♪ >> tonightkq on ed "newsroom." news from the high court, the fight to replace justice kennedy and the court's big rulings this week. political analysis from publicly ng trump administration officials to turmoil in the democratic party following a stunning victory by aog ressive. plus, how one nonprofit is bringing free legal help to some of california' poorest and most vulnerable residents. hello and wcome to kqed neroom, i'm thuy vu. justice anthony kennedy week.nced his retirement this the sacramento n tive cast swing vote on many momentous rulings. as the court emed the ter this week, kennedy sided with conservatives on two big cases

affecting immigration and labor. writing for the majority, chief justice roberts rejeched t argument the ban was motivated by religious bias. also, the decision could have a big impact on california where more than half of union members whpoe first resers and teachers work in the public seco sector. melissa murray is joining me now. welcome to you both. thanks for havingus. >> thank you. >> professor murray, let's begin heth you. who was at t top of the list of potential nominees to replace justice kennedy. >> there's a list of about 25 potential nomineeswoetted by t conservative groups. the key words with all of these potential nominees is they're reliably conservative. at the top of the list are amy kony bat, a judge from the seventh circuit and brett

kavanaugh. these are the front-runners right now.ge >> jarrett has in the past expressed her catholic belief and her belief that life begins at conception. we have brett kavanaugh who was a top kdeputy to independent counsel starr during the clintov tigation. what was at the crux of this. seems they are tryin to avoid a situation where george h.w. bush nominated someone who was more liberal than conservatives wanted. >> that's true. they want someone who will be a reliable vote o i keyssues they believe will come before the court in coming years. >> what are your hopes a concerns about the next nomination and nomination process? >> my biggest hope would be that wever is theext member tries to find a way to build consensus on thert. the court is in an increasingly position where it is more polarized and divided than ever before and they need to stride

to build consensus. it is difficult to see how that will happe my greatest fear is the opposite of that, that it will coue to be more and more polarized and you will have a red and blue team on theourt like do in other branches of the court. >> melissa? >> that's right.he court is polarized right now on sort of clear divisions. i'm tot hopefut the person who will be selected, given the prospective nominees who have been offere will be someone to broker peace between these two factions. cee thing about justi kennedy is that he -- although he was quite conservative, had the ability to play in the joints a little bit. so he could be unpredictable. i don't think we will get that kind of unpredictability in this nomee. >> it seems the most aggressive debate right now is over ortion. justice kennedy coauthored the decision up holding roe v. wade. it seems to been a geral cob consensus that won't be overturnedut it might be

fwuted ovfwugut of over gutted dending on w replaces justice kennedy. >> a number of p lif groups have been seeding legislation at the lower court level, so there's aan on abortion at six week goes, we heart beak law in iowa. they've been anticipating a new justice in a few years and seeding cases that will come up to frontally challenge roe. the idea that overruling roe is offhe table i fallacious. ut is more likely to be undermined the idea of a complete overruling is not beyond the pale here. >> do you agree, jh? >> i wouldn't make any predictions on the future of abortion rights. >> there were major rulings this week. the court issued decisions on the tral ban, labor unions. there was a decision that said califoia cannot require faith-based pregnancy t centerso

provide information on abortion. taken as a whole what to they tell you about the court? >> it was a good term for conservatives at the court. each term is a little different, and most of the cases that were closely watched the conservatives prevailed and justice kitnedy sided w them in contrast to prior years where with some he sided wit h more liberal justices. >> it was a blockbuster term for conservatn really key issues that were important to their base. so to the extent that conservatives voted for the court when they went to the polls in 2016, they got what they were laing for. ra and in the tvel ban ruling, chief justice roberts seized the moment t finally overturn the korematsu decision from ad1944, the up holding of the japanese interment. justice sotomayor saidhere were things in common. >> in my view the over viewing

