin. What do you think will happen to her?
I would wish that her actions and mug shot would become the “Bud Lite” of her state’s political corruption.
Seems to me our modern dems are *this* close to dropping any pretense of observance of law whatsoever. The daily revelations about their past and current chicanery are certainly something to behold. Their accompanying chutzpah even more so. It’s madness.
James.
So in other words. Believe what the dems say. They hate us.
Jury trials are so time consuming and drawn out.
Don’t miss the larger message here. The Trump administration is using this example to demonstrate to others, including state and local officials in sanctuary cities, that they, too, might face federal obstruction of justice charges for impeding the enforcement of federal immigration laws. What better way is there to advertise this policy than taking down a local state judge, knowing full well that it will receive far more media attention than simply going after some local cop or prosecutor who on her own cuts loose an illegal alien?
This was a brilliant exercise, and now the entire country is aware of the risks of obstructing justice. Ironically, the defendant alien and his attorney can be called as witnesses for the government in the case against the judge. They face no apparent jeopardy themselves, so they cannot take the Fifth. No matter what they say, it will not exonerate the judge. She knows this and likely will try to bargain a plea rather than face the music. Her allocution before the court should be masterful.
Good points. Just further proof of Trump as chess master.
No plea option should be offered. The feds should take no prisoners on this one, if only to see the penalty imposed (if any) were a fellow liberal judge to preside over her trial.
Vincente: You raise a very interesting point. There is no “right” to a plea bargain; it may be offered by the prosecution based on saving the time and expense of a prosecution and/or the acceptance of guilt by the defendant. Federal sentencing guidelines while not mandatory are guidelines that award favorable points for no prior criminal record, remorsefulness, acceptance of responsibility, and an otherwise unblemished life and career. However, the same guidelines impose deficits for professionals who use or misuse their positions and authorities to violate the law. If she goes to trial on a not guilty claim and is convicted by a court and jury, she may face a greater penalty than if she simply pleads guilty with or without a deal. Either way, she’ is finished. By the way, as for being sentenced by a liberal judge, federal courts permit prosecutors to appeal a sentence they believe is inconsistent with the legal standards of the charges and conviction for which it was imposed. This is not a guarantee against what you suggest but it does tend to keep things properly managed in federal courts.
I agree 100%, both because obtaining a conviction as charged is the best way to reinforce the example that jjc mentions, and because pleading out to a lesser charge might allow her to remain on the Wisconsin bench. I’m assuming that Wisconsin statute bars convicted felons from its bench, every state that I know about does that.
When a country loses faith in the integrity of their legal system, you have a big problem. Because at that point, there is no longer justice for anyone. They got one of “their” judges to rule against me, if one of “our” judges was on the case, I would have walked. The Left appears to have a problem discerning right from wrong. There might be some legitimate debate about “illegals” that are on the fringes, but there really can’t be for cases involving violent, repeat offenders. If this is tough call for them, there may be no hope left for Democrats.
Dog-gone it. I just wish the Trump folks had followed the Biden way. Send in the ICE fully armed at 3am with the MSN.
So arresting a former president and current leading opposition candidate is fine but arresting a judge is an “escalation”?
Democrats-“Anyone have any new 80/20 issues we can use in our attempt to regain altitude when trying to come back from the last election”
Elected officials and media-“Well there is a judge who helped an illegal, who attacked his roommate, his roommate’s girlfriend and another person so violently that they ended up in a hospital, escape the clutches of ICE officials while the victims of the alleged attack were sitting in the courtroom awaiting justice”. “Oh yeah, ICE also had to chase the violent illegal alien down a public street to make the arrest among the general population instead of in the courthouse and away from the public”
Democrats-“Sounds perfect, let’s start releasing all of the statements about how outraged we are about the judges arrest”.
Normal people-“What about all the times you publicly said nobody is above the law?”
Democrats-“Don’t worry we have the major networks and newspapers in our corner, there is no way possible that the people will see our former positions”.
Nice one hullbobby.
If Prez Trump was smart. They should make a short film of this and tell the American public. This how much the dems care about you. Illegals first, you ????????????
If you ACT like there is big rabbit next to you, can you convince people that there IS a big rabbit next to you?
The “big rabbit” is the narrative that Donald Trump is Adolf Hitler come back to life and that decent liberals should be in fear of incarceration for their high moral beliefs.
If you “resist” Trump, mimicking the French Resistance of WW II, it shows that you must BELIEVE he is Hitler, and if you have a prestigious college degree, journalists (and other gullible people) will tend to believe that the narrative must be true. Otherwise, how could there be so many highly-educated idiots?
Why should a President be expected to honor the orders of a district court they believe has no constitutional authority over him, but the district court should not be expected to honor the constitutional authority of the President?
In other words, why should the President have to wait for a SCOTUS ruling to lift an injunction, instead of ignoring the injunction until a SCOTUS ruling?
What is the enforcement arm of the Judicial branch if the Executive and Legislative branches disagree with the court ruling?
There is none. Hamilton, Federalist 78:
Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive, that, in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them. The Executive not only dispenses the honors, but holds the sword of the community. The legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments.
This simple view of the matter suggests several important consequences. It proves incontestably, that the judiciary is beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power; that it can never attack with success either of the other two; and that all possible care is requisite to enable it to defend itself against their attacks.
Excellent reply Igbmiel, thank you.
You are most welcome and thank you for your kind words.
I was impressed with your comment Lgbmiel but can we agree that Hannah Dugan did not act in her capacity as a Judge, rather as an advocate for illegal immigration? Thus this isn’t about a separation of powers or even a Constitutional issue.
Notwithstanding her employment, when Ms. Dugan decided to show the defendant a path to escape arrest, her role was that of a co-conspirator.
