Court Hearing for Judge’s Obstruction of ICE Case Postponed, Creating Uncertainty

Background: Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan in court (WTMJ/YouTube). Inset: Surveillance video shows Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan speaking with ICE agents before Eduardo Flores-Ruiz’s detainment (WDJT/YouTube).

Lawyers representing Hannah Dugan, the Wisconsin judge facing federal charges for allegedly obstructing government agents during an immigration operation, have stated that she is eager to proceed to trial as quickly as possible. They disclosed that the obstruction case is lingering over her, especially since she is currently unemployed.

Dugan’s pleas for a speedy trial were reportedly unheeded, as U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman decided to indefinitely postpone the jury trial slated for July 21 for the Milwaukee County judge during a recent hearing. Despite arguments from Dugan’s legal team advocating for adherence to the original schedule, Adelman opted to prioritize evaluating a motion to dismiss that was submitted by Dugan’s attorneys a month ago before confirming a trial date, as per court documents.

Adelman said he sees where the judge is coming from, but he also wants to make sure the case is “done right,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“I understand that she wants to be working, but this is a sort of complicated case,” Adelman told Dugan’s legal team. “We want to do it right,” he reportedly said.

Dugan’s lawyer Steven Biskupic, who is a former U.S. Attorney, fought for the original schedule to be upheld Wednesday. “I’ve got a client who’s out of a job right now, who’s got this hanging over her head,” Biskupic said, per the Sentinel. “She wants a trial date.”

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While Adelman did not set a new trial date, he did say it would be “very easy” to get one in his court when the time comes. “There’s not, like, a lot of backup or anything,” he said.

Dugan, 65, was indicted last month for allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant evade federal officers shortly after he appeared in her courtroom in connection with a domestic abuse case. She filed a motion on May 14 seeking to have the federal obstruction charges she’s facing thrown out, arguing that — much in the way that the president is immune from prosecution for official acts while in office — she too is the beneficiary of broad judicial immunity.

More than 130 former state and federal judges have called for a dismissal of Dugan’s charges, joining forces in an amicus brief filed on May 30. The bipartisan collective, members of the group Democracy Defenders Fund, blasted Dugan’s arrest and prosecution as “an extraordinary and direct assault on the independence of the entire judicial system,” echoing statements made by Dugan in her motion. “This case directly threatens the ability of all judges to do their jobs without fear of retaliatory prosecution,” the brief charged.

The Justice Department has said that dismissing the charges because Dugan is “immune” would be unprecedented.

“Such a ruling would give state court judges carte blanche to interfere with valid law enforcement actions by federal agents in public hallways of a courthouse, and perhaps even beyond,” the DOJ said in its response to Dugan’s dismissal motion. “Dugan’s desired ruling would, in essence, say that judges are ‘above the law,’ and uniquely entitled to interfere with federal law enforcement.”