In 2022, she presided over the trial of Darrell Brooks Jr., the perpetrator of the Waukesha Christmas parade attack, which received national news coverage.

Following that trial, Dorow ran for a vacant seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, but was eliminated in the primary.

[4][7] During the Trump administration, he was named Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for State and Local Law Enforcement.

[13][14] During this time, Dorow served on the Legislative Council Study Committee on Bail & Conditions of Pretrial Release.

[21][22] Brooks' behavior resulted in Judge Dorow repeatedly removing the former for failure to comply with rules of decorum.

This resulted in the court receiving a substantial amount of fan-mail from individuals from various countries[25] and Judge Dorow being likened to a figure of female empowerment.

[26][27][28] On November 30, 2022, following the Waukesha Christmas Parade attack trial, Judge Dorow announced her candidacy for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

The information was revealed after the fentanyl overdose death of a University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee student, Cade Reddington, who had been a frequent customer of Dorow's son.

On January 29, 2019, she said:[15] "We don't have a workable preventative detention, and more importantly, cash bail is not a best practice any more.... And so if we are going to change anything, we should be looking at a system that eliminates cash bail with a robust preventative detention coupled with statewide pre-trial services because uniformity and funding need to be part of this solution as well.

"This comment, amongst others, drew criticism from conservative talk show host Mark Belling who accused Dorow of "consistently defend[ing] the lenient bail decisions made by court commissioners".