03/06/20 03/06/20 [captiong made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i will not be running for president in 2020, but i guarantee i will stay in the fight. amy: senator elizabeth warren has suspended her bid for the presidency, but did not endorse former vice president joe biden or senator bernie sanders. we will get supporter -- we will

andak with raquel willis norman solomon, whose latest column is -- inequality. the 50 year battle for a more unjust america. because there is a civics class version that is thehe defendedef ththe week and the wririter of l wrong. that is not the r reality. the reality y of our supreme cot fofor the last 50 years s is exd week, stronger over the richer over the port. including mass incarceration, campaign-finance law, implement law, and i would also state it has s been a major force for economic inequality and one that people don't recognize. amy: we will speak with journalist, lawyer, and author adam cohen. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

in california, a coast guard helicopter airlifted coronavirus test kits to the grand princess cruise ship thursday as it remained quarantined off the coast of san francisco with thousands of people on board. the ship was denied a port after some passengers and crew showed -- became ill. california emergency management director mary ellen carroll said the quarantine would remain in effect at least until test results are completed friday morning. >> 2300 83 passengers aboard the ship and 1100 crew members. shownt, total of 35 have flulike symptoms during the course of this 15 day crews. amy: health officials are tracking down some 2500 people who disembarked from an earlier cruise on the grand princess, after some passengers tested positive for coronavirus, including a 71-year-old man who died earlier this week.

across the united states, the centers for disease control has confirmed at least 129 cases, although the number is probably higher due to the severe shortage of test kits. maryland declared a state of emergency thursday after three montgomery county residents became infected. there are also states of emergency in effect in california and washington, where a 12th u.s. death was reported in king county thursday. public health officials have recommended more than to my and people in and around seattle work from home if possible. the advice came despite president trump's remarks on fox news wednesday night when he seemed to dismiss the idea that people were feeling ill should stay out of ththe workplplace. have trumpmp if f thousandnds or hundrdreds of thousandnds of peoeople die e gt betterer just byby sittingng ard

and even going to workrk -- some of them go to work, but they get better. amy: after the president's comments sparked alarm among health officials trump lashed , out on twitter writing, "i never said people that are feeling sick should go to work. this is just more fake news and disinformation put out by the democrats." this morning the white house canceled trump's planned trip to the centers for disease control and prevention in atlanta. no reason for the cancellation was given. trump is expected to sign an $8.3 billion coronavirus spending bill approved by the senate yesterday. in geneva, the director of the woworld health organization said there's a "long list of countries not doing enough" to combat the virus. . >> we are concerned some countries have either not taking the seriously enonough for -- or have decided there is nothing they can do. this is not a drill. this is not the time to give up.

this is not a time for excuses. this is a time for pulling out all the stopops. amy: in a positive sign, chinese officials reported a drop-off in new coronavirus cases in the central province of hubei, where the outbrereak began. but the virus continues to spread elsewhere in china and in other parts of the world. in egypt, health authoritities reported 12 new coronavirus cases on nile cruise ship. in the middle east, both israel and the palestinian authority ordered the closure of bethlehem thursday following the diagnosis of the first seven coronavirus cases seen in the west bank. iran ordered nearly 60,000 mosques closed ahead of friday prayers as the coronavirus death toll rose to 124. among the dead was a top iranian diplomat. meanwhile, 8% of iran's parliament has tested positive

for coronavirus. in france, a member of parliament was sent to an intensive care unit after testing positive. and japan has ordered a two-week quarantine for anyone hoping to enter the country from china or south korea, sparking a diplomatic row. stock markets around the world continued to tumble thursday as fears grew of a global recession sparked by the coronavirus outbreak. on wall street, the dow jones dropped nearly 1000 points and building on similar heavy losses in recent days. the yield on the benchmark 10-year treasury note sank to a new record low in n another sign of a l looming recessision. senator elizabeth warren has suspended her bid for the 2020 democratic presidential nomination, leaving the race down to two older white men -- former vice president joe biden and senator bernie sanders. warren broke the news in a call with her campaign staff thursday before speaking to reporters outside her home in cambridge. >> i was told at the beginning