Absolutely. She wasn’t acting as a judge, more like her previous positions:
Dugan previously was a litigation attorney and held administrative posts at Legal Action of Wisconsin Inc. and Legal Aid Society Inc. As an attorney, legal areas she focused on were older people and disabilities, civil rights, domestic abuse and others, according to her LinkedIn page. Dugan was president of the Milwaukee Bar Association from 1999 to 2000 and worked three years as executive director of Catholic Charities of Southeastern Wisconsin Inc.
https://apnews.com/article/who-is-milwaukee-judge-hannah-dugan-c7247d7d053b8f1e098919e69f5853f3
P.S. Thank you for your kind words.
#. There is a process, a mechanism for disagreement. Enforcement is multiform beginning with the internal ethics of the elected officials and voters. Ethics is sadly lacking in all areas.
New moral principles are actually immoral principles. Read David Brooks op ed in the NY Times as an example of the principle of lies, bias, propaganda writing for non citizens worldwide and domestically. Brooks fashions himself one of the superior, educated elites- lies are good.
Long time Americans know Brooks is deceiving. Americans know he’s lying. As Americans listen to the pundits ask if non-Americans find his screeds plausible.
As a personal anecdote, I took a taxi driven by a wonderful, helpful immigrant meaning only to do his job well as he weaved in and out of traffic at a whiplash speed as I white knuckled in in the back of the taxi. I suggested he might slow down he smiled hugely, waved one hand over his head and, oh no, this is how we drive in America.
Just wait until all the election frauds get exposed. This case will seem like a jaywalking case.
Maybe, but I suspect that when ActBlue is investigated by the FBI, that is when the wheels will fall off the wagon. There is no way that that many grassroot democrats were consistently making just the right donations under the law. I’d bet that large foreign money was coming in, and was illegally allocated to thousand of unsuspecting people in their database. If that happened, each of those occurrences would be a federal wire fraud felony case.
The other judges and the juries in these Blue jurisdictions will find them all not guilty.
If for nothing else these activist judges should be removed from office for violating their oath of office. They’ve done nothing to enforce the law, observe the will of the people and constitution but have created chaos and doubt with the judicial system. Not one of them said or did anything to stop the mass incursion of unvetted illegal aliens.
NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW. This is just the beginning.
Dugan now has opportunities to practice the conjugation of pronouns and choose a new gender. The photos of Dugan reflect a man wearing a dress, that or an angry dyke. Thus it appears this is a win-win situation for Dugan who can now be sent to a prison where men are incarcerated. If Dugan thought she had τεsτιcles, serving in prison will allow her time to either grow a bigger pair and identify like typical male prisoners or realize she has none, and conclude she should have acted with less testosterone and with more deference to law enforcement. It is after-all what Democrats demand: deference
US Federal District Judge Aileen Cannon, a true lady, would appreciate an apology from Democrats for their vilifying, denigrating and subjecting her to the treatment that Nazis used to those judges in Germany who denounced them. Happily Judge Cannon was not executed like the Nazis did to Judges in their time, not that it didnt cross the minds of ANTIFA BLM, Senator Chuck Schumer, et al.
“No one is above the law”
One problem is that we live in a more and more technological world, but the population has become more and more emotional about it. Our ability to think critically has been substantially washed away by feelings, epithets, and talking points. This is proved by the number of judges, yes judges, that have forgotten their lifetime of commitment to the law in favor of the temporal emotions of politics.
The latest with a judge walking the perp out the back door of the courthouse, sounds more like a episode from a TV legal series than real life.
The attitudes of right vs wrong, legal vs illegal, true vs false have all become relativized. As they say in the economics world, these attitudes are not sustainable.
The Judicial Branch is becoming a dictatorship that the other branches need to pull back in line.
The only thing that will prevent a Civil War… And that’s not a certainty… Is for people like these judges to be put in front of a proper judge, and sentenced as harshly as possible. The left needs to understand that there are rules, and that they must be followed, and that there are consequences for not following them, Eeven for people is highly placed as a judge. They also need to understand that those consequences are unavoidable.
The process must be 100%. No exceptions. That’s why 100% of the illegals must be deported. Only until the law is not only being observed, but seem to be observed by everyone and enforced fully will things change.
I knew yesterday AM that waiting just a couple of hours might well illuminate a more full picture, and it sure did.
This is not a very sympathetic character and judges seem to be stepping outside the law. We are so used to ignoring immigration crime it has become a habit even amongst judges apparently.
Thank you for bringing clarity, and to that end I also recommend an excellent summary of the facts in the Epoch Times today, for those of in the facts.
The good Professor expresses perplexity in the reaction of Democrats, specifically elected representatives. I am not at all perplexed, it makes perfect sense if your goal is to “fundamentally transform America.”
The evidence is right in front of us, we need only believe it: judge the Democrats actions in all their stark totality.
Judge Dugan knowingly broke the law, she is a supposed Judge, she knows right from wrong, I hope. But in her mind and the Left Wing Dem’s mind all illegal migrants who commit crimes are OK and should be allowed to do what they want, as long as they do the DEMS bidding and vote DEM.
This Judge should suffer the consequences and JAILED, thrown off the court, law license taken away, Its about time these radical Left Wing Judges pay the price for their radical actions. Same for the Judge in New Mexico, Cano, but what he did was even worse.
DOJ sending a message, we will not tolerate such radical illegal and crazy actions by these unqualified Judges.
I ho[e this is just the start in enforcing the laws on those who are to suppose to uphold the law.
#. Apparently the judge doesn’t understand he/she is part of law enforcement and some on SCOTUS appear not to know either.
This judge is a locally elected state official, no different from a mayor or a councilman when it comes to breaking federal laws. All this shows is Trump Administration II is very serious about enforcing immigration laws.