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Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz strongly dissents from the Trump administration's revoking of the Biden administration's policy of rarely making immigration arrests at courthouses other than for essentially exigent circumstances, lest undocumented people stay away from courthouses when criminal defendants, civil litigants, and witnesses. Separation of powers and federalism also favor no courthouse immigration arrests. "Nobody is above the law" oversimplifies this entire matter, as covered by this podcast episode, with Milwaukee lawyer Stephen Kravit as our guest, to explain the realities over the below-detailed incident involving Judge Hannah Dugan, and how to make systemic courthouse changes to avoid repeats of such incidents. Steve has written here (and continued here) on this matter. 

A few weeks ago, federal authorities arrested Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan at her own courthouse, leaving her unable to even handle her day's docket, after being charged federally for concealment and obstruction of justice involving an immigration administrative arrest warrant (meaning not issued by a judge) for a defendant in her courtroom, and arranging for him and his lawyer to exit her courtroom from a side door, which went into the same public hallway as her courtroom's main entrance. This episode is also available on YouTube.

For more reading on efforts to protect separation of powers and federalism in courthouses, beneficial reading includes a Colorado judge's recent order for no civil immigration enforcement at the courthouse, the New York City Bar's dissent from the prosecution of Judge Dugan, this legal analysis of judges dealing with immigration enforcement at courthouses, this 2018 letter from dozens of former judges against courthouse immigration enforcement, this article (and here) on states that have pushed back against courthouse immigration enforcement, the NYC Legal Aid Society's suggestions on dealing with such enforcement.

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at info@KatzJustice.com, 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675