of this whole undertaking that there are two lanes. a progressive line that bernie sanders is the incumbent for an a moderately that joe is the incumbent for, and there is no room for anyone else in this. i thought that wasn't right, but evidently i was wrong. hopefully be making an endorsement today? we know you spoke with both men yesterday. >> not today. i want to take a little time to think a little more. amy: supporters of bernie sanders hope warren will throw her support behind their candidate in order to form a united progressive front to take on former vice president joe biden. hawaii congressmember tulsi gabbard remains in the race. we'll have more on senator warren's exit from the race after headlines. in morore campaign news,s, there increased concerns over senator sanderers' safety after a man unfurled a n nazi flag thursdayy

night at a a sanders event in phoenix, a arizona. bystanders ripped d e swastika frfrom the man beforore security guards escorted him from the arena. sandnders is vying to bebecome e country's first jewishsh presesident. later in the evening, protesters waving flags bearing trump's name werere also escorted from e sanders ralllly after trying too disrupt the evenent. in moscow, russian president vladimir putin and turkish leader recep tayyip erdogan announced a ceasefire in syria's idlib province thursday following six-hour talks at the kremlin. a russian-backed syrian offensive against turkish-backed rebels that began in december has killed more than 300 civilians and displaced nearly 1 million people. under terms of the ceasefire, turkrkey and russia a will creaa secure corridor r for idlib residents to reteturn to theirir homes.s. in the occupied west bank, israeli troops on thursday bulldozezed the homes ofof two palestinian families whose relatives are blamed for an attack last year that killed an israeli citizen. the home demolitions sparked a

protest by palestinians who threw stones at israeli soldiers. the soldiers responded with tear gas and stun grerenades. israel's militaryry cled the demolitions a deteterrence aimed at preveventing terrororism. human rights g groups condemned them as collective p punishment and part of israel''s campaigngo illegally y annex paleststiniand for israeli settlements. in israel, opposition groups are uniting in a bid to end benjamin netanyahu's long-running career as prime minister after israel's third election in less than a year failed to produce a clear winner. with officials still counting the last of the votes from monday's election, netanyahu's coalition remains three seats shy of the majority needed to form a government. in a televised address this week, netanyahu accused his main opponent, benny gantz, of "linking up with terror supporters" after gantz's blue-and-white alliance partnered with a coalition of arab-majority parties. gantz could soon become prime minister after israel's former defense minister avigdor

lieberman said his far-right ultra-nationalist party would join gantz's coalition. gantz is a former israeli general whose campaign ads have boasted about palestinian body counts and bombing gaza back to the stone ages. both gantz and netanyahu support israeli settlements on occupied palestinian land, which are illegal under international law. this is palestinian chief negotiator saeb erekat reacting to monday's election. >> from what we have just seen, it is obvious annexation won the election. the whole election campaign was of the valley,n the settlements in jerusalem, subjecting the palestinian people further and deeper into the israeli occupation. amy: meanwhile, prime minister netanyahu is set to face trial march 17 on charges of bribery,

fraud, and breach of trust. in washington, d.c., secretary of state mike pompeo on thursday condemned a decision by the international criminal court to probe alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in afghanistan by u.s. troops and the cia. speaking from the state department, pompeo said the united states would take steps to prevent its citizens from standing trial at ththe hague. >> this is a truly breathtaking action by unaccountable, political institution masquerading as a legal body. it is all the more reckless for this ruling to come just days after the united states signed an historic peace deal on afghanistan, which is the best chance of peace in a generation. the u.s. is not a party to the icc. we will takake all nececessary measures to protect t our citizs fromom this unlawful l so-called court.t. amy: icc prosecutors say they have ample evidence that u.s. forces in afghanistan "committed acts of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, rape and sexual violence."

the icc is also probing war crimes committeded by u.s.-bacad afghan forces and the taliban. human rights watch welcomed the icc's ruling, writing in a statement -- "the icc appeals chamber's decision to greenlight an investigation of brutal crimes in afghanistan despite extreme pressure reaffirms the court's essential role for victims when all other doors to justice are closed." in immigration news, 150 women from cameroon who have been imprisoned for months in an ice detention center in texas have been transferred of the remote immigration jails in apparent retaliation for their protests over indefinite detention and dangerous conditions. in a letter sent to the advocacy group grassroots leadership last month had lined a cry for help claimedameroonian women --

