Blog Betty (Thomas Friedman is a Great Man was an online novel): District Jude Julie R. Rubin believes in the Constitution and stands up for it

Thursday, January 22, 2026

District Jude Julie R. Rubin believes in the Constitution and stands up for it

While the Supreme Court has repeatedly refused to stand up for We The People and refused to honor their oath to the Constitution, our federal courts have done some amazing work in the last 12 months and they deserve applause.

Daniel Villareal (LGBTQ NATION) reports on another justice doing the actual job required:

A federal judge has voided a Department of Justice (DOJ) subpoena requiring Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. to hand over private information on young patients receiving gender-affirming care (GAC). The ruling is just the latest roadblock in the DOJ’s quest to end GAC for trans youth; however, the hospital stopped offering GAC last July in response to the current presidential administration’s threats to defund institutions that offer such care.

The case involved eight families that received transition-related healthcare through the hospital’s Gender Development Program between 2020 and 2025. The families said that the DOJ’s subpoena — which demanded their addresses, children’s social security number, medical diagnoses, prescriptions, and all documents affirming parental authorization, among other information — violated their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, and their Fifth Amendment right to privacy in their medical records.

The DOJ argued that the families lacked legal standing to oppose the subpoena because none of them directly received it — the subpoena was sent to hospital workers — and because the families challenged the subpoena after the DOJ’s deadline for patient information had passed.

But, because the subpoena sought “private medical records containing highly sensitive treatment” about children, U.S. District Judge Julie R. Rubin wrote in her ruling that the families had legal standing, both because the subpoena put an “undue burden” upon the families and because their children were relying on their parental guardians “to protect [their] interests because [they lack legal] capacity to act in self-protection.”

“This court joins the district courts around the country in finding that the Government’s Subpoena lacks a proper investigatory purpose under law; serves only to bolster the Executive’s policy objective of terminating access to gender affirming healthcare for adolescents; and has no plausible or coherent tether to its stated purpose,” Rubin wrote.

Thank you, Judge Rubin, for following and honoring the Constitution. In very dark times, you shine a light.

"The Snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Thursday, January 22, 2026. Chump bombs overseas and embarrasses our country on the world stage, ICE continues attempting to hide deaths, Chump and his late roll dog Jeffrey Epstein used to cut quite the rug, and much more.

As Ben notes this morning on MEIDASTOUCH NEWS, Chump bombed. Bombed. He looked like the idiot he is. He repeatedly confused Iceland with Greenland which was bad. Worse was, as Jen Psaki noted, White House spokesperson Propaganda Pig Karoline Leavitt insisting that Chump didn't make a mistake.

Edith Olmsted (THE NEW REPUBLIC) observes:

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wants to pretend that Donald Trump didn’t mix up Greenland and Iceland—but he did. Multiple times.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos Wednesday, Trump repeatedly and erroneously mixed up Greenland with Iceland, a completely separate landmass and independent nation. The gaffe sparked concern that Trump, who has been showing increasing signs of cognitive decline, had no idea what country he was even demanding to own.

Once again demonstrating her fierce commitment to truth-telling, Leavitt tried to defend the president by lying about something that everyone heard.

“President Trump appeared to mix up Greenland and Iceland around three times,” NewsNation’s Libbey Dean wrote on X after the speech.

“No he didn’t, Libby,” Leavitt responded. “His written remarks referred to Greenland as a ‘piece of ice’ because that’s what it is. You’re the only one mixing anything up here.”

Oh, Propaganda Pig, you are such a dirty liar. We've had enough of you and of the liar you work for. Sam Stevenson (NEWSWEEK) is Paul Revere today delivering the news the country needs to hear:

More than seven in 10 Americans think the United States is “out of control” under President Donald Trump, according to a new national poll of adult citizens.

[. . .]

Americans’ perceptions of how the country is being run are likely to prove decisive in how they vote in November’s midterm elections.

These findings reflect unease with Trump’s approach, chiming with other recent national surveys in which majorities said he had gone too far with military interventions abroad and voters expressing a preference for restraint and congressional checks on the use of force.

The United States is out of control, according to 71 percent of those polled in a new national Economist/YouGov survey. Just 18 percent of respondents said the country was “under control,” while 11 percent said they were not sure.

