It was only a matter of time. One of the few countervailing powers in the United States that could halt the autocratic drift of Donald Trump's administration is the judiciary. Although during his previous term he managed to place a majority of conservative judges on the Supreme Court—and it's worth remembering that these are lifetime appointments—at the lower levels of the judiciary, there had been judges who had exercised their independence and tried to stem the tsunami of abuses of power. However, yesterday brought a clash of still-unforeseen consequences. FBI Director Kash Patel announced the arrest of Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan for "obstructing" the detention of an immigrant last week. Although she was immediately released after her statement, and Patel himself deleted the tweet shortly afterward for reasons unknown, the truth is that the objective has already been achieved. The goal is also to frighten judges and pressure them to stop exercising their responsibilities and adapt to the executive branch's demands.