A Judge Above the Law?

The chattering class is abuzz about the FBI’s arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan for helping an illegal alien avoid apprehension.

“Only Fascists arrest judges,” proclaimed a protestor’s sign outside the Milwaukee County courthouse. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), described the arrest as “a whole new descent into government chaos.”

Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson fretted that Dugan being taken into custody “sends a chilling message to community members and leaders looking to do the right thing.”

The facts leading to the arrest are not in dispute. In 2013 during the Obama administration, Mexican national Eduardo Flores-Ruiz was removed from the United States by Border Patrol agents. Under the law, Flores-Ruiz could return to the United States only if he sought and received permission from federal authorities. He did not seek permission and instead surreptitiously reentered the United States at an unknown time.

Flores-Ruiz made his way to Milwaukee, where he ran afoul of local law enforcement in March 2024. Court documents show that Flores-Ruiz attacked three individuals during a dispute over loud music. He allegedly struck his roommate 30 times with a closed fist, turned his anger to his roommate’s girlfriend, and finally injured another person who tried to stop the altercation. His victims required trips to the hospital to treat their wounds.

Local police arrested Flores-Ruiz for the attack, but he was released on bond. Federal immigration authorities learned of the arrest and realized Flores-Ruiz had illegally reentered the United States after the 2013 removal.

They obtained an arrest warrant and planned to execute it in the public hallway outside of Dugan’s courtroom after Flores-Ruiz’s scheduled state court appearance.

Some have criticized federal agents’ choice to arrest Flores-Ruiz at the state courthouse. This is nonsense. A state courthouse is a public place where visitors must pass through security prior to entry. Such procedures ensure that violent criminals are unarmed and can be safely approached by law enforcement. Normal security at entries and exits also deters escape attempts. Courthouse arrests are standard practice across law enforcement agencies.

On the morning of the arrest operation, federal agents arrived at the courthouse and alerted security to their mission. The team took up positions in front of the courtroom and waited for the judicial proceeding to begin.

Once Dugan learned what immigration authorities were planning, she left the bench, confronted them in the public hallway and told the federal agents to leave the courthouse. The agents explained they were authorized to be in the public areas of the building. Dugan then ushered the team’s leadership into an office where they were put on the phone with the local chief judge. The chief judge had no problem with an arrest so long as it was effectuated in a public rather than private area of the courthouse.

Agents assured the chief judge that such was their intentions.

While agents talked with the chief judge, Dugan had Flores-Ruiz removed from the gallery of the courtroom to the jury box behind the railing or bar. Typically, defendants and other nonlawyers do not sit in the jury box during hearings. This was an effort by Dugan to separate Flores-Ruiz from federal agents.

Next, Dugan declined to even hold the hearing and instead directed Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer to slip through a door reserved for court staff or security. This allowed Flores-Ruiz to leave the courtroom without exiting through the main door where federal agents were waiting.

Flores-Ruiz left the courthouse, and the arrest team scrambled to catch up to him. Once outside the courthouse, Flores-Ruiz broke into a run and was chased by officers. He was apprehended at an intersection.

Dugan placed the public and federal agents in danger. Rather than allow the federal agents to arrest him, Dugan provided an avenue of escape which Flores-Ruiz gladly exploited. In his O.J. Simpson-esque run through the streets, Flores-Ruiz could have injured a pedestrian or caused an automobile accident. He also could have given pursuing agents a boxing lesson like that given to his roommates.

The only “descent into government chaos” was Dugan using her official position to help an accused offender avoid apprehension. One wonders how sane people assert she was doing “the right thing” by abetting Flores-Ruiz’s efforts to remain illegally in the United States.

“Fascists” do not present sworn arrest affidavits to neutral and detached magistrates as required by the Fourth Amendment. FBI agents presented the facts of Judge Dugan’s abuse of office to a federal judge who determined that probable cause existed to issue Dugan’s arrest warrant.

Due process was followed to the letter.

Despite their robes, judges are supposed to be mere servants of the people. They have no special standing that allows them to obstruct immigration authorities or help the accused beat feet.

Judges are used to being treated with great deference as lawyers and court staff kowtow to them like royal subjects of an Oriental despot. Perhaps Dugan’s arrest will remind her colleagues that immigration statutes are laws and that the robed class has no special dispensation to flaunt them.