>> #01: i am bob schieffer and today on "face the nation", a shaky cease-fire in ukraine a rare terror attack in denmark and in congress, the return of gridlock. we will hear from white house chief of staff denis mcdonough and the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee bob corker. then we will travel to alabama to talk to congressman john lewis who led the march that proved a turning point for voting rights 50 years ago. it is all ahead because this is "face the nation". >> good morning the gunman who went on the shooting rampage yesterday in copenhagen was killed overnight and cbs news correspondent charlie d'agata is in london with the details. charlie. >> good morning, bob. >> danish police say this morning the gunman they shot dead is the chief suspect in the, and the only suspect to blame for killing two civilians and wounding five police in two

separate attacks, the prime minister said denmark has been hit by terror. it began yesterday afternoon at a copenhagen cafe hosting an event on free speech, one of the guests was swedish cartoonist who has received death threats for drawing the prophet mohammed in the past. >> the gunman fired roughly 30 shots through the windows, killing 55-year-old man and wounding three police officers before fleeing the scene. then just past midnight in copenhagen, he struck again outside a synagogue and shot a man who was standing guard in the head, police released photos of the suspect and roughly 25 to 30 years old, they fine he caught up with him in the early hours of the train station where he was shot dead after a firefight with police. >> they haven't released the suspect's name or his motives but police say it is possible he was imitating last month's paris attacks where 17 people were killed counter-terrorism police say they believe the immediate threat is over but the country

remains on high alert. >> charlie d'agata, thanks so much charlie. >> we spoke to white house chief of staff denis mcdonough last night before that second attack and we begin there. >> obviously we made clear that we abhor this and will not let these kind of attacks stand. we are scheduling a summit late in the week, a three-day summit at the state department on countering violent extremism because we know al qaeda has plans to do things throughout the world and make sure we are staying one step ahead of them. the situation in ukraine, are you optimistic this cease-fire can hold. >> the proof will be in the pudding, the russians have a lot to account for here and we will see exactly what happens here. not optimistic or bess milk but just realistic about this .. let's talk about sending this resolution up to congress from the president, asking congress to join him, authorize him to fight isis, the democrats say it goes too far the republicans

say it doesn't go far enough, it looks like the whole thing could just blow up in his face and make this worse. we put together what we think is the likeliest outcome to get a strong bipartisan showing. >> they will have hearings on it and make some decisions for themselves. we have given them a good place to start. we will see where they end. i will say this, though, bob. what they shouldn't do this time is what they did in 2013, when they took a pass on this issue. it is very important in questions of war and peace for congress to be heard, the president has given them a road map to follow, they can take that or they can come up with something else but they should not take a pass on this important issue. >> isis is committing and continuing to commit these heinous crimes, four americans have been killed washington responds by saying we need to have a debate and it is a debate that could take some time. >> congress and the president both leave town to fake a little break. do you ever worry -- i don't

think this is a correct perception, but the president's critics say and others say there is a perception out there that we don't care that we are taking these things in stride. >> well, i tell you what, i work very closely with the president of the united states and he takes this very, very seriously we have now flown more than, conducted more than 2400 strikes against isil tarrings in iraq and syria, those strikes are having a very dramatic impact, we have seen isis's progress blunned in iraq, we are making good progress in syria. i don't want to overstate it, this is something that will take some time but that is precisely why it is so important for congress to be heard on this question, bob. they need to take a position to say, what they are for and against on it, we had some suggest maybe we ought to go back to the kind of full-scale invasion that we saw in iraq. we think that is a mistake. the president a has outlined a very precise use of our force, supporting iraq, iraqi soldiers

on the ground so they can carry this fight out themselves. >> in the minds of the critics it is who took the the pass in 2013. >> i understand that exactly and what we saw was a very 0 forthright and determined threat of the use of force that led to an important agreement that resolved, that resulted in all of syria's chemical weapons not only being accounted for but being devoid. as a result of our pressure the syrians gave up and destroyed their chemical weapons. there is an awful lot of work yet to be done, we think congress should be heard on it. >> let me ask you about a report in the daily beast that says the british government gave american government officials, and i am quoting here, positive identification on the wants of the american prisoners early last june, but the white house sat on the information. >> i am not familiar with the report you are talking about bob, here is what i can say. we obviously are very deeply concerned and have been deeply concerned about the treatment of

