Independent: New video shows Judge Hannah Dugan with federal agents in moment that led to her arrest

Attorneys for Wisconsin county judge call the case against her ‘entirely unconstitutional’

Newly obtained surveillance footage from inside a Wisconsin courthouse shows a county judge speaking with federal law enforcement officers before they arrested an undocumented immigrant moments after his hearing in the judge’s courtroom.

A week later, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was placed in handcuffs and accused of obstructing his arrest.

Footage from April 18 provided to The Independent from a public records request shows at least six plain-clothes agents in ball caps and hooded sweatshirts arriving on Dugan’s floor. At one point, one agent sits directly across from Dugan’s courtroom.

Minutes after Dugan’s arrival, agents see Eduardo Flores-Ruiz and his attorney entering the courtroom. Flores-Ruiz faces domestic abuse charges stemming from an argument with his roommates, according to a criminal complaint.

Dugan can be seen speaking to a pair of agents sitting on a bench in the courthouse hallway, and then appears to direct them down the hall. According to the criminal complaint, the agents told the judge they had an administrative warrant, which is typically issued by immigration authorities without a judge.

The judge allegedly told the agents to see the chief judge about their plans to make an arrest inside the courthouse. The complaint accuses Dugan of exhibiting “confrontational, angry demeanor” when speaking with federal agents. The surveillance footage does not include any audio.

Dugan is standing still in the video while speaking with two agents, who appear relaxed and slouched on the benches. One agent begins to walk down the hall while Dugan continues speaking with the other agent. Dugan then gestures towards the other end of the hall. She walks the opposite direction when the agents walk away.

None of the videos show the inside of her courtroom. A hearing for Flores-Ruiz lasted only a few minutes. Federal prosecutors allege Dugan directed Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out of her courtroom through a non-public door.

But video footage shows the door was just a few feet from the main entrance. Flores-Ruiz and his attorney walk past federal agents as they head towards the elevator. One agent follows them to the elevator. According to a criminal complaint, the agent shared an elevator to the lobby with the both of them.

Looks like ICE’s Gestapo thugs have no evidence worth mentioning.

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/judge-hannah-dugan-video-ice-arrrest-b2762081.html

Techdirt: Trump Administration Tells Supreme Court DOGE Can’t Be FOIAed

The destructive force that is DOGE still somehow manages to exist, despite it not being (depending on which claim is made and when) an official federal agency and/or overseen by anyone specifically identifiable as the head of DOGE.

Until recently, everyone — including Donald Trump — knew (and said as much in public) that DOGE was both a government agency and headed by Elon Musk. When the lawsuits started flying, the backtracking began by the administration, which apparently thought it could cover its tracks by walking backwards in its golf-cleated clown shows.

Trump’s love for DOGE has managed to undercut the protections DOGE hoped it would be able to avail itself of when the FOIA requests began pouring in and the discovery demands started hitting federal dockets.

CNN: Trump returns to Supreme Court with emergency appeal over mass firings

The Trump administration returned to the Supreme Court on Monday to ask the justices to reverse a lower court order that has blocked mass firings and major reorganizations at federal agencies, a case that could have enormous implications for the president’s power to reshape the federal government.

The latest emergency appeal involving President Donald Trump’s second term to reach the Supreme Court followed an order last week from the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals that kept on hold Trump’s plans for the sweeping layoffs – known as reductions in force, or RIFs.

Loser Trump has lost at the first two levels (district court & court of appeals); let’s make it 3 for 3!

https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/02/politics/trump-returns-to-supreme-court-with-emergency-appeal-over-mass-firings

Miami Herald: Supreme Court Rejects GOP Appeal on Voting Measure

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied an appeal from Michigan Republican lawmakers seeking to overturn voter-approved voting rights measures. Lawmakers aimed to invalidate amendments regarding same-day voter registration and absentee voting rights …

Apparently none of the judges were impressed with the Republicans’ whine:

The case was dismissed in a lower court for lack of standing and upheld by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, leading to the Supreme Court’s final decision not to hear the appeal.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/supreme-court-rejects-gop-appeal-on-voting-measure/ar-AA1FTyXQ

Reuters: US judge blocks Trump from suspending Biden-era migrant ‘parole’ programs

  • Judge orders resumption of Biden-era parole programs
  • Ruling affects migrants from Afghanistan, Latin America, and Ukraine
  • Trump administration seeks Supreme Court intervention against earlier ruling

A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to resume processing applications from migrants seeking work permits or more lasting immigration status who are living in the country temporarily under “parole” programs.

The ruling by District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston will provide relief to thousands of migrants from Afghanistan, Latin America, and Ukraine who were granted a two-year “parole” to live in the country under programs established by Democratic former President Joe Biden’s administration.

The same judge had previously blocked the Trump administration from revoking the parole status of hundreds of thousands of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

View Post

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-judge-blocks-trump-halting-biden-era-migrant-parole-programs-2025-05-28

SF Gate: ICE stormed SF court to arrest 4 asylum seekers, denounced as unlawful

Four asylum seekers were detained by federal agents on Tuesday at San Francisco Immigration Court, a move the Department of Homeland Security has portrayed as part of a broader return to “the rule of law” but that immigration attorneys have called unconstitutional and unprecedented in U.S. history. 

