Carte Blanche: Where’s the justice?
KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA
“Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.”
- Adam Smith
On April 18, 2025, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was informed that ICE agents were waiting outside of her courtroom to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who had entered the country illegally and was going to stand before her later on charges of domestic battery. Then Judge Dugan approached the officers and demanded to see a warrant. The officers produced an administrative warrant issued by ICE officials, not a judge. She then told them they needed a judicial warrant to arrest Flores-Ruiz and instructed them to consult the Chief Judge. Up until that point, her actions were legal and well within her purview as a judge. In fact, legal scholars and lawyers argued that the warrant the ICE agents had wasn’t sufficient. However, that is not the issue that led to her eventual arrest and conviction. What followed next was Dugan, as an elected official and an officer of the court, directing ICE agents away from her courtroom and helping Flores-Ruiz to escape from the courthouse using a jury room exit that made sure he wasn’t seen exiting the courtroom. She willfully and knowingly aided someone in breaking the law. On December 18th, 2025, she was found guilty of obstruction but not guilty of concealing an individual to prevent arrest. Such a conviction can carry up to 5 years in jail. However, the presiding judge decided that she should only pay a $5,000 fine and serve no prison time or probation. Prosecutors had argued that such cases typically carried a 16-month prison sentence, but the judge decided that Hannah Dugan's punishment was sufficient for the crime she had committed. It did not matter that she chose which laws were worth enforcing and helped someone with a warrant evade law enforcement, because she felt both justified in doing so and likely expected her station to shield her from repercussions. Something many Americans wish they could claim for far lesser offenses.
This isn’t the first instance, nor will it be the last, of judges who violate the law receiving preferential treatment. During the last few months in office, President Biden pardoned Judges Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella, who were convicted of scheming to collect kickbacks in exchange for keeping a privately run detention center full. They had sent hundreds of innocent kids to jail in what became known as the Luzerne County Kids for Cash scandal. Conahan, who accepted a plea deal, was sentenced to 17 years in jail, and Ciavarella to 28 years in 2008. These two former judges destroyed lives, and some of those sentenced even went on to commit suicide. Why President Biden chose to pardon these two former officers of the court, who had damaged the lives and communities that they were expected to protect as judges, is subject to interpretation; however, it is hard to argue that there weren’t others more deserving. In these two instances, Judges chose which laws to enforce, and in the latter, they used the power of the bench to enrich themselves at the expense of innocent children. Dugan will neither be disbarred nor will she face any time in prison. Her law license remains intact, and she can go on practicing and possibly be elected again. Conahan and Ciavarella served over a decade in jail, but their pardon ensured they are now free and clear. While they won’t return to the bench or to practicing, they have their liberty restored after they had spent years destroying lives and making large sums of money for doing so. Both instances raise the question of whether there is such a thing as justice in America, or whether it is something forced upon those without the connections or finances to avoid the inconvenience of being held accountable for their actions.
There are plenty of cases coming to light of judges picking and choosing cases and outcomes for what could be perceived as political reasons. As information comes out about Dr. Anthony Fauci allegedly lying to Congress, or judges regularly making rulings on cases settled by the Supreme Court. Members of Congress buy and sell stocks using insider information, and the President and their children allegedly enrich themselves while in office and, through the legal protections of their office, avoid investigations or arrest. The nation is in need of justice more now than at any time in recent memory. The people are subjected to tyranny wherever they go and whatever they do, while those appointed and elected to lead and protect flaunt the rule of law when they see fit, whether it’s for profit or some moral certitude that they had sworn to forgo when they placed the Constitution and rule of law above their personal desires. What has been playing out for years has become an epidemic: the powers and offices of those same people are being corrupted. Hannah Dugan chose to let her personal beliefs override her judgment and oath to the Constitution. If she felt so strongly about the laws and policies she disagreed with, she should’ve given up her black robe and returned to private practice or run for Congress to change the laws. Instead, she chose to use the power and trust her office granted her to break the laws because she disagreed with them. Conahan and Ciavarella used their power to trade the flesh and youth of innocent and vulnerable children in need of real help for nothing more than money.
Justice is blind. It is a virtue that we as a nation have ascribed to from our very founding, and one we have struggled to live up to on a growing number of occasions. Yet, we haven’t given up on it, nor should we. But so long as Judges and other elected leaders who are entrusted with our safety are allowed to abuse the laws and enforcement of those laws as they see fit, then there can be no justice in America. The time has long since passed; something should be done about it, and now is as good a time as ever to start holding our public servants accountable.