our people in syria. >> was there such a report? did you get such a report? >> i have -- i am not familiar with either the report you are quoting from nor the report that the daily beast is suggesting. but what i do know is that the president of the united states is very determined to make sure that we do everything that we can in support of our people, in fact, he took some very cranes you and important steps that included some very daring and ultimately very risky efforts undertaken by our armed forces to try to release those hostages. we will continue to do everything that we can if we are ever confronted with a situation like that. >> let me ask you about one more thing that congress left to be resolved later when they left town and this is funding part of the department of homeland security because they don't like part of the president's executive action regarding immigrant in this country.

where do you see this going. >> well, i tell you we just spent a lot of time talking about the threats to the homeland that result from things like isil things that president has been talking about bob over the course of the last several days, namely cyber attacks and unfortunately i don't see exactly how congress is going to resolve this. it is very important that we not, however, take the path that they are suggesting we do take, which is congress continues to get paid but law enforcement officials associated with defending our borders protecting us against cyber attacks, defending our airports and making sure airlines and aviation security is upheld are forced to work without pay that's something we should not do, congress should come back and get that done. >> mr. mcdonough we thank you for coming by. >> thanks so much for having me. >> we will have you again. >> thank you. >> okay. and we turn now to the chairman of the foreign relations committee, senator bob corker, he joins us from chattanooga tennessee, let me go first to this resolution the president is asked to give him the war

fighting capabilities to fake on isis. do you think congress is going to be able to the senate will be able to come together on this thing, senator or is it going to wind up being undaunted, it seems to me that would be the worse possible thing that could happen sparse what our the adder have sarahs, the people who are against us think about the united states. >> i agree bob. i think we should act not just today and we are going to begin a robust set of hearings as soon as we bet back. they are already being set up and look, a 60 vote senate no doubt makes things very difficult to happen. you just talked about the homeland security issue, but it is our goal to have a process that number one determines the threat to our homeland number 2 and this will be expanse civil looked at, what is the president's strategy .. especially in syria, i think there is a lot of skepticism about the administration's commitment to dealing with isis

or isil or whatever you want to call them and that creates a lot of concern, so we are going to have the opportunity to look at that, to look at what is happening in iraq and then hopefully shortly thereafter create language that can, in fact, pass muster in both houses of congress. >> are you at this point feeling that the united states and the west may be losing this fight with isis, their numbers keep expanding we hearing about them opening affiliates in other countries? this does not seem to be something that is going well. >> >> from my point of view. >> well, look, it is metastasizing, the focus right now, bob as you know is on iraq and syria yet they are in multiple other countries, just this weekend this is maybe a little bit of a stretch but the leader of nigeria tried to establish a relationship between isis and boko haram there, and so we have the incident that you just referred to earlier in copenhagen, not only are these

groups able to hold territory like they are doing in syria and iraq, but they are also able to enlist people in countries where they aren't to take on terrorist activities like we are seeing. so this threat is very different and that is why it is important for us to fully, fully understand the threat, understand how we are going to go forward and i think very important because this is going to be going on for numbers of years, i think it is important for congress to get behind an authorization, one that they feel is prudent and obviously the president sent something over, that's a beginning point it is now legislative vehicle will decide how it should go forth, but this is something that is going to take a long commitment by all of those in the free world to undermine what pie sister is doing. >> and what about this situation over funding the department of homeland security? that would seem like to me, with all of the things that are going on would be a no-brainer. and yet congress, the senate

can't come to an agreement on that. >> look, bob, i would be the first to say when we have a department whose mission is to protect the homeland, especially in these times, we need to fund it and hopefully congress over the next period of time will figure out a way to go forward but it needs to be funded. we do foot need to leave our nation in a situation with the type of threats that we have with an agency that is not working at full steam. so it needs to be resolved and i think it will be. >> senator, we want to thank you. you are just coming in as the new chairman of the senate foreign relations committee. that is a very key post. i hope we can have you back many times on "face the nation". thank you so much. >> bob thank you. it is a privilege to be doing what i am doing and i thank you for that and look forward to seeing you again soon. >> thank you. >> this week marks 50 years since the shooting of jimmy lee jackson, whose the death at the