of korematsu was a sop to liberals. it kindf language wished on the court as a court decision that really never should have happened. as justice sotomayor sa, the were parallels between the japanese interment and what has happened knew. certainly und all three iterations of the travel ban. it is a kind of hollow overruling because we overruled korematsu on one hand but reinstated the logi in other ways. >> your feelings on that, josh? >> obvious everybody hates korematsu and nice to see it overrud. the chief justice made the opinion for the court that there are significant differences beeen this cas and core maut is sue. koritatsu dealt with cens of the united states and here you are talking about people who are not citizens and not in the united states and the president has greatn discretio in that area. >> you clerked for justice kennedy. if we were to look bacnd look at his legacy, he has been progressive on some issues such

as gay marriage yet conservative on others including gun rights.y how wouou describe his approach to the law? >> that's a good question. he doesn't fo neatly int the boxes most of the other justices often find themselves in. i would say has some libertarian instincts. examples you just gave are areab whereoth on the right and left side he voted to up hold individual a rights,nd that's something certainly near and dear to his heart. >> he came fromsa cramento. he was a california native. do you think his california upbringing helped to shapeow he views the law and the court? >> i think there are definitely seeds of it. a few years ago in the first same-seiage case went up and the court sent it back on standing grounds, he talked about the idea of a publi referendum process. again, that's a sort of initiative process that's near and dear to people in the west, and he talked a lot about it and how to preserve it asart of this decision. so i think you see aspects of that. i would say he has been incredibly progressive on certain individual rights, and

that will early be part ofis legacy. but he has a mixed record on individual rights insofar as it relates to race and to gender. st i mean he definitely has a libertarian ak, but it doesn't necessarily cover all aspects of the individual rights spectrum. >> so given he is now stepping down, how different is this from the scenario when gorsuch replaced scalia? because it was a conservative replacing a conservative. now we have a swing vote stepping down. how moment us ous is for what happens next on the supreme court? >> it is very momentous. in anyone's estimation the next justice is likely to move the courtn o the right oa number of issues, and the chief justice ell emerge as a swing vn quite a few cases. it will become the roberts court people refer to because he will be at the center of it, literally as chief justice but also often as the swingvote. >> let's not suggest gorsuch and

scalia wereor tit tat. so we already have had some right ward drift o the court and this next nominee will send the court further to the right. much to watch in the months to come. professor melissa a murray also attorney josh patashnic. thanks to you both. nk >> t you. >> on tuesday primary elections were held in five states including new york.re the veteran democrat crowley suffered a stunning defeat to 28-year-old cortez. a forme organizers for bernie sanders, her victory may mark a turning point for the democratic part. also, congresswoman waters generated controversy when she ld people at a rally to confront tmp administration. she was called a, quote, low iq

person. joining me for a deeper look the issues are democracy in color president amylison and san francisco senior political writer joe garofolley. let's look at theitical fight over the supreme court. democrats want to hold off on the nilominations unt after the november elections, hoping a new crop of lawmakers can weigh in. today though president trump says he is going to name a nominee by july 9th is there anything democrats can do at this point? >> pray b ause that's all they have to do. they don't have the numbers to make it happen. one option they have is to jam the process and just, you know, call roll call votes on everything, but i don't know if they have the stomach to do at. they can say, we don't want to, you know, feinstein and kamala harris said we want to delay this, but they have no power to make it happen. they can try to swing a couple of republican senators like lisa murkowski. susan collins of maine. but they might loseouple

because some democrats are in tough reelection fights in states trump won big andhey might lose them. so there are not a lot of good options >> i think we need to really think about the -- what the eademocratic partydership is doing. what is pelosi and schumer's job? that is to whip up votes to support things. we need to remember that the discipline with which the republicans mucked up the system and prevented the -- obama's nee, supreme court no there's the playbook right there. >> right. >> the democrats, like you said, they have to have t stomach to do that, they have to have the will and they have to hear from av ierage people that's wha expected. so much is at stake. >> but the republicans are in the majority now,o realistically what can the democrats do? >> filibuster, roll call votes, slow down the system. there's just as few month until the midterm election, and the whole issueith the supreme

