A Milwaukee judge who was arrested for allegedly shielding an undocumented immigrant from ICE arrest has argued that she can’t be prosecuted based on the same case that granted President Donald Trump broad immunity for “official” acts.
The FBI arrested Hannah Dugan last month after she allegedly told agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that they needed a warrant to arrest an undocumented immigrant who had appeared in her courtroom on a misdemeanor charge.
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The motion argued that the problems with the prosecution were “legion,” including the fact that they allegedly violated the U.S. Constitution’s fundamental principle of federalism. But “most immediately, the government cannot prosecute Judge Dugan because she is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts,” it said.
As evidence, the motion cited the 2024 Supreme Court case Trump v. United States in which the court ruled the president had absolute immunity for “official acts.”
Can’t wait for SCOTUS to rule that the immunity ruling somehow applies only to Trump.
I’m fully banking on it. They’ll argue the office of the president is “special” and not beholden to the same rules and regulations that are supposed to bind public servants. And the SC will grant them that.
Then they will be opening themselves for future prosecution for their acts. I could see them (majority) siding with her just to protect their asses.
I’d almost love it if that ruling screwed over polices qualified immunity for their “official acts.”
I was under the impression that that was really the case and didn’t apply to anyone else in government.
I have to read the full text again, and IANAL, but the ruling was former presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts particularly by their core constitutional powers. It did not rule on unofficial acts.
To me, that means every official act can be weighed against it being in his authority to actually do those things. If he doesn’t have that constitutional power, then he doesn’t get official act immunity.
What the judge did is power granted to the judicial branch by the constitution. That, again to me, says that there is an immunity clause.
But that all is based on the premise that law matters, and it doesn’t given that we’ve already abandoned due process.