This Judge Just Got the BAD News of Her Life

A Milwaukee judge at the center of a major controversy will not be able to escape accountability by hiding behind her robe. Judge Hannah Dugan, who has been accused of helping an illegal immigrant avoid federal arrest, just saw her legal shield crumble.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Dugan had asked the court to throw out charges against her, claiming she was protected by “judicial immunity.” But her request was flatly rejected by U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, who made it clear that the law does not protect judges who step outside their duties.

Adelman wrote, “Ultimately, as the Supreme Court has stated, ‘the official seeking absolute immunity bears the burden of showing that such immunity is justified for the function in question.’ I cannot say as a matter of law that the defendant’s alleged conduct falls within even this more limited version of immunity.”