Arresting Judge Dugan – LexBlog

No, unlike presidents and sometimes federal agents, judges are not above the law. And few would raise an eyebrow if a judge was arrested for a slew of offenses, from taking bribes to put children in prison to taking bribes to keep adults out. But the arrest of a state judge, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan, for obstructing ICE, DEA and FBI agents from the warrantless* and permissionless** arrest of an alien raises the stakes in a war on federalism.

According to the complaint, Dugan confronted members of the arrest team while “visibly upset and had a confrontational, angry demeanor.” She told the group members they needed a judicial warrant, not an administrative one, and directed them to report to Chief Judge Carl Ashley’s office.

While this was going on, the bailiff informed the arrest team — which included ICE, FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency officials — that Dugan had expedited Flores-Ruiz’s case. Witnesses told federal authorities that she then “forcefully motioned” for the defendant and his attorney to exit through a side door near the jury box that leads to a private hallway and then to the public area outside the courtroom.

There is nothing remotely criminal about Judge Dugan’s having a “confrontational, angry demeanor,” despite its being of sufficient importance that it was included in the complaint. The arrest of individuals for immigration purposes has long been a highly controversial issue, as it raises significant concerns that people without documentation or who fear arrest for appearing to be an foreigner will fail to appear in court as required not because of their pending criminal case, but out of fear of deportation.

But Judge Dugan went a step beyond being angry and confrontational when she directed the defendant and his lawyer to the jury door to leave the courtroom rather than the main door where the agents were waiting. It was an affirmative act on her part, even if it was of no material significance, as the only means of egress from the jury door into the private hallway was to walk back into the same public hallway where the arrest team was stationed.

A DEA agent then saw Flores-Ruiz and his attorney get on an elevator, and he got on it with them, notifying others on the arrest team what was happening. Flores-Ruiz got off the elevator and was confronted by two agents outside the courthouse.

“A foot chase ensued,” the complaint said. “The agents pursued Flores-Ruiz for the entire length of the courthouse and ultimately apprehended him near the intersection of W. State Street and 10th Street. Flores-Ruiz was handcuffed and detained.”

The agents, for better or worse, got their man, even though they decided not to take him getting into the elevator, while inside the elevator, or as he left the elevator, and had to pursue him by foot chase, which agents hate as it gets them all hot and sweaty.

And FBI Director K$sh Patel got his woman.

No one is above the law pic.twitter.com/TSrQ4GNMdA

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) April 26, 2025

Attorney General Pam Bondi was pleased to confirm his big score, putting to rest any doubt that the arrest of a judge lacked approval from the top of the legal food chain.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X: “I can confirm that our @FBI agents just arrested Hannah Dugan – a county judge in Milwaukee – for allegedly helping an illegal alien avoid an arrest by @ICEgov.”

Should Judge Dugan have been charged with obstruction for her directing Eduardo Flores-Ruiz to the jury door in what appears to be a poor-conceived plan to aid him in avoiding arrest by the agents waiting outside the main doors? It’s a toss-up, decided primarily by whether you believe in arresting aliens at any cost or whether the sanctity of the state courthouse should require federal agents to do as they must outside its walls. As obstruction goes, it was about as lame as it gets. And yet, it appears that Judge Dugan took action to, well, make the arrest less convenient.

The federal government cannot conscript state actors, including judges, to do its bidding. Judge Dugan had no duty to assist the agents in making their arrest. But then, was her taking affirmative action to make it more difficult, even if only a tiny bit, the crime of obstruction?

Regardless, the government certainly knew where Judge Dugan could be found after a decision was made at the top levels of Main Justice whether this was a war they wanted to fight. There was no need for an immediate arrest, and certainly no justification for Patel to twit her cuffed perp walk other than the fact that he’s wholly unworthy of the position.

But the shot has been fired and the war is now on, and on in the ugliest fashion. Given the inability of anyone in the Trump administration of admitting fault, no matter how obvious it may be, first Patel and then Bondi doubled down on the bust and sent the message to every state judge and elected official that the feds have no qualms about perp walking them on social media should they not cooperate. Where this war goes remains to be seen, but once they arrested Judge Dugan, murum aries attigit. Whether state court officers will do their duty by protecting their judges from seizure presents an interesting scenario.

*The agents did not have a judicially authorized arrest warrant, but an “administrative warrant” which is not a warrant.

**In the past, federal agents entering state courthouses for the purpose of making an arrest would obtain the permission in advance to do so as a matter of respect for state authority.