BIRTH ORDER BLOCKED: A federal judge in Seattle blocked President Trump’s executive order to end automatic citizenship for babies born in American territory, dealing the president his first legal defeat just four days into his presidency as he vows to use every tool to fight illegal immigration. 

  Trump made the order to stop immigrant families from establishing a foothold in the US by having babies that are US citizens. He dismissed the court order saying, “There’s no surprises with that judge.”

  District Court judge, John Coughenour, sided with four states that sued saying, “This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.” The judge appointed by Ronald Reagan said, “I have been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case whether the question presented was as clear.”

  Coughenour said it “boggled” his mind that lawyers vetted Trump’s order and told him to go ahead and sign it.

  The 14^th Amendment says in its first sentence that, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Trump’s order hangs its hat on the “subject to the jurisdiction” clause, claiming illegal immigrants are not subject to the jurisdiction of the US. But multiple Supreme Court cases have ruled that anyone living in or visiting in the US is subject to its laws and jurisdiction.

SHOT DOWN: President Donald Trump, who was nicked by an assassin’s bullet, eliminated the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention created under Joe Biden. The office’s mission was to “reduce gun violence, and to implement and expand upon key executive and legislative action taken to help save lives.”

  One of the office’s undertakings was to fight the illegal manufacture of  guns, including so-called “ghost guns” like the one believed to have been used by Luigi Mangione to kill the CEO of United Healthcare.

  According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), between 2017 and 2023 ” nearly 1,700 ghost guns were used in homicides and 4,000 were linked to other violent crimes.”

WAIT, THERE’S MORE: 

— Calling all conspiracy theorists!! Saying, “Everything will be revealed,” Trump signed an order for the release of all records pertaining to the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The National Archives says that 97 percent of the President Kennedy records are already available to the public.

— Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, moves toward confirmation with the backing of 51 Republican senators. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joined Democrats in opposition. Collins of Maine cited Hegseth’s lack of management experience, his views disparaging the role of women in the military, and his skepticism about prohibitions against torture.

— The Trump administration this week abruptly stopped all external communication at the Department of Health and Human Services and its agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. The administration also issued a second order indefinitely halting the travel of HHS personnel. 

— Trump announced that his is pardoning anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances. He called it “a great honor to sign this.”

— Following Trump’s ban on diversity and equity programs in federal agencies, the administration emailed thousands of federal employees, ordering them to report any efforts to “disguise” diversity and equity initiatives in their agencies or face “adverse consequences”.

SEXTING: An aide to House Speaker Mike Johnson advised Republican colleagues against subpoenaing former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson as part of their investigation into the Jan. 6^TH insurrection in an effort to head off release of sexually explicit texts that lawmakers sent her, according to The Washington Post.

  Speaker Mike Johnson has revived the January 6^th investigation as part of the continuing Republican effort to rewrite the history of the violent attack on the Capitol. 

AND THE NOMINEES ARE: The offbeat musical drama “Emelia Perez” about a transgender Mexican drug baron collected 13 nominations, the most of any movie for the 97^th Academy Awards. Karla Sofía Gascón, who played the title role, is the first transgender actress to be nominated for Best Actress.

 Among the 10 nominees for  best picture are “Conclave,” a Vatican thriller,; “The Substance,” a feminist horror flick; “Nickel Boys,” a historical drama set in racist  1960s Florida; “Anora,” a about a sex worker who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch, and;  the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.”

  Among those nominated for Best Actor are Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”), Timothée Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”), Colman Dand Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”) 

  Demi Moore (“The Substance”) is considered a favorite to win Best Actress after winning it at the Golden Globes.

DRUG BUST: Members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and the company itself have agreed to pay up to $7.4 billion to settle lawsuits accusing Purdue of being America’s streetcorner opioid dealer. 

  The agreement replaces one rejected last year by the Supreme Court.

  The Sacklers agreed to pay up to $6.5 billion and give up ownership of the company, which would pay nearly $900 million. The maximum contribution from family members is $500 million more than the previous deal.

THE SPIN RACK : Norah O’Donnell signed off last night as anchor of  the “CBS Evening News” as the network overhauls the broadcast that trails both ABC and NBC in the ratings. — Celebrities Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, along with several other Pacific Palisades property owners who lost their homes in the Palisades fire, sued the city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power as lawsuits against the city stack up. The reservoir that was supposed to provide water for the Palisades was empty at the time.

BELOW THE FOLD:  Late night host Jimmy Kimmel said Donald Trump is coming to Los Angeles “to blame us for the fires in person.”

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