The data showed that the out-of-control sentiment cut across most demographic groups: 70 percent of white respondents, 79 percent of Black respondents and 70 percent of Hispanic respondents said things were out of control, while 70 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds and 74 percent of those 65 and older agreed.

That's reality. And that's how you know it will leave the lips of Propaganda Pig.

At THE NEW YORK TIMES this morning, Shane GoldmacherRuth Igielnik and Camille Baker report:

Less than a third of voters think the country is better off than it was when President Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with a wide majority saying he has focused on the wrong issues, according to a new poll from The New York Times and Siena University.

A majority of voters disapprove of how Mr. Trump has handled top issues including the economy, immigration, the war between Russia and Ukraine and his actions in Venezuela. And significantly, a majority of Americans, 51 percent, said that Mr. Trump’s policies had made life less affordable for them.

All told, 49 percent of voters said the country was worse off than a year ago, compared with 32 percent who said it was better.

The survey also revealed the extent to which Mr. Trump has polarized the nation into its furthest partisan corners, with more voters seeing him as on track to be historically bad or good than merely below or above average. Some 42 percent of voters said he was on track to be one of the worst presidents in American history — and 19 percent said he was headed to be one of the best.

And delving deeper into the data, Nate Cohn notes:

The major demographic shifts of the last election have snapped back. In today’s poll, Mr. Trump’s approval rating by demographic group looks almost exactly as it did in Times/Siena polling in the run-up to his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. If anything, young and nonwhite voters are even likelier to disapprove of Mr. Trump than they were then, while he retains most of his support among older and white voters.

Similarly, Democrats have regained their usual advantage among young, nonwhite and low-turnout voters in the race for control of Congress. Overall, Democrats lead by five percentage points among registered voters nationwide — a tally that would easily be enough for the party to take back the House of Representatives. It’s the largest lead for the Democrats in a Times/Siena national poll since 2020, and it’s similar to Joe Biden’s eventual 4.5-point popular vote victory that year.

Yes, most Americans have reached their limit when it comes to Chump's law breaking, his tantrums and his grifts. This comes as TMZ reports on one of his closest and dearest friends, the late Jeffrey Epstein:

Here's how twisted Jeffrey Epstein was ... his birthday was little more than another reason to victimize young women, at least according to one of the Congressmen pushing for the release of Epstein photos and docs.

The late pedophile would have turned 73 on Tuesday, and Rep. Suhas Subramanyam -- a Democrat from Virginia who sits on the House Oversight Committee -- tells TMZ, Epstein's birthday is "probably a very difficult day for many women."

Subramanyam says that for a specific reason ... telling us, "It's clear from the evidence that Epstein used his birthday as an excuse to traffic and take advantage of girls."

It's creepy ... in the portion of the Epstein Files that have already been released, there's a number of photos showing the convicted creep with 3 young women celebrating his 54th birthday, and the women are all wearing dresses emblazoned with the No. 54 on the back.

There are other photos of him with two other people sitting at a table with a birthday cake ... and Epstein's wearing the same sweatshirt from the photos with the girls.

Unclear who Epstein is sharing his birthday cake with ... the faces are redacted.

Well we can all be sure that if Chump isn't one of the redacted figures in the photos, that just means Jeffrey saved him a piece of cake because those two shared everything -- even women as Chump used to brag back in the day.

Chump and his buddy Epstein. They thought it would go away. Right now, they think that they can cover it up. But over six months later, it remains a huge liability for Chump. It's not going away.

On Epstein's birthdays, Sarah Hooper (METRO) reports:

Those taking a stroll on the National Mall this morning were met with a giant ten-foot-tall replica of Donald Trump’s ‘birthday message’ to Jeffrey Epstein. Paedophile sex offender Epstein was born on January 20, and hours before what would have been his 73rd birthday, a large replica of one of his birthday cards was erected. Placed by a group known as ‘The Secret Handshake’, the replica shows a letter which includes Trump’s signature as well as text inside the outline of a naked woman.

Trump has denied writing the note, which appears to show the outline of a young woman’s body and has worrying messages written on it. ‘We have certain things in common, Jeffrey… a pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.’ The message appears to show Donald Trump’s signature, along with his name, and sparked furore when it first surfaced last year.