"some of our sisters are sick and not being well treated. others are running mad due to trauma and stress. the medical department is very rude to us, they tell us we're pretending to be sick even when somemeone is in serious pain." the cameroonian asylum seekers also say they're being discriminated against, writing -- "almost all the white women we came in with and even others w o came afterer us have been rereld on parole and bond but we've been denied both parole and bond." advocates fear the women now face possible deportation in retaliation for speaking out against the conditions in t. don hutto. the facility has for years been plagued by a allegations o of a. in alabama, condemned prisoner nathaniel woods offered no final words thursday night as prison officials strapped him to a gurney and injected a lethal cocktail of drugs into his body. witnesses say woods showed labored breathing and jerked against his restraints before he fell still and was declared dead at 9:00 p.m. local time. woods was convicted in the 2004 murder of three birmingham police officers and went to the death chamber professing his

innocence. his claims were backed by kerry spencer, another death row prisoner convicted in the case who says woods was in the wrong place at the wrong time and had nothg g to do thth the crime.. republican governor kay ivey ordered woods' execution even though more than 100,000 people signed a petition demanding she stop it. the u.s. supreme court briefly stayed the execution thursday evening for a couple of hours, but lifted the order without comment. respondedher king iii on twitter writing -- "in the case of nathaniel woods, the actions of the u.s. supreme court and the governor of the state of alabama are reprehensible, and have potentially contributed to an irreversible injustice. it makes a mockery of justice and constitutional guarantees to a fair trial," king tweeted. later in the broadcast, we will speak with adam cohen, author of "supreme inequality: the supreme court's 50-year battle for a more unjust america." and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

senator elizabeth warren has suspended her bid for the presidency, leaving the 2020 democratic presidential race down to two older white men -- former vice president jos biden and senator bernie sanders. warren broke the news in a call with her campaign staff thursday and then made her announcement to reporters outside her home in cambridge. morningannounced this that i am suspending my campaign for president. i say this with a deep sense of gratitude for every single person who got in this fight every single person who tried on a new idea, every single person who just moved a little in their notion of what a president of the united states should look like. will not be running for president in 2020, but i guarantee i will stay in the fight for the hard-working folks across this country who have

gotten the short end of the stick over and over. that is been the fight of my life and it will continue to be so. i was told at the beginning of this whole undertaking that there are two lanes, a progressive lane that bernie sanders is the incumbent for and a moderate lane that joe biden is the incumbent for, and there is no room for anyone else in this. i thought that wasn't right, but evidently, i was wrong. amy: senator warren's decision to end her campaign comes after she failed to perform as well as she had hoped in early primary states and on super tuesday, including placing third in her home state of massachusetts. warren gave no indication whether she will endorse her former rivals, sanders or biden. >> will you be making an endorsement today? we know you spoke with joe biden and bernie sanders yesterday. >> not today. little time toa think a little more. i have been spending a lot of

time right now on the question of suspending and also making sure this works as best we can for our staff, for our team, for our volunteers. amy: supporters of senator sanders said they hope warren will throw her support behind their candidate in order to form a united progressive front and take on powerful c corporate forces now lined up p behind biden. terminally ill healthcare rights activist ady barkan,n, who had previously endorsed senator warren, announced thursday he was now backing sanders. barkan supports for medicare for all, and tweeted -- all, and tweeted -- "bernie sanders has done more than anyone else to build the movement for #medicareforall. he has reshaped american politics. reshaped what we think is possible. reshaped how we dare to dream. but, of course, it's not about him. it's about us. and i'm all in." senator warren star partner from the presidenential race meanss there are no major candidates left to a woman. hawaii congresswoman tulsi

gabbard has failed to qualify for any recent debates and won just two delegates on super tuesday, but she told "the hill" she has no plans to drop out. >> everywhere we go, we're cocontinuing to draw large numbs of people who are really hungry for the truth, for strong leadership,, and a candidate tht is raising the issues i am about the need for a commander-in-chief who will have the courage to bring about a sea change in our foreign policy a d these wasteful regime change wars, new cold war, new berkeley -- new the arms race, all of which are not making us any safer and get our priorities straight. amy: this comes as sanders and by our peers the meeting for votes and have a dozen states and upcoming primaries -- michigan, washington, and missouri on march 10, and a week later, in arizona, florida, illinois, and ohio. for more, we'rere joined now by raquel wilillis, a j journalisid activistst and former executivee editor of "out" magazine. she endorsed elizabeth warren as she's joined us previously to talk about.