According to the San Francisco Bar Association, the individuals were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in two separate sweeps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, while attending hearings to claim asylum. All four had pending asylum applications.

“It’s a clear violation of the Constitution and due process rights,” Milli Atkinson, an immigration attorney with the SF Bar Association’s Attorney of the Day program, told SFGATE. Association members were at the courthouse when ICE swept in during the morning and were advocating for one of the detainees.

Atkinson added that ICE had already determined at the time of arrest that each individual should pursue asylum before a judge – a legal process outlined by Congress. She argued that the agency is now attempting to reverse course by claiming a change in circumstances, a justification she described as unfounded.

Under federal law, those eligible for asylum are permitted to stay in the U.S. while their applications are reviewed by an immigration judge. Atkinson said Tuesday’s arrests short-circuited that process. 

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/asylum-seekers-arrested-ice-san-francisco-20349387.php

Talking Points Memo: Trump Stonewalls Federal Judges In New Round Of Brazen Defiance

A Constitutional Clash In Three Acts

In three closely watched anti-immigration cases, the Trump administration continued its slo-mo constitutional defiance of the judicial branch …

Act I: Non-Responsiveness

Act II: Delay Shenanigans

Act III: Misdirection And Mischaracterization

Read the article for the details:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/trump-stonewalls-federal-judges-in-new-round-of-brazen-defiance

Raw Story: ‘Feel sorry’: Ex-FBI director reveals Kash Patel clip that made him ‘cringe’

James Comey claimed he cringed watching president Donald Trump’s FBI director Kash Patel struggle to answer a basic question during a recent Senate hearing.

The former FBI director, who has earned Trump’s enduring ire over the Russia probe during his first presidency, appeared Wednesday on CNN’s “The Situation Room” to discuss his successor’s handling of the job as the nation’s top federal investigator, and he was unimpressed by his response to Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) asking about the bureau’s tardy budget request.

“I cringe at that clip,” Comey said. “I actually feel kind of sorry for the guy. It’s like showing up for a final exam with no pencils and no paper and you didn’t even know there’s a final exam.”

Too much nightclubbing!!!

https://www.rawstory.com/kash-patel-fbi-director-2672223176

The Handbasket: State Department set to launch ‘Office of Remigration’

The concept of remigration has explicitly neo-Nazi roots and has been popularized in Europe.

Secretary Marco Rubio’s State Department published a reorganization chart Thursday morning showing massive cuts to diplomatic offices and functions, plus a few new additions. Rubio’s department also reportedly sent the plan to Congress concurrently. What hasn’t been previously reported is the extensive 136-page document Congress received that includes the more granular details of what the reimagined department would look like— including an “Office of Remigration,” a far-right, anti-immigrant buzzword made popular in Europe for ridding the country of migrants.

Arguably the most alarming piece of the report comes in the section for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM). The report states that PRM will be “substantially reorganized” and that a number of new offices will be created as part of the absorption of USAID. There will be three new offices under the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Migration Matters, “to shift focus towards supporting the Administration’s efforts to return illegal aliens to their country of origin or legal status.” 

One such office will be the Office of Remigration (REM), which will “provide a policy platform for interagency coordination with DHS and other agencies on removals/repatriations, and for intra-agency policy work to advance the President’s immigration agenda.” There will also be offices of International Migration/Repatriation and Refugee Processing.

Coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) surprised one State Department employee I spoke to who said the people they’ve known to work in PRM are “pretty much the opposite” of those who work for DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

While these plans align with Trump’s open objective of expelling as many migrants from the United States as possible, the use of the word “remigration” is particularly striking as it’s widely used by far-right extremists in Europe. 

“All of it is pretty awful with some pieces that definitely violate existing law and treaties,” a person who works closely with the State Department told The Handbasket. “But institutionalizing neo-Nazi theory as an office in the State Department is the most blatantly horrifying.”

https://www.thehandbasket.co/p/state-department-office-of-remigration

Alternet: Trump-capitulating law firms keep losing in a bad deal that is becoming worse by the day | Opinion

Trump Loses Again

In a 52-page opinion, U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates—a 2001 appointee of President George W. Bush—rejected the Justice Department’s effort to defend Trump’s executive order targeting Jenner & Block. Trump’s own words doomed it:

Like the others in the series, this order—which takes aim at the global law firm Jenner & Block—makes no bones about why it chose its target: It picked Jenner because of the causes Jenner champions, the clients Jenner represents, and a lawyer Jenner once employed. (Jenner & Block v. U.S. Department of Justice, et al. Civil Action No. 25-916 (JDB) p. 1)

The court left no doubt that Trump had violated the Constitution:

Going after law firms in this way is doubly violative of the Constitution. Most obviously, retaliating against firms for the views embodied in their legal work—and thereby seeking to muzzle them going forward—violates the First Amendment’s central command that government may not “use the power of the State to punish or suppress disfavored expression.” (Id.; citations omitted.)

Describing how Trump’s actions undermine democracy, Judge Bates previewed the fate awaiting similar orders:

This order, like the others, seeks to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like, thereby insulating the Executive Branch from the judicial check fundamental to the separation of powers. It thus violates the Constitution and the Court will enjoin its operation in full. (Id.; emphasis supplied.)

The firms that challenged Trump remain undefeated in the courtroom.

https://www.alternet.org/trump-law-firms-2672221371