We should note that Chump's many lies include insisting he didn't sign that card but MS NOW's Lawrence O'Donnell demonstrated otherwise on his program THE LAST WORD WITH LAWRENCE O'DONNELL months ago that the signatures matched. Amanda Marcotte (SALON) writes:

Between sending an army of goons from Immigration and Customs Enforcement into Minneapolis and threatening to invade Greenland, Donald Trump has successfully knocked the Epstein files out of the headlines — for now. The president’s long and intense friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in jail awaiting trial for sex trafficking minors, was getting another round of heavy media scrutiny in December. The Justice Department was scheduled to release millions of documents related to the case — and then failed to do so.

This came after reports emerged that Epstein called himself “Don’s best friend” and that the two men spoke multiple times a week for years, in addition to frequently partying together. The reluctance of Attorney General Pam Bondi and other shamelessly corrupt officials to release the files, as required by law, suggests they are worried that what’s in them could somehow be even worse.

But while a fascistic assault on a major American city and the threat of starting World War III are understandably crowding out discussion of the Epstein files, Trump’s repeated demands that this story go away aren’t going to be heeded. This week, an art installation was erected on the National Mall depicting a lewd birthday card reportedly sent by Trump to Epstein, which alluded to having “certain things in common” and a “wonderful secret.” Media outlets are marking that it’s been over a month since the deadline to release the files, with no sign that the Justice Department has made any movement beyond a few embarrassing photos of men other than Trump hanging out with “Don’s best friend.”

Bondi and her communications staff keep making lame excuses for the delay, which almost no one is buying. A CNN poll shows that only 6 percent of Americans are happy with the amount of material released, with two-thirds believing the failure is a deliberate cover-up. According to a YouGov poll, 49% of Americans think Trump was directly involved in Epstein’s crimes, while a whopping 71% believe he knew about the crimes.

Was she the roll dog or the victor's spoils on a lonely night? Who knows? Maybe she was just Donald's best friend? But Ghislaine Maxwell is back in the picture -- and still in the pokey. Aysha Bagchi and Zachary Schermele (USA TODAY) reports:

Jeffrey Epstein's convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, will testify in February as Congress continues to investigate Epstein's alleged sex-trafficking network, James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, said on Jan. 21.

Members of Congress and large segments of the public have been eager to hear revelations from Maxwell about Epstein and others who may have been involved in his crimes. Epstein was convicted in 2008 of two Florida prostitution offenses, including one involving minors. He died in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting a federal sex-trafficking trial.

However, Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, indicated he didn't expect Maxwell to be forthcoming, even if he hoped to be proven wrong.

"Her lawyers have made it clear that she’s going to plead the Fifth," Comer said, referring to a criminal defendant's constitutional right, under the Fifth Amendment, to protection against self-incrimination. The right allows defendants to remain silent under questioning.

Chump moved her from a maximum security prison that someone convicted of her crimes belongs in over to Club Fed which she doesn't qualify for but which gives her all sorts of perks. I bring that up for a reason. She's not supposed to be playing with puppies or left alone for private visits where she has access to electronic devises, but she is. So, before she shows up, since she's so used to now getting all these extras, someone might need to explain to her that when she's declaring the Fifth, she's invoking an Amendment against self-incrimination, she's not ordering booze. She won't be served a fifth of gin. Maybe at the 'prison' where Chump's broken all the rules for her, but not in Congress.

A lot of people are getting tired of waiting on the files to be released. Melina Khan (USA TODAY) notes:

In November 2025, lawmakers in Congress overwhelmingly backed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which called on the Justice Department to release all its documents on Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019.

President Donald Trump signed the act into law on Nov. 19, 2025, giving the Justice Department 30 days to release all its files with the exception of those that could violate victims' privacy or jeopardize federal investigations.

In the eleventh-hour of that deadline, on Dec. 19, 2025, the department began to issue a tranche of emails, photos and other documents related to Epstein. But not all of the department's files were released by the deadline. And of those that were, many of them arrived to the DOJ's so-called Epstein library with heavy redactions or no context.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said at the time that lawyers were still sifting through the materials to make sure victims aren’t named or identified, and it would likely take several weeks to produce the remaining pages.

