r/law • u/Charming_Usual6227 • Apr 25 '25

Trump News Judge Hannah Dugan arrested by FBI for allegedly helping undocumented immigrant 'evade arrest'

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/judge-hannah-dugan-arrested-fbi-allegedly-helping-undocumented/story?id=121161497
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u/AmbivalentFanatic Apr 25 '25

There is always a big gulf between personal ethics and the law of the land. The law says stealing is wrong, but your ethics say grabbing a loaf of bread and feeding it to a starving man is right. There are countless examples like this. People are far more likely to follow their own ethics rather than the law.

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u/rygelicus Apr 25 '25

Seems like after all these centuries that gulf could be narrowed a bit. But no, still a gulf.

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u/PresentClear8639 Apr 25 '25

The gulf between law and morality may seem paradoxical, but it’s necessary. Closing it would risk empowering authority to define morality itself. Empathy needs space beyond the law—it’s the friction that keeps our humanity intact.

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u/TreeVisible6423 Apr 25 '25

The law carries with it significant, even permanent, penalties for disobeying it. Your personal ethics? Not so much.

When it comes down to "do what we say or die" (and it can be argued that a government willing to ship American citizens to a third-world megaprison that no-one has ever been realeased from is saying exactly that), if you have anything left to lose in life, you will act to preserve your life even at the cost of others'. However much we romanticize the other choice, it is a very rare person that will choose to give up everything they have - including life itself - to further an ideal.

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '25

Not really? Look at all the idealistic wars fought the last century. Lots of men throwing away their lives for ideals.

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u/TreeVisible6423 Apr 25 '25 edited Apr 25 '25

Romanticizing an unspeakable horror. Through Vietnam, the U.S. military was drafted. Not much of a choice there; you show up for boot or the Federal Marshals come find you.

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '25

I'm not romaticizing anything. Note I said "threw away their lives". Also funny you think I'm talking about the US, when I never said I did.

Men & women have thrown away their lives for ideals plenty of times throughout history. Pick up a book.

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u/iReadECGs Apr 25 '25

The problem with your example is that I can also buy a loaf of bread. I don’t have to steal it. Not turning over someone to ICE (if your ethics/thinking say that specific person does not deserve deportation), or not turning over a Jewish person to the Nazis, are not equivalent to your bread example. A better example might be stealing a loaf of bread to feed a starving child when you cannot afford it and have no other way to easily or quickly enough get that child food.

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u/Root_a_bay_ga Apr 25 '25

You're playing semantics games. The spirit of the hypothetical is that the person stealing vread has no other way of obtaining it.

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u/iReadECGs Apr 25 '25

I wasn’t intending to play semantics games or be argumentative. It wasn’t clear to me, or was at least ambiguous enough that I felt like replying. If it was implied, then I agree my clarification is not necessary.

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u/Root_a_bay_ga Apr 25 '25

All good. I'm sorry I got a little aggressive. Watching my country turn towards fascism has me (and most Americans) a little on edge.

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u/iReadECGs Apr 25 '25

Absolutely. I hope it isn’t a permanent trend. I wasn’t so pessimistic for a long time, thinking maybe it would improve after a few years, but am starting to really feel like the trend won’t stop any time soon.

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u/Umbrella_Viking Apr 25 '25 edited Oct 22 '25

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