The Patriotism of Hannah Dugan

Judge Hannah Dugan. Photo from Hannah Dugan for Judge.

On April 19, Judge Hannah Dugan sent an email to the many folks and organizations on her mailing list celebrating Patriot’s Day.

“Patriots’ Day commemorates the April 19, 1775 battles of Lexington, Concord, and Menotomy (Arlington) Massachusetts that mark the official start of the American Revolutionary War. It serves as a legal holiday in several states and a special observance day in Wisconsin public schools (Wis. Statutes 118.02),” she wrote.

“…the events of this day 250 years ago have served as a commemoration and inspiration for both the common and sublime attributes of American governance and character: the pursuit of liberty, the rule of law, and self-governance.”

On February 17, Dugan sent an email entitled “Happy Presidents Day,” with a text quoting the words of George Washington (His farewell address “called for a renewed commitment to the rule of constitutional law, and to the necessity of the separation of powers.”) and Abraham Lincoln (“The government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”)

In September 2021 she sent an email celebrating the signing of the U.S. Constitution, “created 234 years ago not by despots or kings but by ‘we the people.’”

“At the very core of the Constitution is the right to vote. Of the Constitution’s 27 Amendments, three directly expanded suffrage while six Indirectly shape voting rights,” she wrote.“The ratification of each suffrage Amendment was fraught with struggles against voter suppression and for election reform.”

Her campaign photo showed the judge with a bust of Abraham Lincoln on her desk. Before getting elected a judge in 2016, she was a member or leader of several Milwaukee-area legal groups and charities, often advocating for the poor, including years as an attorney for Legal Action of Milwaukee.

But Dugan had lots of establishment credentials, serving as executive director of Catholic Charities of Southeastern Wisconsin, as president of the Milwaukee Bar Association and an adjunct assistant professor at Marquette University’s law school. In a 2021 article for the state bar’s publication, she described a “passion project” of having her picture taken in front of every county courthouse in Wisconsin.

In short this is a person whose life and career have suggested a reverence for the law and the U.S. Constitution. Now Dugan is being condemned as a rogue jurist who thinks she is “beyond and above the law,” according to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The facts are not in dispute and were reported by Urban Milwaukee. On April 18 six officers from the Milwaukee ICE [Enforcement and Removal Operations] Task Force arrived in her court to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a Mexican citizen, who was to appear before Dugan on three counts of misdemeanor battery. When the agent said they were there to make an arrest, Dugan asked if they had a judicial warrant, an agent responded, “No, I have an administrative warrant.” Dugan told the agents they needed a judicial warrant.

A report by the U.S. Congress entitled “Immigration Arrests in the Interior of the United States: A Primer,” describes the problems with an administrative warrant: “Unlike judicial warrants, ICE warrants are purely administrative, as they are neither reviewed nor issued by a judge or magistrate, and therefore do not confer the same authority as judicially approved arrest warrants…courts have recognized that this administrative warrant may not serve as the basis for state or local law enforcement officials to arrest and detain an alien, except when done under the terms of a cooperative agreement with federal authorities under INA § 287(g).”

Dugan later escorted Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out of her courtroom through the “jury door” that is not typically used by the public, the criminal complaint charges. But the door still leads out to the public hallway of the sixth floor of the courthouse, where agents had positioned themselves for the arrest. Dugan was charged with one count of obstruction and one count of concealing an individual to prevent their arrest.

In response, members of Congress have divided on party lines, with Democrats like Mark Pocan of Wisconsin’s 2nd District declaring that it is ICE agents who are at fault: “If ICE is allowed to be above the law, then clearly they need to have their operation looked at closely,” he said.

Republicans have countered that it’s Dugan who is the lawbreaker. “Judges are not supposed to write the law, and they certainly are not above it,” declared Wisconsin’s 3rd District Rep. Derrick Van Orden.

It seems unlikely a judge would find a fellow judge guilty in this instance. But even if the prosecution of Dugan fails, it will have accomplished something else. “I think they’re trying to send a message to chill the judiciary,” Wisconsin Appellate Judge Pedro Colón said in an interview with CNN.

Craig Mastantuono, a lawyer who initially represented Judge Dugan in the case, called her arrest “highly unusual,” noting that law enforcement officers could have first contacted her for questioning or asked her to turn herself in, which is how judges would normally be treated.

But by arresting Dugan and putting her in handcuffs, they had an opportunity to try and humiliate her. After the arrest, F.B.I. Director Kash Patel, posted a photo of Dugan in handcuffs on X, adding, “No one is above the law.”

“We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse,” Patel declared on X. He later took down this post, which accused Dugan of “obstructing” and referred to Flores-Ruiz as a “perp,” effectively declaring both guilty before any court had ruled or even convened. “It is an extrajudicial commentary that could severely prejudice the case, violate due process rights, and compromise public confidence in the fairness of the judicial system,” as Mitchell A. Sobieski has written.

As a private citizen Donald Trump often filed suits, as many as 4,000, including many he was unlikely to win: “even if a claim has no or little legal merit, it can be useful in terms of exhausting, intimidating, and silencing opponents,” as Prof. Timothy Zick has written. You win by losing, a formula Patel and the FBI seem to be following.

“This is a drastic escalation and dangerous new front in Trump’s authoritarian campaign of trying to bully, intimidate, and impeach judges who won’t follow his dictates,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee. And rather improbably Hannah Dugan, a soft spoken lover of America’s legal principles, has become Public Enemy Number 1 in this campaign.