and in berkeley, califorornia, e are joined by norman solomon, co-founder and national coordinator of rootsaction.org which is supupporting bernie sanders. his latest headline is "profound and historic question for elizabeth warren -- which side are you on?" we want to welcome you both to democracy now! raquel willis, let's go first to you. you are a major supporter of senator warren. she has just dropped out. yoyour thoughts on her runun anr withdrawal? >> absolutely. i think senator warren had a great run. i think all of us who supported her, not to o eak for otother folks, but f from what our convnversations have b been abo, it was a a once-in-a-lifetime opopportunity to suppoport a once-in-a-lifetime candidate and thatat we stick behinind everytg we did. we have no regrets about supporting her, her policicies, and her vision and her oututrea. i think she did a phenomemenal b as well with outreach to

l leaders o of mamarginalized commumunity's. it is s disheaeartening, but afr super tuesday, i don''t think it came as a surprise at all to many of us. amy: i w want to go ba t to senator warren's press conference where she addressed the issue of sexism. >> i wonder what your message would be to the women and girls who feel like we are left with two white men to decide between? >> one of the hardest parts of those campaign promises and all those little girls who are going to have to wait four more years. that is going to be hard. gender in this race -- you u kn, that is thee trap question for everyone. yeah, there was sexism in this race, everyone says, whiner! if you say there was no sexism,

about a bazillion w women say, what plalanet do youou live on? w will haveu this, i a lot more to say on thehe subjt to run. amy: raquelel willis, if yoyou can respspond to senator warren on sexism? thati definitely understand for a lot of people, they don't think about or want to think about and confront how sexism plays a part in everything that we do. the patriarchy is everywhere. i have to be clear. i think what senator warren, all things being equal with male candidates, with her liabilities because evevery candidate has a liability, i think she would've had a different run if she had a different gender experience. we have to continue to confront those issues. i think a lot of it is about political education that needs to happen on the ground about all of these systems of oppression so people understand what implicit bias really is, how that played a part in who

determined who was electable and who was not in this race. at the end of the day, i will always feel like and know in my heart that senator warren was the most capable, most effective, and most impactful candidate in this race. amy: raquel willis, what about hehe decisision -- at least yesterday -- not to go her support to either biden or sanders? and i want to also ask where y u arare headed in teterms of your supporort. >> yes, so i respect your dedecision notot to make a forml endorsement just yet. i ththink that there i is so m h vovolatility rigight now. when i think about thehe base ad the folks that i know, their people more like me who suppororted her who were more progressive. there are e people who would be consnsidered more moderate but appreciated her pragmaticc approachch to progressive polics and ideals.s. so i think -- i don't think it enendorsement would necessarilyo

the way that many bernie supporters think that it would go. shakeouthink that would happen exactly the way they think it would. i also think that she has to consider what her best chance at being impactful in politics and being impactful in this race is, and maybe that means not weighing in until the convention, until we get a little closer down the road and see what could happen. as well, let's be clear, i think, yes, we say it is net connected between bernie and biden and that is great, but ththere are a lot of things thai think the sanders campaign is rereckoning witith and thehey no get a gririp on, particularly fr me, , i'm veryry concerned aboue approach to black voterers particularly in the south. the news came e out yesterday as sanders was forgoing a stop in mississippppi to go to michigan. i think that has really

concerned a lot of folks who are hoping there would be a better push toward black southern voters and black voters in general. i ununderstand why shehe has endorsed. for me, at the end of the day, it is about values and policies. if we are ththinking about the vision, the most progressive vision i would likike to see in the world and many of the folks that i am in community with, thatat visionns -- if wewe can't have warren, then i i think it s time to rally around the policies and vision that bernie is putting forward. amy: i want to turn to norman solomon. norm, you just wrote a piece clearly national coordinator for rootsaction.org which is supporting bernie sanders. your piece is about pushing senator sanders to support bernie sanders -- - senator warn toto support berernie sanders. yoyou are saying a profounanand historic russisian for elizazabh

