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Hannah Dugan
American judge (born 1959) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Hannah C. Dugan (born 1959)[1] is an American attorney and judge from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She has been a Wisconsin circuit court judge for Milwaukee County since 2016. Prior to her judicial service, Dugan served as president of the Milwaukee Bar Association, as an executive director for Catholic Charities USA in south-east Wisconsin, and she worked with several legal aid organizations.
On April 25, 2025, Dugan was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and indicted for allegedly assisting an undocumented immigrant in evading arrest. The arrest received significant national attention and elicited opinions from across the political spectrum and legal profession. Opponents of the arrest have characterized her arrest as an authoritarian act by the second Trump administration, while supporters have characterized it as a proper enforcement of the law.[2][3][4] She was suspended by the state supreme court on April 29.[5]
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Career
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Dugan holds a bachelor of arts degree in legal studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a master's degree in American studies from Boston College.[1] She graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1987 and taught law courses at Marquette University and the Seattle University School of Law.[6] From 1999 to 2000, Dugan was president of the Milwaukee Bar Association.[7][8]
Dugan spent much of her career working with legal aid organizations to provide assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation,[8] and served as the executive director of Catholic Charities of Southeastern Wisconsin from 2006 to 2009.[9] She was active in professional organizations and refereed attorney discipline cases brought by the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation.[10] Speaking to the Milwaukee Independent in 2016, Dugan stated that she found the judiciary situation in Milwaukee challenging, but believed in the independence of its judges.[10]
Dugan was elected a Wisconsin circuit court judge in 2016, defeating incumbent Paul Rifelj with 65% of the vote.[11] During her tenure, she primarily oversaw cases in the court's misdemeanor division.[8]
Dugan was suspended by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in April 2025 after being charged with the federal offenses related to allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant evade arrest. She faces federal charges of concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest and obstructing or impeding a proceeding.[12][13]
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Eduardo Flores-Ruiz court hearing
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On April 18, 2025, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued an arrest warrant for Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a 30-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico accused of misdemeanor battery, who was set to appear in court on April 18, 2025, before Dugan on charges of battery and domestic abuse.[14]
Since 2019, a federal policy exists for ICE to refrain from making routine arrests at courthouses and according to an affidavit filed by an FBI agent in support of the criminal complaint against her, Dugan was described as angry when she learned that ICE agents were waiting outside her courtroom to arrest Flores-Ruiz. She then allegedly questioned the agents in the hallway and asked whether they had a judicial warrant. They informed her that they had an administrative warrant[a] to detain Flores-Ruiz.[16][3] Dugan told the agents that they needed a judicial warrant, not an administrative warrant, and she directed them to speak to Chief Judge Carl Ashley.[6] She then returned to her courtroom.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, when Chief Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Carl Ashley notified Dugan of this warrant via email, Dugan responded saying "a warrant was not presented in the hallway on the sixth floor".[18]
After Dugan returned to her courtroom, instead of holding the hearing, she directed Flores-Ruiz and his attorney to leave using the jury room exit to the public hallway.[19][20] This alternate exit led through a hallway before opening to the public area where she and the agents had spoken.[21] Flores-Ruiz entered an elevator into which an agent also entered. They rode to the main exit from the building and left the building. When Flores-Ruiz began to leave the scene,[22] the ICE agents chased after him and arrested him near the intersection of West State Street and Tenth Street,[23] and Flores-Ruiz was taken to the Dodge Detention Facility in Juneau, Wisconsin.[21]
Arrest
The FBI subsequently opened an investigation into whether Dugan helped an immigrant avoid arrest.[18][24] Dugan was arrested by FBI agents on April 25, 2025, and charged with two felony counts of obstruction and concealing an individual,[21] and she was jailed. She was released on her own recognizance later that day.[25]
In contradiction to the conventions and traditions of the offices held, public comments were made regarding the arrest of Dugan. FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest in a social media post on X, stating that Dugan had "intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse".[26] He deleted the post shortly thereafter, but subsequently restored the post. United States Attorney General Pam Bondi also spoke publicly in support of the arrest of Dugan.[27]
Arraignment and indictment
Dugan was brought before US Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Dries that morning for arraignment and she made no public comments, but her attorney told the court that Dugan "wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest. It was not made in the interest of public safety."[21][28] Following her initial hearing, Dugan hired former U.S. Attorney Steven M. Biskupic and former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement to represent her.[29][30]