With 30 days having since passed from that deadline, here's a look at the latest on the Epstein files release.

The Justice Department said in a court filing earlier this month that nearly 13,000 documents had been posted to the Epstein library so far, but up to two million more still need to be reviewed.

In the Jan. 5 filing addressed to U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in New York, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Blanche said 400 lawyers and 100 document analysts were reviewing the documents to ensure victims' names are redacted.

And, of course, there's always ICE. Yesterday, Pooja Salhotra (NEW YORK TIMES) reported:

A Cuban immigrant’s death in an El Paso detention center this month was ruled a homicide, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday by the county medical examiner’s office.

The detainee, Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, became unresponsive while he was physically restrained by law enforcement on Jan. 3 at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility called Camp East Montana, the report said. Emergency medical workers tried to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

The autopsy listed the cause of death as “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.” The report also described injuries Mr. Lunas Campos had sustained to his head and neck, including burst blood vessels in the front and side of the neck, as well as on his eyelids.

The determination by the medical examiner’s office does not necessarily indicate criminal culpability. It is a classification of how a person died, not a legal determination of guilt.

Mr. Lunas Campos’s death has brought renewed scrutiny to the detention center this month after The Washington Post reported the episode last week. His family has asserted that he was killed by the facility’s guards, citing a witness who said he saw guards choking Mr. Lunas Campos to death. The family is preparing a wrongful-death lawsuit, according to their lawyer, Will Horowitz.

Another proud moment for ICE, Kristi Noem and Donald Chump. Katie Herchenroeder (MOTHER JONES) reports:

Over 2,000 clergy members from around the country signed onto a letter to Congress, demanding an investigation into ICE agent Jonathan Ross’s killing of Renée Nicole Good in Minneapolis, calling for federal agents to be removed from that city, and urging “moral accountability” and “urgent action” to address “ongoing abuse of power at the hands of ICE,” according to a statement from the national organization Faith in Action.

“We’re here today as clergy across the country to hand deliver a letter from our siblings in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and to stand in solidarity with them to tell Speaker Johnson that the blood of Renée Good is on his hands,” Pastor Delonte Gholston, who leads Peace Fellowship Church in Washington, DC, said in a video posted by the organization on social media in front of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson’s office. “And that the blood of the ground is crying out, as it did in our sacred scriptures, crying out for justice. And crying out to end state-sponsored terror,” he continued, surrounded by other faith leaders.

The letter is the latest instance of faith leaders from across the country calling on President Donald Trump’s administration to cease its violent mass deportation campaign. Clergy have shown up at protests attempting to halt or delay federal agents’ operations. And sometimes, they’ve been targeted for speaking out—like the pastor who was shot in the head with a chemical agent outside of an ICE detention facility in Illinois.

On ICE, Senator Elizabeth Warren's office issued the following:

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement ahead of a vote on Congress’s $1.2 trillion funding deal:

“I have been clear that I will not vote for any budget deal that does not lower costs for families and ensure that Donald Trump can’t just take back funding later whenever he feels like it. Congress must also use its power of the purse to restrict spending on forever wars overseas and stop ICE’s terror here at home.

“This deal does nothing to lower costs like health care. This bill does not restrict Trump’s military adventurism in Venezuela and Greenland. This legislation does not halt ICE’s dangerous abuses of power and prevent ICE’s chaos in every American city.

“I will vote no on these funding bills. Donald Trump does not need more power and more funding to make life more dangerous and more expensive for American families.”

###

And now, all the way from the Congressional cloak room, distinguished guests, make room and time for The GOP Congressional Men's Choir performing their CENSORED BY BLOGSPOT . Henry Giardina (QUEERITY) notes:

CENSORED BY BLOGSPOT, Complaint from Senator Rick Scott's office.

And let's winddown with this from Senator Adam Schiff's office:

Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is demanding answers after a memo revealed the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is collecting data of noncitizens “employed by or affiliated with” VA to share with other federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Schiff is raising concern the data will be used to further the Trump administration’s mass detention and deportation agenda and instill fear among the veteran community and those who serve them.

