Happy Thursday, readers! Thanks for making Today’s American News your source for news and analysis on the circus that is American politics and entertainment.
Judge blocks DOGE access to Social Security Numbers in stinging rebuke… ABC News reports “The Department of Government Efficiency approaches to identifying fraud at the Social Security Administration ‘is tantamount to hitting a fly with a sledgehammer,’ a federal judge said Thursday, blocking DOGE's unlimited access to sensitive agency data… U.S. District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander wrote the Trump administration never justified the need to access the data -- which they argued was vital to identifying alleged fraud -- and likely violated multiple federal laws in doing so. "The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion. It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack," the judge wrote in a 137-page ruling.
CBS News obtains info on 238 Venezuelans deported by Trump Administration to El Salvador under likely illegal premises… “CBS News has obtained an internal government list of the names of the Venezuelan men the Trump administration deported to El Salvador as part of a secretive operation last week that has triggered a legal standoff in the U.S. and a debate around the world. On March 15, the U.S. government deported 238 male Venezuelan citizens on three flights to El Salvador, accusing them of being part of a transnational gang known as Tren de Aragua, which President Trump has labeled a foreign terrorist group and wartime enemy. Upon landing, the deported men were forcefully led off planes by heavily armed Salvadoran authorities. They were marched into armored vehicles, had their heads shaved and were transferred into cells inside El Salvador's notorious maximum security prison, known as CECOT. The high-profile deportations quickly set off a legal battle in the U.S. The court fight initially centered on the legality of Mr. Trump's move to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expel many of the Venezuelan deportees.” The showdown between the Trump Administration and the courts has dominated headlines and the judge called the Justice Department’s response to his request “woefully insufficient.” To state the obvious, the U.S. is not at war with Venezuela.
Trump signs order decimating Department of Education while universities cower under White House pressure… CNN reports, “President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to begin dismantling the US Department of Education, seeking to fulfill decades of conservative ambition to get rid of the agency, but raising new questions for the country’s millions of public schools, student-loan holders and parents.” Meanwhile, Politico analyzes how America's institutions of higher education are “caving to Trump with a stunning speed and scope.” The institutions “are capitulating to President Donald Trump with staggering speed, moving to slash progressive policies and crack down on student activism as they face compounding threats from an administration hellbent on reshaping higher education.”
NPR celebrates International Day of Happiness in photos… This story and its beauty was a much needed respite from the Trump Administration’s latest chaos and DOGEsh*t’s latest damage. NPR writes, “March 20 — is in fact International Day of Happiness. Declared by the United Nations in 2013, this special day recognizes the importance of happiness as ‘a fundamental goal’ in people's lives around the world.” Check out the collection here.
Ruth Infante (second from left), a single mother of three, and her classmates donned traditional flowing dresses for their Cumbia dance performance at a center in Bogotá, Colombia, that provides happy respite for family caregivers. Photo credit: NPR Today’s Furry Friend
Meet Ginger, the rescue pitbull who cares for litters upon litters of foster kittens.
Today’s Buzz
Reality Rewind: The best 25 reality stars of the 2000s… “Nothing quite captured the early 2000s like reality television,” EW writes. “It offered us an inside look at the dating world, the dancing world, the singing world, the lives of famous friends/couples/families, and the lives of not-so-famous people... some of whom were really into fist pumping. It gave us competition, drama, love, drama, comedy, and did we mention drama?” Here’s the list.
That’s all for now. Thanks for letting us here at Today’s American News help make sense of the chaos – and check back in tomorrow evening.
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