Chief Judge Carl Ashley said in a statement that Dugan's caseload would be handled by another jurist in the courthouse and declined to comment further.[3] A reserve judge will be appointed to take over Dugan's caseload.[31] On April 29, 2025, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued an order relieving Dugan of her duties during the length of her federal trial.[32][33] On May 13, 2025, Dugan was indicted by a federal grand jury for concealing a person from arrest and obstruction of proceedings.[25]
Defense
On May 14, Dugan's attorneys moved to dismiss the case, on the basis of judicial immunity, official acts, and the Tenth Amendment. They wrote, "The government's prosecution of Judge Dugan is virtually unprecedented and entirely unconstitutional".[34] To support their position they cited the 2024 US Supreme court decision Trump v. United States. They asserted that the decision provides immunity to Judge Dugan for all official acts within her exclusive constitutional authority. These official acts include directing someone where to go within her courtroom.[35]
On May 30, 138 retired state and federal judges filed an amicus brief, stating that Dugan "is entitled to absolute immunity for her official acts", and that the court should dismiss the charges against her. They characterized the prosecution as an "egregious overreach by the executive branch" that "would create a chilling effect on judges" if allowed to proceed, and that "threatens public trust in the judicial system and the ability of the public to avail themselves of courthouses without fear of reprisal".[36][37]
Reactions
Republican lawmakers applauded the arrest, with Congressman Derrick Van Orden (WI–03) stating that "many activist judges around the county have been acting politically in order to sabotage President Trump's agenda, and disenfranchise the 77 million Americans that voted for him".[38] Former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker called on Republican leaders of the Wisconsin Legislature to convene an extraordinary session to impeach and remove Dugan from office, and Congressman Tony Wied (WI–08) called for Dugan's resignation.[39] United States Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that judiciary members opposing the Trump administration's immigration policies would face prosecution: "If you are harboring a fugitive, we don't care who you are. ... We will come after you and we will prosecute you. We will find you."[40][27]
Dugan's arrest was condemned by multiple Democratic lawmakers in the US House of Representatives.[38][41][42] U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, who represents Wisconsin, accused President Donald Trump of attacking democratic values, saying that the arrest threatens to breach the separation of powers set by the US Constitution.[41][27] Milwaukee's Congresswoman Gwen Moore (WI–04) said she was, "very alarmed at the increasingly lawless actions of the Trump Administration, and in particular ICE, who have been defying courts and acting with disregard for the Constitution."[43] Mark Pocan (WI–02) said the arrest is "stuff I expect from Third World countries" and called for an investigation.[38]
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said that aggressive federal interference at the Milwaukee County Courthouse was having a detrimental effect on normal legal processes,[44] with a similar view expressed by Milwaukee state Assemblyman Ryan Clancy.[45]
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that five legal experts, including former federal prosecutors, did not believe Dugan should be charged with a federal crime.[2] Christopher Wellborn, the president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, criticized the arrest, saying that American democracy "rests upon the independence of the judiciary" and any "retaliatory action from the executive branch that appears to undermine this foundation demands our unwavering scrutiny and a resounding response."[3]
Retired Massachusetts Supreme Court justice Geraldine Hines commented "This kind of prosecution is... an effort to intimidate judges".[4] Monica Isham, a circuit court judge in Sawyer County, Wisconsin, sent an email to other state judges with the subject line "Guidance Requested or I Refuse to Hold Court". In the email, she noted that she had sworn an oath to uphold both the U.S. and Wisconsin constitutions, and said: "I have no intention of allowing anyone to be taken out of my courtroom by ICE and sent to a concentration camp, especially without due process, as BOTH of the constitutions we swore to support requires."[46]
More than 150 former state and federal judges called Dugan's arrest an attempt to intimidate the courts.[47]
The Chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, Ann Jacobs, said Judge Dugan's arrest was "unheard-of" and seemed designed to make judges afraid to take any position that the Trump administration did not like.[25]
Protests were held outside of the U.S. Courthouse in Milwaukee on April 25,[48] and the FBI field office in St. Francis on April 26.[49]
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Electoral history
Wisconsin circuit courts (2016, 2022)
See also
- Judicial independence
- United States v. Joseph (2019), a federal criminal prosecution of a state court judge and a court officer for allegedly helping a state court defendant evade federal immigration authorities in a courthouse and, after dismissal of the case, the basis for a policy for ICE to refrain from making routine arrests at courthouses.
Notes
- An administrative warrant is not issued by a judge; it carries less authority than a judicial warrant and it is limited in legal methods of serving, e.g., it may be refused by the intended recipient, who may withhold consent for such agents to enter places where privacy is expected.[15] "Unlike a judicial warrant, an administrative warrant does not give ICE officials the authority to enter private places without consent."[16][17]
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References
External links
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