In a letter to VA Secretary Doug Collins and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the Senator is demanding the legal basis of this database and warns these actions threaten to prevent noncitizen veterans from receiving their eligible health care and benefits.

“Instead of prioritizing the pressing service needs and care for veterans, VA is reported to have collected information on noncitizen employees and affiliates and presented them to Secretary Collins by December 30, 2025. This reported database of VA employees and affiliates exacerbates fear among noncitizens and will lead to diminished levels of care for veterans. We request that VA provide the intent for this database at this time and its plan to protect individuals’ privacy,” the Senator wrote.

The Senator also emphasizes this intimidation tactic wastes critical resources for VA personnel at a time when the agency is facing staffing shortages – with California facing some of the most severe shortages of personnel.

“Employees and affiliates of the VA provide critical services to veteran communities and are doing so under challenging conditions where the provision of health care, counseling, employment, and education resources is under strain. In fact, VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report detailing the critical staffing shortages and increased wait times for veterans trying to access necessary care throughout the system,” the Senator continued.

The full text of the letter can be found here and below.

Dear Secretary Collins and Secretary Noem,

I write to express alarm regarding the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reported memo outlining the collection of data for all non-citizens “employed by or affiliated with” VA and the potential sharing of that information with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for immigration enforcement efforts. These intimidation tactics waste critical time and resources for VA personnel that are already stretched thin. Instead of prioritizing the pressing service needs and care for veterans, VA is reported to have collected information on noncitizen employees and affiliates and presented them to Secretary Collins by December 30, 2025. This reported database of VA employees and affiliates exacerbates fear among noncitizens and will lead to diminished levels of care for veterans. We request that VA provide the intent for this database at this time and its plan to protect individuals’ privacy.

VA employees undergo a rigorous background check and are subject to the Continuous Vetting process that replaced the traditional clearance investigation process in 2018, under the first Trump Administration. This system conducts real-time automated vetting of employees, affiliates, researchers, unpaid interns, and all others with access to the VA system, according to VA Press Secretary Peter Kasperowicz. This process occurs regardless of an individual’s citizenship or immigration status, ensuring that those who are currently employed by or “affiliated” with VA, are law-abiding individuals.

Employees and affiliates of the VA provide critical services to veteran communities and are doing so under challenging conditions where the provision of health care, counseling, employment, and education resources is under strain. In fact, VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report detailing the critical staffing shortages and increased wait times for veterans trying to access necessary care throughout the system. California faces some of the most severe shortages of personnel at VA facilities in the country.

As you know, more than 25 percent of all VA employees are veterans themselves, underscoring the absurdity of this effort. Citizenship is not a requirement to serve in our armed forces, and our military has been strengthened by the leadership and contributions of those born outside the country who embrace the U.S. as their home. The request for noncitizen data, specifically, can be viewed only as a thinly veiled effort to instill fear within the VA community, which will likely be used to conduct immigration enforcement efforts targeting (1) individuals who serve our veterans or (2) veterans who serve their fellow veterans.

I respectfully request answers to the following questions no later than February 12, 2026.

Have you, Secretary Collins, or any VA officials reviewed a report on noncitizens employed or affiliated with the VA?
What evaluation and analysis have VA performed to assess the impact on services to veterans if VA noncitizen employees and affiliates are detained or deported by immigration officials?
Please identify all categories of information the VA is collecting on noncitizen employees and affiliates.
- What legal authority is the VA relying on to create and maintain such a database?
- What legal analysis has the VA conducted to ensure this database and the information it contains is compliant with the Privacy Act, HIPPA, and state laws regarding sensitive, personally identifiable information?
Has the VA shared the report or any of its contents with the Department of Homeland Security? If yes, please provide information on which DHS officials, offices, and divisions received access to such contents.
Has the VA started to share personnel information obtained as a result of the data collection efforts with the Department of Homeland Security? If not, does it intend to do so and when?
Does the Department of Homeland Security intend to conduct immigration enforcement actions in or around VA facilities?
Does DHS intend to prevent noncitizen veterans from obtaining health care or other services to which they are lawfully entitled?
Does DHS plan to detain or deport VA employees, affiliates, including children and spouses that are eligible to receive these benefits, or noncitizen veterans seeking services from the VA?