hands of a highway patrolman at a peaceful protest inspired one of the iconic events of the civil rights movement the selma, alabama march. >> movement leaders had chosen selma as the place to dramatize the demand for the right to vote. after jackson's death a 54-mile march from selma to montgomery was planned. >> fiery young activist john lewis was one of the leaders. >> you are march and demonstrate to the nation and the world our determination to win citizenship. >> the march was not to be. the protesters ran into trouble soon after they started as they tried to cross the edmond perez bridge. >> i had never been to selma but with the anniversary of that march looming .. i went there yesterday and walked across that bridge with now congressman john lewis. and asked him what was going through his mind on that fateful day. >> we were marching in twos in

an orderly peaceful nonviolent fashion. on our way to montgomery to dramatize to the nation people wanted to register to vote. i really felt we would be arrested and jailed that day. >> when did you realize, when you got to the high point here, that's when you saw all of the law enforcement people down there. >> we saw down below the state troopers and behind the state troopers was the sheriff posse on horseback. >> >> we got to the bottom of the bridge -- >> turn around and disperse. >> they came toward us leading beating us with nightsticks, using tear gas and tram flipping us with horses. >> you were right in the front and i was. >> i was in the very front. >> so you were among the first that was hit. >> i was the first person to be hit and i still have the scar on

my forehead. >> and i was knocked down, my legs just went out from under me, i thought i was going to die on this bridge. i said to myself -- >> what happened? do you remember thinking after that? >> i remember being back at the church. i don't even recall how i got back to the church, but apparently someone carried me back and i guess i was unconscious and i stood up and said, i don't understand it. you send troops to vietnam but not to selma to protect people whose only desire is to register to vote. >> and then in a matter of weeks, of course, he did send the troops and you were able to make that march to selma. >> there is no cause for pride in what has happened in selma.

their cause must be our cause too. >> two weeks later, after president johnson delivered that speech, we did make the march all the way from selma to montgomery. it was a sea of humanity marching on this highway. >> and you did have people protecting you then? >> all the way, people inspecting the bridges along the way, guarding the camps at night. >> it was our military, it was our military at its best. >> you know, congressman, a lot of people who were not there, who didn't know how it was they don't know how different it is now. >> well, it is a different -- it is a different world. back in 1965 only 2.1 percent blacks of voting age voted in this county you had to go to the courthouse, the only place you could attempt to register on a first and third monday of each month, and so called literacy

tests, people were asked to count the number of jellybeans in a jar people stood in line. >> so things are better, but not as good as they ought to be, i guess. >> things are much better but we are not there yet. we still have problems and we will make it. we will get there. selma was the turning point. >> more on our conversation in a minute and a very different reception john lewis got when he returned for the first time in 50 years to selma's courthouse. >> it is so different. >> this time judge ballard came out to greet him. >> it is good to have you here. >> you are more than welcome this time. >> al i guess i did take some risks. anncr: bode, bode miller!!! trained a little bit differently. a little too honest sometimes. the media is useless. you were out of control. but not always.

>> schieffer: congressman a little different reception at this courthouse than back in that day. >> well, it is altogether a vast

different from more than 50 years ago. i remember being arrested near this courthouse, walking around with signs saying one man, one vote. 1963, 64 65, it was very hard and very difficult for the average african-american citizen to become a registered voter here in dallas county in selma. >> schieffer: do you think 50 years since then that we will ever be a color blind society? >> i think the day will come. it will come. in the past 50 years, we have witnessed what i hike to call a nonviolent revolution, a revolution of values a revolution of ideas. i come back to my native state of alabama. i visit places where i grew up and i see black children, white children, latino children in some of those same schools

working and studying together, and at one school, little white boy had a trench coat on, a backpack, playing with the same way that i marched across the bridge of 50 years ago. >> schieffer: how did you feel when you saw that? a white boy displaying you? >> it is so gratifying seeing these little children, they get it, to see their teachers black and white teachers, to see a black and white parents. it is not that far from here, and sometimes i feel like crying, tears of happiness, tears of joy to see the distance we have come and the progress we have made, when people tell me nothing has change i just feel like saying come and walk in my shoes, i will show you. i will take you to those places. >> schieffer: yet for all of the changes, we still have things like perking son that happened, we have the incident in new york.