court, so many things are at stake. abortion rights and the overturning of roe v. wade, redistricting and the effort of some states to suppress votes, particularly oeople of color in places like texas. so much is at stake that the s democr need -- it is a do-or-die moment for them. there are procedural issues, procedural approaches they can have. >> and that seat wbe there for 30 years. >> or more, depending how young the judge is. >> yes. but i don't know if they have the stomach for it. i think that they -- you know, theye kind of bringing a pencil to a knife fight. don'tnow. they've not show the path to do it. they got rolled before. we'll see. pressure, take public is the only thing. >> and do they have the unity to do it, right? there's a lot of disrd in the democratic party. we saw it in new york with the race between cwley and acosta cortez. we have a young progressive, she is justd,8 years a political newcomer, defeating four in ho is number

the house on the democratic side, and he was seen as th potential successor to nancy pelosi as house speaker. what does it say about the statd of tocratic party, amy? t, exactly what we talked ab that voters are ready for more courageous type of leadership. by supporting a newcomer who is unabashed progressive politics andor nizing, and, as she said on late night television just thether day, is that if -- you ntnow, establishme democrats typically look at who they believe votes and they ignore the full range of people who could vote, peoplho aren't motivated by traditional leadership or lack of courage, s thow she won. that's the playbook we saw in other successful progressive campaigns in maryland and in georgia, for those gubernatorial races. for me, what that indicat is that a party that half people of color, a quarter black are lookingor a new tof

leadership and are not accepting the fact that the leaders who have been in power for a long time should continue be status quo, not in the age of trump. they want something new. >> what does the party ley,adership have to including nancy pelosi? >> well, she was, you know, cordial to her afterwards, said hey ratulations goes, but blew her off. nobody gave her a chance. >> row conor was the only congre congressman. it was interesting the read her tweets after winning. she said the establishment did not accept me except congressman connor. here are the independent efforts to help with strategy and on t ground organizing and others and that's how she got through. >> pelosi,said, look it is a congressional race. it is one race in one district, new york. it is not necessarily onpresentative of the na right? she kind of down played. >> this is the problem with the party. they're still -- they're still chasing the working class white

voters who voted for trump. those folks aren't going to vote for democrats. they're not coming . >> i'm going to tell you, i heard some peoplealking bd closed doors. you know what, nancy pelosi has gotten too comfortable, too. ne're seeing i the state of california where there's a challenge to dianne fe people are saying, why aren't there more challenges amongst the democratic party for peowhe have been in power for ang time. so it is starting this conversation and also showipeng le it is possible. >> and there's already a ripple effect. joe, you wrote about this. oakland congresswoman barba lee is now interested in running for crowley's position as chair d the houseocratic caucus. what are her chances? >> well, she's making calls now. inshe is thinkabout it and looks like she probably will run. if she won, she would be the -- there's never been an african-american woman to have n at high of a leadership either party. it would be a momentous occasion. now, barbara lee's challenge is she is the third most liberal, according to one of the metrics,

member of the house. t she's goi have to prove to folks that, you know, she can work across the aisle, and she has in some ways. she has, you know, on hiv/aids funding over the years. she has actually worked with republicans on that. that's going to be her bigge challenge, is going to be is she too far out there, is she too california, too oakland. >> i heard -- i reject thatar chterization of barbara lee being too far out. think of this. african-american womehave been - it's been established are the highest vote turnout of any race ander gend, democratic party voters. i already said one of four bldemocrats arek. i think her politics represents the majority of the demratic party, the silent majority of the democratic party. i think it would be amazing, not only just historic but what the party needs. i cannot understate the fact that this kind of leadership is the only kind of leadership the democrats can look to do actually prove to be a counter

