DEPORTATION SHOWDOWN: A federal judge rebuked the Trump administration for doing “nothing” to arrange the return a Maryland man wrongly flown to prison in El Salvador, and set in motion what could be a constitutional clash between the courts and the Trump administration.

  “To date nothing has been done,” the judge, Paula Xinis, said to a Justice Department lawyer. “Nothing.”

  Both Xinis and the Supreme Court have ordered the government to bring home Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old father of three with an American wife. The administration has argued that Garcia is no longer in their custody and that federal judges have no authority to tell the White House how to conduct foreign policy. 

  Judge Xinis plans to hold hearings to determine whether the government has willfully defied her order. She told justice department lawyer Drew Ensign to clear his calendar for proceedings that could take a couple of weeks.  “Cancel vacation,” she said. “Cancel other appointments. I’m usually pretty good about this in my courtroom, but not this time.”

ACADEMIC PROBATION: President Trump yesterday threatened Harvard University’s tax free status if it doesn’t come to heel on his demands for academic and administrative changes to fight antisemitism and cast off “woke” ideology. Trump posted on his Truth Social feed; “Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?’ Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”

  Trump had already threatened to withhold billions of dollars in funding from Harvard, which basically responded, “Go ahead.”  They have a $50 billion endowment.

   Columbia, which is somewhat less rich, had already made compromises with the administration, which led to an uproar and resignation of the acting president of the university. Claire Shipman, the new acting president, said in a message that the school will make adjustments when they are in agreement with the administration, but  they will not allow the federal government to “require us to relinquish our independence and autonomy.” She said that any agreement in which federal officials dictated “what we teach, research, or who we hire” would be unacceptable.

BOOK BAN: In a continuing effort to wipe out Diversity, Equity initiatives and erase any knowledge about it, the Army is ordering its libraries, including at West Point, to remove all books “with the explicit and sole purpose of directly and overtly promoting DEI, gender ideology, and critical race theory in a manner that subverts meritocracy and unity.” The Naval Academy already removed 381 books about similar subjects by not Adolph Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.”

PRESSING MATTERS: Dodging a court order that the Associated Press must be allowed into the press pool, The Trump White House announced that none of the wire news services will be guaranteed a spot in the pool. The White House is fighting with the AP because it will not refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

  The pool, now controlled by the press office will expand to allow access for two print journalists, one network camera crew from the likes of ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, and NBC; one secondary network or streamer; one radio station; one new media outlet, and four photographers.

TOWN HALL: Three hecklers were arrested, two of them subdued with police stun guns, at a town hall meeting held by Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. She was often derisive and dismissive to people disagreeing with how President Trump s running the country.

  During the meeting one woman submitted the question, “Why is M.T.G. supporting Musk and DOGE and the slashing of Medicaid, Social Security offices, libraries and more? This is outrageous.”

 The representative replied, “Well, Sarah, unfortunately, you’re being brainwashed by the news that you’re watching.”

  In a town meeting of his own, Iowa Sen. Chick Grassley also faced voter pushback. One man asked, “We would like to know what you, as the people, the Congress, who are supposed to rein in this dictator, what are you going to do about it?” 

FRIENDS: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg testified for a second day yesterday in the federal government’s lawsuit to break up the $1.3 trillion mega-company Meta that now owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Zuckerberg faced questions on whether he bought the latter two social media apps to kill the competition and create a monopoly.

  Losing the case and being forced to divest would put a financial torpedo in Meta. Instagram feeds the company half its advertising revenue.

THE OBIT PAGE: Wink Martindale, the so-called “king” of television game shows who hosted “Tic-Tac-Dough,” “Gambit,” “High Rollers” and a whole programming guide of daytime entertainment, died yesterday in Rancho Mirage, California. He was 91.

  Born Winston Conrad Martindale, he said he had trouble as a boy pronouncing his first name and it came out as “Winkie,” later shortened to “Wink.”

THE SPIN RACK: The British Supreme Court  ruled that the legal definition of “woman” excludes trans women in a case with consequences for how equality laws are applied in the United Kingdom. — Burglars in Los Angeles on Sunday night tunneled through a concrete wall into a jewelry store to make off with an estimated $10 million in goods. — The man accused of setting fire in the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion was motivated in part by his views on the war in Gaza, according to a search warrant. — Researchers in the South Sandwich Islands have captured video of a juvenile giant squid, the world’s largest invertebrate, and very elusive, that could grow to 1,000 pounds.

BELOW THE FOLD: The Athletic  has obtained documents revealing that the 24-year-old girlfriend of 72-year-old football coach Bill Belichick took an active role in public relations regarding the coach hiring son at the University of North Carolina.  Jordan Hudson wrote in an email, “It can be easily misinterpreted that Steve is simply benefitting from nepotism but that is not the case.” 

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