how do we get by that somehow do we change what we saw happen there? >> we can make progress. we can deal with the issue of justice. we can deal with the issue of police and community. in some communities police officers are studying the way of peace, the way of love, the way of nonviolence, so you bring community and law enforcement together and do not sweep the issues under the rug in some dark corner. >> let me talk to you about what i thought was a rather remarkable speech made by the fbi director james comey, he said there is a disconnect between law law enforcement and minority communities and he said, all of us, black and white, carry various biased around with us. what do you think about what he

says? >> a profound statement, profound speech. and i think it took raw counsel, not anything short of raw courage for the director of the fbi to be able to say something like that. it is very encouraging to have this federal official, when you look back to the fifties and the sixties, when the fbi spied on martin luther king, jr. when the fbi was not doing the job they should have been doing. it gives me hope. >> schieffer: in another point of the speech he said we cannot let it drift away and talk about it on another day. have we lettering son drift away in some of these other incidents? >> i think we have lettering son

drift away and we only operate for that moment. we just cannot operate and think about ferguson in some other community for a day, for a week or maybe a few months. we have to deal with it here and now, if not there would be other fergusons. >> do you think those people who came across that bridge with you, do you think they realized the impact that that day would have? >> when we were marching across that bridge, just people wanted to register to vote, wanted to participate in the democratic process. i don't think as a group we had any idea that our marching feet across that bridge would have such an impact 50 years later. if it had. been for that march across that bridge on that sunday there would be no barack obama as president of the united states of america.

>> schieffer: congressman, it is always a pleasure to talk to you. thank you. >> thank you very much, bob for having inking about what you want to do with your money? daughter: looking at options. what do you guys pay in fees? dad: i don't know exactly. daughter: if you're not happy do they have to pay you back? dad: it doesn't really work that way. daughter: you sure? vo: are you asking enough questions about the way your wealth is managed? wealth management at charles schwab. meet the world's newest energy superpower. surprised? in fact, america is now the world's number one natural gas producer... and we could soon become number one in oil.

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>> schieffer: it is hard not to be moved by the experience when you walk across that bridge as i just did with john lewis. ii keep thinking, what was going through those people's minds when you saw the hundreds of men on horseback with billy clubs and guns? awaiting for them at the bottom of the hill where i am standing now. >> they had to expect the worst. but they marched anyway, because they were determined to get something they had never had, the right to vote. and because of what they did they made america a better place for all of us. but i wonder 50 years later, do we take for granted now what they did? have we become so disgusted with dysfunctional government that we have

forgotten the vote is our best way on our best weapon to change it? yet only 36 percent of us showed up to vote in the last election. what happened here was shameful. but when only 36 percent of us show up to vote, well, that is something that there is not much to be proud about either. back in a minute.

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>> schieffer: some of our stations are leaving us now but for most of you within right back with a lot more "face the nation", including our panel of analysts so stay with us. >> captioning sponsored by cbs

>> schieffer: and welcome back now to "face the nation". here with our panel 0 kimberley strassel is a columnist for the wall street journal jeffrey goldberg writes for the atlantic jan crawford is our chief legal correspondence and we would like to welcome sherrilyn ifill to "face the nation", she is director president council of the naacp legal defense and educational fund and last but not least, white house correspondent for "the new york times", peter baker. >> i want to talk a little bit about civil rights and where we are on that and i am, i want to start by asking the panel, you saw the edmond perez bridge it has become kind of an icon in its own way in the whole civil rights movement. does anybody know who edmond perez is? >> >> yes. he was a senator. he was a confederate general and