warren, whwhich side are youou ? neutral can't really be at a time when profound historic moments are upon us. of course, we should praise elizabeth warren. i heard her speak many times on the campaign trail, including last monday night in los angeles. she articulated very profound visages about corporate power and the need to challenge institutionalized corruption. right now i cannot think of a more incarnated candidate to personify patriarchy than joe biden. and women across this country are suffering becausese of the economic policies that he has pursued in the senate and t then under the obama administration, to bring in wall street in terms of policymaking and failing to challenge the poverty and your poverty that so many families

are suffering under. ifif you look at foreign, we should know, if we don't know, that women and children bear the brunt of endless war that joe biden has supported, for r now just about 20 years. there is a place where a challenge to have finger to the wind, or on the other hand, to really stand for the kind of progressive values that often elizabeth warren articulated and that are fully embmbodied in the bernie sanders campaign. amy: i want to go right now to senator sanders being interviewed by msnbc's rachel maddow on wednesday. she said it is too early to discuss whether warren could serve as his running mate. >> would you consider asking senator r warren to be your

running mate? >> it is too early to talk about that, but t certainly,y, i havea lot of respect for senatator warren and would love to sit down and talk to her abobout w t kind of f role she can play y ir administration. amy: sanders also responded to attacks s some of his supporters have made on w warren on twitte, likeke calling her a s snake. >> i wonder if that sort of vitriol toward her has hurt the prospects of you two working together? >> we had a very cordial discussion. absolutely disgusted -- by the way, rachel, if you think that doesn't come into our campaign -- because i'm not talking about incoming, i'i'm talking about outgoioing. >> is ugly stuff. we want our supporters to be talking about the issue. any original maddow also interviewed senator elizabeth warren last night and warren said the ugliness that she saw online from bernie sanders supportete related t to online abuse b broadly in american

political discourse. problemem with this online e bullying and sorof orgaganized n nastiness. meanot just talking about things, i'm talking about really ugly stuff that went on. norman solomon, if you could respond? >> this is a political from non- that is often racist and sexist. ninaould condemn it and turner has been subjected online and elsewhere to vicious attacks that are racist and sexist. msnbc and cnn come huge and powerful cable networks, have been engaged in all sorts off slander and innuendo and sometimes smears against bernie sanders. and for rachel maddow and msnbc and other networks and media to act as though this is only coming from one direction and

toward one direction is of a piece of a pattern of bias against bernie sanders that should not be surprised, but should outrageous. these are corporate owned entities. msnbc is owned by comcast, very , hugeabor, anti-consumer corporation. they don't want bernie sanders to be president. he would tax their profits. he would challenge the prerogatives of the wealthy to determine the policies of the u.s. government. and overall, i think we should know that media has been on an assault against bernie sanders. we have gone through several phases. a year ago he was old news. other candidates were saying the same thing. then when he stuck with medicare for all, which is an affirmation of the human rights of all people, then he was portrayed as an extremist or too radical, out of step. then we were told he had no chance to win the nomination. then after new hampshire and especially nevada, he was being

trashed. the mud was flying from corporate media to pretend that, therefore, progressives should stay neutral until convention. i just don't understand that. we have elizabeth warren saying now that she is going to stay in the fight. is the fight for medicare for all? is the fight against corporate power? if that fight is to affirm the human rights of all human beings, how can she stay neutral? this is very disturbing to me because every day goes by and elizabeth warren fails to endorse bernie sanders and go out and campaign for him is a de facto assistant to corporate power come to corporate america come and joe biden. i don't think we should pretend anything else. amy: raquel willis, if you would to respond? clubs i definitely way. it is so interesting t to hear nonorm talk about the patriarchy and who embodies s the patriarc.

