Here we go! Trump is arresting judges now

[pdq]

So you guys are okay with frog-marching this _judge_ out on camera, because she might have been (understandably) pissed off that ICE showed up to disrupt her court proceedings (apparently the third time this had happened with different cases) waving an administrative (not criminal) warrant, while interrupting and trying to short-circuit the legal process to hold this guy responsible for misdemeanor assault, which he had voluntarily shown up to court for?

Seems like an over-the-top show of executive force in a minor case to intimidate the judiciary, while they are ironically simultaneously ignoring judicial rulings at the highest levels. No one is above the law…except us. We are the law.

But that’s just my opinion.

[Kraniac]

pdq wrote:
So you guys are okay with frog-marching this _judge_ out on camera, because she might have been (understandably) pissed off that ICE showed up to disrupt her court proceedings (apparently the third time this had happened with different cases) waving an administrative (not criminal) warrant, while interrupting and trying to short-circuit the legal process to hold this guy responsible for misdemeanor assault, which he had voluntarily shown up to court for?

Seems like an over-the-top show of executive force in a minor case to intimidate the judiciary, while they are ironically simultaneously ignoring judicial rulings at the highest levels. No one is above the law…except us. We are the law.

But that’s just my opinion.

Lots of problems with this thing, of course..The story is also still developing. Some say the ICE people waited in the hallway, which is proper. An aDministrative warrant is pretty standard on a lot of the ICE cases-this also a relatively public building-not a residence.

Did they interrupt the actual proceeding in the actual courtroom?
Doesn't seem like it (but things are still sketchy)
Again, it's not altogether unusual for someone to be arrested in a court building on a seperate charge unrelated to what the person was in court for.
Im not 'ok' with a whole shitload of this stuff, of course not,,,But what we ARE in fact watching here, in terms of the ICE mob, is Trump trying to play 'best' on Obama's deportation record..and I guarantee there was quite of bit of disturbing stuff happening during that Obama phase as well.

Choose your battles is still in play here.
..a Judge has to pretty level headed in their role and maybe it'll come out that proper and due process was shirt upon egregiously and that she acted on that cue..Im reading a few different sketches of this event..it'll be interesting to see what the actual flesh is.

[Lemon Drop]

They are obviously trying to make an example of this person after decades of "sanctuary city" behavior that has frustrated immigration officials.

The arrest of the judge was ridiculously over the top and crafted for the Fox audience. PAM Bondi's on air comments are entirely inappropriate for a prosecutor at this stage, much less the AG of the US. Those will probably help the judge's defense.

I think it will be tough to prove intent on the judge's part, particularly if what she did is SOP for her and this court.

[Ombligo]

As someone in Florida, I can say that Pam Bondi is just getting warmed up. She is evil incarnate.

[pdq]

Some say the ICE people waited in the hallway…

Well, they did wait in the hallway, but that was after they showed up and told someone - probably the judge - they were there to grab this guy, who had shown up for his court date voluntarily. If not, how did the judge even hear about it? How did they end up waving an administrative (not criminal warrant) at her, if they were just politely waiting in the hallway? Why would she have sent them to the chief judge for guidance at all after they waved the warrant, if they had only just been waiting quietly in the hallway after they showed up in the courthouse?

Bondi, BTW, told Fox News talking heads, in a segment specifically about this case that “[ we are] sending a very strong message that if you are harboring fugitives…if you are helping to hide one, if you are giving a TdA member guns, we will come after you”

She didn’t do any of these things. She stopped, and then cancelled the scheduled court proceedings when ICE told her they wanted to grab this guy, who had shown up for his court date voluntarily. After she cancelled the proceeding, she let him out of a door - a different door, but to the same hallway the ICE agents were in.

For this she was arrested, cuffed and frogmarched, on camera. Seems a little over-the-top and performative to me to do so to a sitting judge - what do you think their intent was in doing so?

[pdq]

Oh, and BTW, ICE agents can now enter your home without a warrant, per the Trump administration DOJ:

A new memo from the Trump administration reveals something shocking: ICE agents have been told they can enter homes without a warrant to arrest migrants, based on little more than suspicion.

Funny - I could have sworn there was something in the Constitution prohibiting that.

The March 14 directive, signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, uses an obscure 18th-century law — the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 — to give law enforcement nationwide the power to bypass basic constitutional protections.

Oh, well then.

What other constitutional protections are no longer operative?

[Acer]

pdq wrote:
What other constitutional protections are no longer operative?

Perhaps you missed the "...unless the President decides otherwise" written in invisible ink after the last paragraph. Thankfully, Alito has used his Founding Fathers Ouija Board to clarify that for us.

[special]

Constitution? what constitution?

[pdq]

I came across a full discussion of this incident which indicates to me that prosecuting this judge isn’t going to succeed.

You can read the whole thing here, but in a nutshell:

-The policy of how ICE could/should detain people who were called to the courthouse for their cases was being developed (not finalized yet) by the Chief Judge, who was not there that day. Judge Dugan asked ICE to call him and consult with him.

-She believed that the policy was/would be that federal agents needed a criminal, not administrative, warrant.

-She postponed the proceedings and walked with the man wanted by ICE and his lawyer to the same door they came in by.

-Leaving Dugan, those two then walked by an ICE agent on their way to the elevator bank closest to the parking lot. An ICE agent rode with them in that elevator, while another called for a group of ICE agents to intercept them when they exited the courthouse.

-The ICE agents were in plainclothes. This (unfortunately) is becoming their standard MO, looking for all the world to bystanders as a kidnapping.

-Also, the one previous case where a judge was charged in this way (in 2019, and which had a more solid basis) was ultimately dropped.

[pdq]

BTW, in another case, this in Virginia, two women are going to be charged (apparently with felonies) for the crime of asking questions of the plainclothes ICE agents arresting/abducting two men who had shown up at a courthouse for their court date.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has broken its silence, conceding its agents were responsible for the arrest of two men during a raid on a downtown Charlottesville courthouse and promising that the bystanders who questioned those agents will be prosecuted.

This got the ire of the Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley…

…who announced an investigation into the raid and warned that “further actions like the courthouse arrests yesterday would constitute a grave danger to our community.”.

Hingeley has taken particular issue with the manner of the detention. Of the three plainclothes ICE agents captured on camera arresting one of the two men as he emerged from Albemarle County General District Court on Tuesday, one was wearing a balaclava masking his face and none displayed badges or arrest warrants to the man.

While Albemarle County Sheriff Chan Bryant said the ICE agents did produce proper badges and paperwork to bailiffs inside the courthouse prior to the confrontation caught on video, Hingeley stands by his assertion that arrests that resemble kidnappings are a danger to the community and could provoke violent confrontations.

ICE responded:

ICE also blasted the area’s top prosecutor, who has announced he will be investigating the raid, as “posturing for the media.”

Well, that’s rich, considering how much posturing for the media the feds are doing to titillate Trump’s base.