he later led the ku klux klan in alabama. >> >> schieffer: he was the grand dragon. >> yes, he was. >> schieffer: of the ku klux klan in alabama. some of the things you don't know until you go to -- i had no idea -- >> is it marked? does it say that. >> schieffer: that is his name right across -- >> does it acknowledge anywhere -- >> schieffer: it just says edmond perez but it is one of those things up there and i think down through the years people had just forgotten. >> everybody there knows. >> schieffer: that's what i found out. >> #02: that's true why you should do something where something is happening to find out. where are we right now? jan you of course are a native of alabama, is alabama different than it used to be? >> oh, completely. and i thought, you know as congressman lewis said in the interview we can't lose sight of how much it has changed because that does a disservice when you think about how much people before us sacrificed for that change. but yet as we have seen on a number of civil rights issues whether race, same-sex marriage,

there still is a long way to go. but you also see in alabama, i have been there a couple of times in the last week, the same-sex marriage controversy you see great hope, you see people looking to advance change in the state of alabama, as you see across the nation, so while we have people sacrificing 50 years ago i think we still have that today. not only in alabama, but across the country. >> schieffer: well, you know i mean while edmond perez is still on that bridge, his name but judge ballard who is a probate judge in that courthouse, he got up saturday morning and went up and opened up the courthouse for us so we could conduct that interview and as often is in the south made coffee for everybody and when we came over there to do that interview as you saw which john lewis he came out on the front steps and said welcome. we are glad to have you. >> it is just incredible to think there are people alive today, our parents, their grandparents who couldn't drink out of the same water fountains.

>> that wasn't that long ago. >> to be able to keep in our head the two things, that we have made extraordinary progress but we have a really long way to go, and you really said it, bob, in the setup for this, when you said that these people walked across the bridge and they changed america for the better and i think that is what we have to understand. when we see these protests happening today about police violence against unarmed african-americans, it is going to make this country better, we are at a moment where change does have to happen, when you hear the fbi director as he did this week talking about implicit bias and talking about the way law enforcement does have bias that needs to be dealt with and there has to be training. we are at a moment when we have the opportunity to make real change and that's what civil rights does, it makes america better and we can't be afraid of the moment, as john lewis said it best we have to face it. >> it is nature of the problems have changed and in the comey speak got so much attention because it was the fbi director saying police officers have bias, what is more interesting

in the speech to me was him talking about why it is. he said we cannot reduce this into a debate about policing tactics we have to talk about why we have bias and that gets back to the fact that problems of change. the social and cultural anybody a lot of african-american communities across the country about violent crime and that was part of the speech saying how do we address those root causes? because this is part of the problem that people looking at each other, how do you actually deal with that? >> what was fascinating and what is fascinating to me is, how long this issue of police violence has kind of been really at the center of concern in african-american communities and how it has surfaced over the last year and everyone engaging it. what is interesting about comey's remarks it is the one thing that was omitted and that is so important if you talk to young people in communities all over, is about this issue of accountability. we still haven't heard any prominent law enforcement official saying, we understand the need for training. we understand there has to be

supervision. and when something goes wrong and a life is taken, an innocent life is taken there has to be accountability and i have talked to people all over this country that is what they are waiting to hear. that means -- >> schieffer: well, isn't that what comey was saying, though? i thought this speech, which made the front page of most newspapers, i found it may be didn't get as much attention as it should have. i mean, i think it is going to be remembered as a remarkable speech in the history of this country. >> it is fascinating if you look back at fbi history you have to place this in context the day after the i have a day speech, martin luther king i have a dream speech, the top aide to j edgar hoover wrote him a memo saying we must target martin luther king as the -- we mark him, we must mark him as the most dangerous negro of the future. i mean, that was the language that they used. so it is an incredible leap forward for the fbi and i would rather be uncharacteristically positive about this in the sense

that i am a journalist so i look for the negative obviously, but the fact that this was an fbi director talking about inherent bias or racial bias that is uncon shopable is quite a remarkable achievement, i i i think you are right on the edmond perez point it is remarkable we have a debate in this city about the name of the washington football team. but when you two to the south and you find on bridges and highways you have the names still of grand dragons of the ku klux klan, that's a remarkable thing. i find that remarkable. >> lewis is asked if we should change the name of that bridge and he suggested no, that it is important that people remember what happened. >> it is actually the point that was made earlier, what would be great is to have the plaque that says who edmond perez really was so people get the full context. >> right. >> i think that is part of the history of this country needs to be kind of explained in a way you know, there are all of these places we have these encounters