let's be clearar. both of these candidates, biden and bernie, and body the patriarchy. when we arare having this didiscussion about how that impacts our world, h how policis play out, let't's be clear, even though we may have a lot of supppport around bernie's values come he is still in embodiment a patriarchy. i think f for a lot of warneded susupporters -- i i speak for mf ofwhahat is concernrning is s t the two candidates left, w we're still goining to h have to chooa simimilar versioion o of leaderp that is barely empathetic, verily showcasing vulnerability. that will be difficult. at the end of the day, regardless of who you support. and the other piece of this is we can't blame elizabeth warren for any pitfalls for bernie anymore. that has to end. she has been blamed, even before she dropped out of the race, for any pitfalls that many of the

supporters felt like the bernie sanders campaign had. we have got to let that go. that is also an element of the patriarchy. the last thing i will say is, it bothers me to hear people who are not black women, people who are not women using our voices and our stories to deflect about the very reaeal issues of harassment that have come from the sanders supporters. as a black woman, like trans woman who is very vocal in the 2016 election online, i was among any black women who were talking about the harassment issue on the sanders side of the democratic party. that has not changed. he really has not. i think a part of that is that you can't really rely on a few token like women's voices. yet to reach out and talk with us. when warreren dropped out yesterday, think about all of the black women, all of the women of color, of the marginalized were supupporting o didid not get a word from a anye

in the s sanders campaign reachg out to us saying,, hey we knknow this might be a a hard time for you but we love to b be in conversationon with you a and bg you ovover to our side.. that is the wowork. at t the sanders cap is dodo tht wowork, we're not going to see e win we want to see going forward. amy: norman solomon? >> i don't think bernie sanders would have the overwhelming support he has from young african-americans if for years sanders and his campaign and his supporters haven't reached out to those folks. i think to call nina turner a token is really inappropriate. we have not onlyly african-americans, especially those who are young under 40 or so, but latinos as well, who have flocked to an overwhelmingly supported bernie sanders. on sunday night in los angeles, among 20,000 other people, i saw half of the audience was latinos.

and many folks were african-americans. patriarchy is not only a gender. it is a system. it is a way of devaluing people because they don't have money and they don't have power and they don't dominate. and i think if we're going to move the conversation forward, we need to find a common ground. this is part of my disasappointment as we speak tht the common ground between elizabeth warren and bebernie sanders is profound. in the common ground between the supporters of those two candidates is also profound. meanwhile, we have what dr. king called the madness of militarism , which is embodied by joe biden and who is challenging that? who is challenging the reality that the military-industrial complex is stealing food and medicine and health care from, yes, women, yes children, yes the elderly. that is patriarchy. that is systemic human rights

violations. bernie sanders is challenging those violations, and we should support him. did not makewarren an endorsement as she said she was dropping out yesterday, but she did tell rachel maddow she thought michael bloomberg was the riskiest candidate in the least likely to defeat donald trump and that she purposefully tankeded him during the debabat. , , he wasas absolutely the riskskiest candidate for dedemocrats on that stage. let me tell you papart of the reason why. alall of the things in h his hiy mean that he could nevever launh any of those attacacks against donald trump. think about the things wewe're going to need to t talk about. hihiding our taxes, hihistory wh women, embracicing racist polics , when you're in charge helping busy in her's and leaving everyone else bebehind. he w would not even be a able to launch the autocrat argument

against him. and because of that is senator warren talking about bloomberg. raquel willis, your final words -- again, your endorsementnt no? >> absolutely.y. i say i am voting for values, voting for bernie. voting for values and policies that will put dust were put forth by warren and wee can't forget her impact. we have toto have e a real conversation abobout the systemf oppression, that the patriararc. i don't apappreciate this idea that the patriarchy and white susupremacy does not exist on te left side.e. that is something that we alsoo have to work throuough. that is s what i'm looking forwd to with the support of bernie sanders. amy: i want to thank you both for being with us. raquel willis, journalist and activist. norman solomon, with rootsaction.org.

