MILWAUKEE, Wis. — The arrest of a Milwaukee judge for thwarting federal agents from storming her courtroom was “a bridge too far” by the Trump administration, according to a state appellate judge. Pedro Colón called the arrest a Trump attempt to intimidate the judiciary. The arrested judge, Hannah Dugan, is “unbiased and ethical,” Judge Colón said. He’s known Dugan 15 years,.In a CNN interview he said.
“They’re trying to send a message to chill the judiciary. It speaks more to the politics and sort of the symbolic gestures of power by people who don’t really appreciate the Constitution, don’t really appreciate the rule of law. They want to create circumstances and a culture where people are unsettled about their rights, about their duties, and about the way we go about our jobs.”
Colón’s comments came a day after the FBI charged Milwaukee Judge Dugan with obstruction. She had objected to FBI agents who wanted to enter her courtroom to handcuff and carry off an immigrant at a hearing on a state-level charge unrelated to his immigration status. Colón called Judge Dugan’s arrest an example of Trump overreach:
“What they want to do is to essentially have the judiciary not only in Wisconsin but the independent judiciaries of the state essentially succumb to their power and their policy priorities independent of Constitutional rights and what other rights people have. That’s not the way we do business in a democratic, in a democratic country. What they are doing essentially is creating is chaos.