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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin has a history of fighting injustice. Judge Dugan is the latest example
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - (archived: https://archive.ph/BeS0t ) Wisconsin has a history of fighting injustice. Judge Dugan is the latest example. | Opinion
Like the effort to return Joshua Glover to slavery, the prosecution of Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan is a bad case, built on bad law, pursued for bad reasons.
Jeffrey A. Mandell and Norman Eisen
Special to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
April 30, 2025 5:02 a.m.
The federal government arrested and criminally charged Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan last week. The arrest of Judge Dugan, in a state courthouse, is an unfounded power play — an effort to intimidate — by the Trump administration. It raises profound policy questions and threatens the fair administration of justice. It also stirs deep echoes from Wisconsin history — ones unflattering to the administration.
More than 170 years ago, in Wisconsin’s first years as a state, another dispute about the extent of federal power played out in Milwaukee. Congress had passed a law, the Fugitive Slave Act, requiring states that did not recognize slavery (like Wisconsin) to help facilitate the return of escaped slaves.
Joshua Glover had escaped enslavement on a Missouri plantation. He was living and working in Racine. Nearly two years after Glover’s escape, in the spring of 1854, the plantation owner learned that Glover was in Racine. He had federal marshals sent to arrest Glover and return him to servitude.
Glover never returned to Missouri. Upon his arrest, he was transferred to a Milwaukee jail to await a hearing. (Even at one of our country’s lowest points, due process was recognized as essential to the rule of law.) An abolitionist newspaper editor, Sherman Booth, rallied a crowd, which broke Glover out of jail and helped him set sail for Canada, where he lived the remainder of his life in freedom.
/snip
Like the effort to return Joshua Glover to slavery, the prosecution of Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan is a bad case, built on bad law, pursued for bad reasons.
Jeffrey A. Mandell and Norman Eisen
Special to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
April 30, 2025 5:02 a.m.
Key Points:
• Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was arrested by federal agents last week.
• The authors argue this arrest is an abuse of power by the Trump administration, echoing the Fugitive Slave Act case of Joshua Glover.
• The authors believe the case against Judge Dugan is weak, suggesting it's an attempt to intimidate judges who oppose the administration's immigration policies.
The federal government arrested and criminally charged Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan last week. The arrest of Judge Dugan, in a state courthouse, is an unfounded power play — an effort to intimidate — by the Trump administration. It raises profound policy questions and threatens the fair administration of justice. It also stirs deep echoes from Wisconsin history — ones unflattering to the administration.
More than 170 years ago, in Wisconsin’s first years as a state, another dispute about the extent of federal power played out in Milwaukee. Congress had passed a law, the Fugitive Slave Act, requiring states that did not recognize slavery (like Wisconsin) to help facilitate the return of escaped slaves.
Joshua Glover had escaped enslavement on a Missouri plantation. He was living and working in Racine. Nearly two years after Glover’s escape, in the spring of 1854, the plantation owner learned that Glover was in Racine. He had federal marshals sent to arrest Glover and return him to servitude.
Glover never returned to Missouri. Upon his arrest, he was transferred to a Milwaukee jail to await a hearing. (Even at one of our country’s lowest points, due process was recognized as essential to the rule of law.) An abolitionist newspaper editor, Sherman Booth, rallied a crowd, which broke Glover out of jail and helped him set sail for Canada, where he lived the remainder of his life in freedom.
/snip