we will have a link to his latest article. when we come back, supreme inequality. the supreme court's 50 year a america a more unjust . stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "two can have a party" by gaye terrell. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the e war and peace report. i'm amy y goodman. in alababama, condemned prisoner nanathaniel woods offered no fil words thursday night as prison officials strapped him to a gurney and injected a lethal cocktail of drugs into his body. witnesses say woods showed labored breathing. he was put to death just hours after the u.s. supreme court stayed the execution briefly thursday evening, only to lift it without comment. he was executed despite never pulling a trigger in the crime he was convicted for, the 2004 murder of three birmingham police officers. in fact, despite being portrayed

by prosecutors as the mastermind behind the crime, woods went to the death chamber professing his innocence. his claims were backed by kerry spencer, a death row prisoner convicted for being the gunman in the killings, who says woods was in the wrong place at the wrong time and had nothing to do with the crime. i respondeder king ii to the execution on twitter, writing -- "in the case of nathaniel woods, the actions of the u.s. supreme court and the governor of the state of alabama are reprehensible, and have potentially contributed to an irreversible injustice. it makes a mockery of justice and constitutional guarantees to a fair trial." this scrutiny of the supreme court's role in woods's execution comes just after a rare public spat between chief justice john roberts and senate minority leader chuck schumer. on wednesday, roberts issued a rebuke of the democratic lawmaker, saying schumer made inappropriate and dangerous remarks when he said trump appointees neil gorsuch and brett kavanaugh will "pay the price" if they cut back abortion

rights. schumer has sisince said he regretted his choice of language but wawas not makingng a threat. and many have called out roberts for selective outrage. schumer's spokesperson adam goodman said -- "for justice roberts to follow the right wing's deliberate misinterpretation of what senator schumer said, while remaining silent when president trump attacked justices sotomayor and ginsbuburg last week, shows justice roberts does nonot just call balls and strikes." he was referring to chief justice's past comments that his role in the court should be that of an umpire. this all comes as a new book has come out arguing that over the last half-century, the supreme court has made america unjust. the book is called "supreme inequality: the supreme court's 50-year battle for a more unjust america." we are joined right now by its author adam cohen, a lawyer, journalist, and former member of "the new york times" editorial board. welcome back to democracy now!

>> great to be with you. amy: can you u first comment on whwhat happepened last nightht,e executution of nathaniel woods? >> it is not a shohock that the supreme court did not stop it, but it is very disheartening for two reasons. one, this is a case where there was a strong claimim of actutual ininnocence, that it wouldld hae been good to investigate more. reallyf people think he wasn't guilty. the second part that is disheartening, mr. woods wasas reesesented as is done, by a lawyer who had no experience with capital cases, who did not do the sort of appropriate investigation that needed to be done. he did not get the adequate representation at the trial level. d disturbing turn of events. amy: you've worked at the southern poverty law center. >> yes, and i saw it is very common for capital cases to be handled by lawyers who don't know what they're doing and are not very interested in doing the job well. amy: this supreme court action

follows what just happened in the days before chief justice roberts owing after senator chuck schumer o on the issue of abortion rights. >> yes. selected outrage is the right term. it is the case that chief justice roberts did not criticizize trump's attacks on soda mayor and ginsburg, but alalso did not criticize trump w years ago for his mexican-american heritage and sasaid he would d not be an unbd judge. chief justice roberts has on other occasions let trump, for example, the roger stone trial. it is incredible the amount of interference the president has done attacking not only the judge but the jury for woman. we do not hear from the chief justice there so to only step up at a democrat is making these statements, is disturbing. amy: let's go to the thesis of your book that the supreme court has made america unjust in the last 50 years. talk about what you call supreme inequality. >> i t think we all know our

society is becoming more and morere unequal. the gap between rich and poor has been growing and grorowing. the question is, why? large forces like globalization and automation. poor people into the policies of the president and congress. the point, can the book is the supreme court, which is an institution we think of as the bastion of fairness, the advocate for the underdog, has been a major driver of inequality. there are two reasons to think that. a report in 2018, in important fromt done by people around the world, they look at american inequality, economic inequality, and looked out what the drivers were. they found there were two main drivers educational inequality and our lack of a progressive tax system. both of these forces are directly attributable to decisions of the supreme court. amy: let's start with the story

of what happened in the nixon era. let's go back 50 years and talk about who is on the supreme court and who gotot forced out. a veryears agago, we had liberal supreme court. ththe warren court is known for brown versus board of education in 1954, but also a series o of progressive rulings. things likike the mimiranda case where they said you need to be told you have the right to remain silent if your being questioned by the police. a case where the court heleld ay engine a person accused of a major crime is entitled d to a lawywyer. -- indigent person accused of a crime is entititled to lawyer.r. that hens on a promise is going to change the court and and the liberal war in court and replace it with something conservative and he gets an amazing opportunity to do that because one has already said he