"the new york times" did a story about lynching where these things happened we leave kind, we need these notices so we understand later. >> it is important to remember that because we are negative as journalists public speech was important, landmark and said a lot of interesting things but go beyond the speech. where is the fbi today in terms of its own difficult verity? our colleague, our friend wrote a piece understanding there is still under five percent of the fbi is african-american at this point. >> and in 2015, i think part of it is we have a president who is african-american we think okay so diversity is more or less taken care of because of the guy at the top, it doesn't actually mean throughout, various layers of government, various layers of authority that that has, in fact, taken hold in fact, president obama is going to go to selma i think in a few weeks to bring up this issue, which is interesting for him because it is a topic where he has had some interesting back and forth on how out front to be on it. >> it is a catch-22 on diversity and policing because i think

the enter seen piece suggested and i think comey has said the fbi has a hard time at tracking young african americans to want to be in the fbi and the ferguson police department has a little difficulty attracting african-americans to want to be police officers so that is part of why changing and trance forming whole law enforcement really is an african-american communities is going to be important if you want to move that diversity. >> let me ask you about this awful thing that happened down in chapel hill where you had the three muslim student who were shot execution style by this boy. they are saying they are going to investigate it as a

somehow it was two muslim women in hijab and a muslim man that got the brunt of it i am not speculating or not trying to not speculate about it but clearly it is worthy of investigation. >> schieffer: here is another -- what business did he have being out there with a gun? i mean if he went out there with a baseball bat he may have hit one of them in the head, you know. but with guns like they are today, you just -- you know, and you kill six, seven people. >> we should be cautious that the justice department actually isn't investigating it as a hate crime. >> they are studying the predicate of the crime to see if it is a hate crime and taking slow steps to figure this out. there are three muslims killed at the end of the day and i heard a muslim young person say

our parents now feel they have to have the talk with us that african-american parent have with their children. you know to invoke that feeling, it is a very serious moment, and so i think we will see as the justice department goes through this investigation what really happened here, but i think there is enough there that we should be deeply concerned about the implications of this killing. >> there is also in alabama in the last week an indian grandfather visiting his son who was studying in huntsville was beaten thrown down and now hospitalized now of course law enforcement there fired the officer, it was videotaped. so obviously these are affects people across the board. >> schieffer: we are going to take a little break and come back and talk about some of the other issues of the day in a moment. >> ♪ ♪

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phone services and at office supply stores. with ink plus i can choose how to redeem my points. travel, gift cards even cash back. and my rewards points won't expire. so you can make owning a business even more rewarding. ink from chase. so you can. >> schieffer: we are back now with our panel, well, this is kind of turning out to be the alabama edition of "face the nation", because the next story we have here is the controversy going on in alabama about gay marriage. jan, bring us us to, us up to speed. >> a federal judge in mobile struck down the ban on same-sex marriage as other judges across the country have done the federal appeals court based in atlanta refused to intervene the supreme court refused to intervene and put her ruling on hold, so judges across the state were to beginnishing licenses to same-sex couples on monday but late sunday night a week ago today the chief justice of the supreme court wrote a letter to

the 67 probate judges saying, don't do this. you have to follow the state law which says marriage is between a man and a woman, and do not listen to this federal judge. so it created a situation in alabama where you had this patchwork, some judges started issuing licenses some refused, there was some clarification toward the end of the week, so now most of the counties, including the populated counties, the big centers like birmingham huntsville, mobile, montgomery, they are issuing marriage licenses about three quarters of the state, but you have the chief justice of the supreme court who said we don't have to follow a federal judge so it is harkened back to the days with, when we started this program off, you know, with george wallace defying a court order, standing in the schoolhouse door of alabama so i think it does show that demagogues are alive and well in the great state of alabama. >> in dallas county where i was yesterday, judge ballard told me that what he is doing right now he is issuing the licenses but he is discontinued performing any marriage ceremonies. >> and that is what most judges

