A Democrat federal judge with a history of displaying anti-Trump opinions has been assigned to oversee the Department of Justice’s case against Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan, who has been accused of shielding an illegal alien from deportation during a pre-trial hearing.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, 85, was randomly assigned to preside over the jury trial of Judge Dugan, who was indicted earlier this month. Dugan allegedly concealed Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, an illegal alien who was implicated in a vicious assault, from arrest following a detention hearing back in April.
Dugan, who has been on the Milwaukee County bench for nearly a decade, faces a maximum of up to 10 years in prison if convicted on both counts of obstructing a proceeding and concealing a person from arrest.
Adelman, a former Democratic Party lawmaker and outspoken judge, is facing increased criticism and scrutiny of his record as he oversees the high-profile case.
He spent 20 years in the Wisconsin State Senate before then-President Bill Clinton nominated him to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in 1997.
While the judge has not been an active participant in politics for several years, he has taken aim at President Donald Trump, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, and other Republican figures in his rulings over the years.
In 2020, Adelman published an article in the Harvard Law & Policy Review, titled, “The Roberts Court’s Assault on Democracy,” in which he accused the chief justice of lying under oath. The Democrat judge accused Roberts of deviating from his Senate confirmation testimony in 2005 by ushering in a “hard-right majority” on the Supreme Court, and “actively participating in undermining American democracy.”
Adelman also criticized President Trump, describing him as an “autocrat” who is “also disinclined to buck the wealthy individuals and corporations who control his party.”
The judge used the piece to advocate for “righting the ship” of the nation’s highest court by mimicking the Warren Court, which is best known for its civil rights decisions and a number of additional progressive rulings.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman
Adelman was ultimately admonished by the Civility Committee for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals for his partisan remarks in the article. While the committee did not find that his remarks violated prohibited political activity under the Canons of Judicial Conduct, they did issue a sharp rebuke.
“The opening two sentences regarding the Chief Justice and the very pointed criticisms of Republican Party policy positions could be seen as inconsistent with a judge’s duty to promote public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary and as reflecting adversely on the judge’s impartiality,” the committee said.
Adelman later issued a public apology for his remarks.
The Democrat judge was also at the center of a major case involving Wisconsin’s voter ID law, which sought to sure up election integrity protections. Adelman blocked the law from taking effect before Election Day before his ruling was later reversed by the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which also issued a sharp rebuke.
In “our hierarchical judicial system, a district court cannot declare a statute unconstitutional just because he thinks (with or without the support of a political scientist) that the dissent was right and the majority wrong,” the appeals court said, noting that Adelman did not rely on any Supreme Court precedent in issuing the ruling.
Dugan’s upcoming trial comes as the Trump Administration attempts to combat a record number of rulings from “activist” judges seeking to thwart the president’s agenda. Just yesterday, the administration secured a massive legal victory when the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump can rescind deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan nationals.
The 8-1 ruling reversed a decision handed down by a federal judge in California, who issued a nationwide injunction in which he argued the Trump Administration was discriminating on the basis of race.