point to the republicans who are g with the time agreein trump, the ones in congress, and the fact that the supremert may be pro trump policies means there is not a counterpoint. so we're going to cross the aisle to me not as important as being an important counterpoint to the trump administration. >> how much is the democratic party being hurt by, you know, what we saw pla this week, which is sort of this lack of civility, right? then you have cesswoman maxine waters over aegaphone telling people to publicly confront trump officials. bshe was criticizey party leaders, but there's also this generation of activists that are saying, no, this is exactly what is needed. the democratic party has been weak. >> right. there was a column the other day in "the chronicle" about howhe represents -- alexandria re presents standing up f something. like don't sort of do this sort of mealouth moveo the middle. a lot of these primary races,

that's who are winning, people taking more progressive positions and standing up for stuff. now, the whole city thing is ind of a bs pushback by republicans and by democrats. that's basically chilling the status quo because pelosi and schumer represent thetatus quo. trump -- for trump to talk about civility, this is a guyho has literally said, i ought to punch him in the face. so, i mean, you know, let's consider the sources, wherefrt is cominom. >> yeah, i saw john legend said -- the singer john legen said, you know what? you can ask me about civility after you tell me abouthe more than 2,000 kids taken from their parents at the border from the migran families. so, you know, he is saying, okay, we can talk about sanders, huckabee-sanders dinner later. i think we're losing touch with what's most important, democracy. for democracy to really work, it is messy, but thatividual citizens have a right to not only have free speech buto do

something the republicans and the tea party knew how to do very well, which is bird dogging. remember when president ogma was tryo get health care passed they went to every single town hall that featured congressman and yesterday and screamed and they protested and they marched and the y got a l of what they wanted. so for maxine waters who, by the way, iredibly brilliant, venerable senior congresswoman,m black. she represents the base of the democratic patoy. o back to her civil rights activist roots and say, i want to remind you this is whaou can do in a democracy is ompletely the right thing to do. for the party leadership to condemn her shows they don't understand the base of who is in the party. >> i have to move o immigration quickly as well because the republicans, of course, are facing their own issues, r they couldn't get immigration legislation passed. they twice delayed it. w thieek they still couldn't get it passed. as many republicans -- nearly as any republicans voted against it as for it.

so what does it sayor the republicans, what do they need to do to bridge that divide? >> well, thas going to be a big challenge, and it is going to be hurting people that we're going to see in california in districts like in the centralv ley, david valledavo. the are two congressman with 40% latino in their district. they're feeling the heat. they know it is an issue they have to confront and resolve. but most of the rest of tpu icans live in these gerrymandered district so they don't dealith the iss at also they're not into it. >> we have to leave it there for now. amy alison with democracy in "the and joegarofoley with san francisco chronicle." nice to have you guys in. >> good to be here. for more than a decade the nonprofit one justice has provided free legal aid to thousands of low income californians. they regularly hit the road with justicebus, a program with brings attorneys and law suds to rrts of california where legal

care is out ofeach for many. they help clients clear criminal recor e, fightvictions and submit paperwork to become citizens or get permanent red densy.o the f one justice, julia joins me in the studio >> thank you for having me. >> one justice was among the organizations that quickly mobilized at sfo and other s airports acrthe country to help affected travelers, most oe whom w muslims after the first version of the travel ban took efft in 2017. what is your reaction to the supreme court decision up holding the current travel ban? >> i think i can speak on the entire behalf of the legal aid and civil rights commu saying how disappointed we are. this decision will go town on the wrong side of history >> disappointed why? >> well, we believe firmly still that the president's very public comments around kbleimplementin full ban on muslims hitting the

country viola ts some of core tenets of our justice system and our american we know the supreme court has gotten these things wrong in the pasts around civil rignd race and lgbtq issues, and they got this oneong, too. i think that justicesotomayor's dissent makes clear our constitution and our country deserved a different outcome. >> on the issue of undocumented immigrants, president trump has said there should not be due procfor people who enter the u.s. illegally. what do you make of that statement? >> i mean that is just antithetical to what w are as a country and to the values we hav invibscribed in our constitu tion. being a country that believes in the rule of law means our constitution applies to everyone we don't pick and choose. there's no favoritism. the rule of law is there to protect the human rights of everyone who has a foot in this country. >> there's a lot of focus on sgrant familieseparated at the border. how is one justice involved in