are doing. that is what most judges are doing. >> and of course the supreme court is going to resolve this issue. they are hearing arguments. >> maybe. >> in april. >> in june and justice thomas in the court's decision refused to get involved on monday. they had an order refusing, saying the court has signaled it is not going to allow these bans to stand but it has created just a controversy -- >> how they could reverse that -- having allowed so many states -- >> i agree alabama is the 37th state, i think it would be very difficult. >> >> schieffer: think about how the court -- >> we could hope they would resolve it but they haven't until now and in. i would argue everything happening in alabama is precisely because the supreme court has just completely punted on this issue go back to 2013, they had two cases extent to them, straight out one that would have decided this question of state's rights and gay marriage they said the people didn't have standing and refused to rule on the merits and then they issued this equally confusing case that had to do

request the defense of marriage act, the federal law that just was all over the place in terms of legal arguments, and it has allowed all of these federal courts to make their own decisions about whether or not states have the right to do these bans or not and it has led thomas confusion, so now they are going to hear cases from four states in april and hopefully will make a decision in june, but there are a lot of people watching this, thinking they are going to try to split the baby and again -- >> i don't know. >> i think last year the, what the supreme court wanted or two years ago to be clear, they didn't want to get out ahead of the country, they wanted some things to happen in the states to kind of figure out where things would wind up, so things have happened in the states so now we have got, as you said, 37 states where a marriage equality has moved forward, and so in a way, it is kind 0 it has kind of set the stage for the supreme court at least probably a bare majority of the supreme court to not look like they are getting out ahead of the country to kind of move into this issue in a way that puts them squarely in

the center of it. >> you heard a legal motion over two years ago. >> that's right. you heard saying we are ready for marriage equality. >> in a way, it is not been pretty and you are right it has left, you know, people like this judge kind of, you know, sitting there with this ruling, and as i understand it, there is also an alabama supreme court action that is going forward at the same time, so it has created confusion, but in terms of what the supreme court seemed to want two years ago, i think this is what they wanted. i think they wanted the stage to be set. >> i find it very difficult to imagine that justice kennedy, he he has kind of been the key architect of these decisions over the last 15 years, is going to reverse course now. i mean he sees that as his legacy. >> i think he is very ambivalent on this, which is part of the winter decision on doma he actually didn't want to take a position so i think it is very possible you get in a situation where, for instance, the court maybe rules this is a state's rights issue but other states have to recognize each other's marriages. i think you could get a mixed

ruling on this. >> schieffer: jeffrey and peter, let's talk a a little bit about this resolution that the president sends up to the congress looking for a unified front -- >> clarity -- >> and the supreme court -- [laughter.] >> schieffer: am i wrong in thinking this whole thing may blow up in his face and leave it looking more ununified than ever? >> right. he set up a very interesting resolution. few presidents have proposed to restrain their own power but he said the resolution says you the congress give me the power to do what i am already done doing and have for since months but a three-year time limit and they will rule out what he calls enduring ground combat operations. now, in some ways, that is a restriction, no president, lyndon johnson didn't send up gulf of tonkin resolution with a three-year time limit but with that he was leaving in place 2001 authorization for force that still allows him to do anything, or his successor what

he wants to do, so congress is in the middle. >> democrats are saying this is way too permissive and the conservatives are saying this is way too constrained you are not really fighting this war and you don't have a consensus at this point. >> you a very bizarre situation in which you have some republicans who complain as a matter of course that the president should seek their approval for taking military action complaining the president isn't seeking enough approval for enough military action. and you also have a situation in which, in this this is keene, akin to the administration asking congress to give it to the, give it the the power to collect taxes. >> it is collecting taxes, and so the administration wants kind of a theoretical debate in congress in real-time. we are already fighting isis on multiple fronts, and you have this bizarre, really bizarre debate on something that is already happening as if it is not happening. >> i don't think it is theoretical what the administration want. i think what they want is to be able to say they have partners, to not be hanging out there by themselves.

