Two Iowa jurists have signed on to an amicus brief calling for a federal court to dismiss the indictment against Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan. Federal prosecutors charged the judge with concealing a person from arrest and obstructing an official proceeding after she allegedly helped a defendant in her courtroom avoid immigration law enforcement. She has pleaded not guilty and moved to dismiss the charges.

Former U.S. District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett and former Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus were among the 138 retired judges who signed the brief, filed on May 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. The signatories served on courts in 24 different states or were appointed to the federal bench by Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush. Their brief argued, “The government’s indictment of Judge Dugan represents an extraordinary and direct assault on the independence of the entire judicial system.”

In early May, Judge Bennett and Justice Ternus signed an open letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, which condemned the Trump administration’s various attempts to “intimidate and threaten the judiciary.”

Two Iowa jurists are among more than 150 former state and federal judges who wrote to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi this week “to condemn the Trump Administration’s attacks on the judiciary,” including the April 25 arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan.

Former U.S. District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett served in the Northern District of Iowa from 1994 to 2019, when he retired. Former Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus served on Iowa’s highest court from 1993 through 2010, the last four years as chief justice. She left the bench after Iowa voters did not retain her and two other justices in the aftermath of the court’s unanimous Varnum v Brien ruling on marriage equality.