this broader g network oroups seeking to help them and other immigrants? >> we're part of a national coalition of lawyers and law s firmnd civil rights and immigration fwrups tryi immigration groups trying to ake sure the families a reunited. the court order out of san francisco makes it clear they have to do it in fairly short order. ow these ion is children have been part of a national shell game. they disappeared and appeared in hundreds of shelters around the couny. now that they are getting legal representation, how do we make suree as they'r reunified we don't illose sight of the en again. >> what are you doing to assist? do you have cases you are sndling right now? >> we aretarting to see the children separated from their parents showing up in the regulaunacmpanied minor case loads in california. one of our core partners, esperanza in los angeles, they have a six year old separated from her parents as a resul of zero tolerance. we sent out yesterday an e-mail blast statewide trying t find representation for her. >> i want to talk about your

well.ce bus program as it is rather innovative. it helps to bridge that legal -- that gap in lal aid for people who are in remote areas, rural areas of california. how does that work and what kinds of services do you provide? >> yea m when you the state there are these high concentrations of poverty in a rural area then all of the concentration of lawyers is in the metropolitan centers. so we literally put lawyers and law students on buses, train them, get them outo rural areas and do pop-up mobile legal clinics in 75% of the state where there are pockets of need. those folks focus on immigration, anything to do wits fecoming citizens or daca assistance or general immigration screening for folks who don't know their status or what their possible remedies are. also, folks witme criminal history preventing them from accessing jobs or housing, how do the clean up that record and be able to move on with their lives.

>> we heard about how the criminal justice system disproportionately imp people and people of color. how does the civil justice system have a similar disproportionate impact on those populations? >> yeah, we know that low income folks and particularly mm ities of color are disproportionately regulated included in the civil justicest . something like three-quarters of the people who need to access hr helpgh the civil justice system are people of color in addition to being low income. so it is incredibly important that we understand how these interlocking moments of discriminaon impact these populations. >> and there's a cascading effect, right? what percentage of your clients are close to the verge of homelessness? and because you have said for many of these problemsne legal problem leads to many others. >> yeah, so all of ourlients are living at 125% of the federal poverty level or lower.e thre folks living paycheck to paycheck. they are at extreme risk. whatappens is if you are working at a job and your

employer won't pay your overtim and then you have a disagreemtd widisagreemtd -- disagreement with your ndlord and you can't pay the rent and you can't get access for food to your kids, you send up expernces threeo seven civil justice problems all at once. >> that's how the problems accueslate and it becom a bigger and bigger problem. you were once a legal aid attorney for children with disabilities. >> and their parents. what did that experience show you about the justice system for disabled and l income people? >> yeah. the thing i think i learned much from my clients was that there is this incredible barrier to accessing help, and that without a lawyer sitting shouldery shoulder wit them, even these parents who are fierce advocates for their voice n, they needed the of a lawyer to amplify their efforts. bu when we word together with their advocacy and their understanding and my access to the legalsystem, we could literally transform the lives of their >> and that's the experience

that you bring now to your work at one justice. julia wils, thank y so much. >> thank you. and that will do it for us. next week please tune in for a kqed newsroom special. we will bring you the best interviews from our ahives with innovative and influential figures in modern art, theater and cuedy. an find more of our coverage at kq.org/newsroom. i'm thuy vu. thank you for joining us. ♪ ♪ ♪

captioning performed by the natiinal captioning itute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org robert: president trump steps up his search for a new supreme court justice. we discuss the highly charged fight over the future of the high court tonight on "washington week." president trump: i'm very honored thate chose to do it during my term in offi because he felt confident in me to make the right choice and carry on his great legacy. robert: supreme court shakeup. the retirement has sparked a political battle. republicans ue should wait until after the november elections and follow theredent they set in 2016. that's when senate majority leader mitch mcconnell refused to give president obama's