>> political -- >> i don't think it is just political cover. i think it is exactly what you described, you are getting it from every side, people say you haven't asked us so now we are asking, that's what you said you wanted. yes, we are doing it but we are saying it is going to be limited. people don't want us out there forever. i think it is a way even if it doesn't show unity it is a way of kind of spreading this around. >> people come out of this saying look, i am the executive, i am dealing with this problem while these people in congress are arguing among themselves about these fine points of principle so he could come out looking rather decisive, i think. >> schieffer: here is the part that bothers me. and i will prepass this by saying i certainly don't want to see the president of the united states put 0 on a military uniform. no president of the united states has ever put on a military uniform, and there is a reason for that, and we all want to keep it that way, as far as i know. but after that jordanian pilot was killed in that horrible way here you saw the king put on his fatigues, he executes two

prisoners that they were holding in jordan and launched bombing raids. we have another american hostage killed and congress and the president and the president goes off to california to do a fund raiser and some other stuff and the congress goes on vacation and they say yeah, we will debate what to do about all of this. but we are going to do it as long as it fits into the schedule. there is no reason to do anything out of the ordinary. >> i am sure i am overstating -- >> the king of juror than is the leader of the country named after his family so -- >> in force in the weeks before they intended to use it. what is happening here is sort of a theoretical, political, it is important but it is not going to change what is happening on the ground. the president already made clear that pass or not he is going to continue doing the exact same thing. >> this is political cover it reminds me of the syria thing a few years ago, the president said don't cross my red line and

bashar el-assad did and the president said tell me if i can do anything about it, because he didn't want to act on his own. he wanted them to have to take responsibility as well for what happened, and, you know, the republicans, if they wanted to be smart here, what they ought to do is just call his bluff and not take this up at all. i mean, he is already operating under an authorization that he claims gives him all the authority -- damage. >> that's why they are taking it up. that's why they are taking it up except i think their goal in the end is use it as a debate to try to force the president to actually elucidate his strategy. >> schieffer: how it is perceived outside -- >> i am not sure that this is going to affect how we are perceived in the sense that we are who we are. we are a nation that has the rule of law. i think that there are a lot of people who perceive us badly for not following the rule of law in previous about a engagements. so the extent there is a debate and a discussion, we will be

revealed and i think that is not going to affect our view outside of the country. what it is going to do is organization us in the country to call the question that you have been asking, these terrible things are happening. do we want to do this or do we not want to do this? >> something we always forget because we are sitting here is that in the greater middle east, people understand what obama is doing. he is killing terrorists in eight or ten different locations right now as we speak. and we often sort of lose sight of that fact, in part because of the way he so hesitant to talk about it in grand terms and because of these debates in congress. but he has been killing terrorists for years now and he is doing it whether or not congress lets him do it. >> he has been criticized for it because of the drone strikes and so forth so even when he does it he gets criticized for it. that is part of the reason -- >> this is less about a legal restriction on the president than a political statement of intent. this is how i perceive this war to be. it will be restrained. it will not be on the ground and he is trying to set the parameters in effect for his successor right a three-year time limit, which the next president could ignore but a

three-year time limit means the president will at least have to question one year into his presidency. >> schieffer: all right. we have to wrap her up right there. thank you. this is all very interesting for me, and i hope it was for others. i am sure it was. and we will be back to talk a little bit about cbs newsman bob simons. >>

>> schieffer: in a news organization like ours, you get to know some of your colleagues well and others not at all. you are in one place, they are in another, so for me, that is how it was with bob simon who died last week. he came to work here in 1967 two years before i did but we never really worked together until 1982, when we covered the falklands war together in argentina. it was there i really came to appreciation just how good he was, in a medium where we tell the story so much of the time with pictures, he knew how to make the pictures more meaningful with words. there is an old saying that one picture is worth 1,000 words but

i always that that depended on the words. bob always shows the rights words and he was never afraid to go where the news was to find them, that's what the good ones do. and he was a good one. bob's final "60 minutes" piece airs tonight on cbs. > ♪ engine rev. ♪ i obviously haven't slowed down at all! what do you think?

narrator: gas prices are down helping middle class families. but now, the white house wants to impose title ii regulations on your internet meaning new government taxes and fees. every month: you'd pay more. 11 billion dollars a year in new taxes and fees. internet freedoms can be protected with the white house and congress working together, but imposing new tax increases through public utility style regulations will hurt middle class families let's protect the internet we love without regressive taxes and fees. no to title ii.

>> schieffer: that's it for us today. we will see you right here next sunday on "face the nation". captioning sponsored by cbs

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