is stepping down. president johnson bumbled the placement. he has an opportunity to replace warren with another liberal, but he appointed or nominated a judge who was an old buddy of his. it was a poor choice. amy: to be chief justice. >> to leave the court. it was poor choice politically because although johnson is known as the master of the senate, he was supposed to be good at counting votes in the senate. he called this one wrong. froms a lot of -- ranging southern democrats who did not like fortis' views on civil rights and some because he would've been the first justice that was jewish. the criticalfill position of chief justice with the conservative mourn burger and then in three years, he gets to appoint four justices and completely changed the direction of the court. amy: talk about what you think are the key areas where america

has been a. this goes to parallels that we're seeing right now with trump's supreme court. >> my book begins with a couple of chapters on thehe poor becaue it really is amazing to think of all of the things that the warren court was doing for the poor. any were advocating for ruling for welfare recipients in major ways. there's a case e called goldberg versus k kelly. the court ruled any time any government takes welfafare away fromom a family, they are entitd to a hearing to make sure they're not entitled to welfare. that was a major, , major constitutional right given too the poor. ththis changes under the new xonger court that nic creaeated. one of the b big rulings is a ce where the court upheld marilyn's cap onon welfare for large families. -- maryland's cap on welfare for

large families. there was a very strong claim that was an equal protection violation. the cause of the constitution which says the government has to treat everyone equally is welfare to the last children in a larger family. the court not only rejects that claim, but basically say, we are washing your hands of all welfare cases. poor people, you're on your own. we have now seen over the decades that the court continually rules against the poor and i can point to one recent example, the a affordable care act case a few years ago were the court was lauded for upholding obamacare. much less attentioion was given that at the same time they struck down medicaid expansion on very dubious constitutioional grounds and basically took medicaid away from millions of poor people who had it given to the by congress. amy: you talk about a particular person started out here, ed sparer, and the importance of the movement. this goes to the issue of

movements versusus the power of the supreme court. >> yes. there was in the 1960's a very strong poor people's movement led by people who were demanding welfare recipients be given more benefits, be treated differently . ed sparer was using the courts and creative ways. it is sort of the end of the dream. after that dandridge case i mentioned, ed was quoted saying how sasad it wasas because it cd have been a different america the court had ruled for the welfare family and dandridge. in the end, the whole poverty law movement was stopped. amy: this whole poverty law movement. talk about its connection to mass incarceration. >> one of the main things they understood is incarceration is not just a criminal issue, but an economic issue. putting in adult jail devastates not only their economic future, but that of their family. they were usining creative approaches. arguments were made that the

kind of intense punishment the system meets out is not constitutional. the court rejected that. that was a while later. it was a very important case out of california challenging the three strikes and you're out law. was -- the, there defendant was a man who was 37 years old, father of three, military veteran. he has shoplifted about $100 of children's vidideos. under californiaia's three stris you're out law, he was sentenced to 50 years to life for taking nine children's videos he w was going to spend until the age of 87 behind bars. his lawyers made a very strong i am that is a violation of the eighth amendment, which bars cruel and usual punishment to put someone away for so long under susuch a minor crime. the cocot rejected that 5-4. if they had come out differently, the eighth amendment could have become a tool for policing excessive punishment and could have been a

major way in which we claim down on mass incarceration. the supreme court did not allow it. amy: compare it to the allstate case. >> within a month of that decision, the court had a different case. there was a corporation, allstate insurance, that i done something very terrible to one of the policy owners involving fraud and mistreatment. the jury was so outraged, itit awarded $159 in punitive damages. to accompany the size of allstate, which has like $50 billion in revenue year, it barely would get theirir attention. nevertheless, they went to the supreme court and said this $150 islion punitive damage award unconstitutional. the same court that was ok with it 50 years to life for natural human beings had, 150 million dollars against this corporation violates the process. they ordered it be lowered to about $9 million. that is a major difference. amy: so corporations as people. we will gotta break and come back to this discussion and talk about progressive taxation and

also talked about eduducation, what the supreme court has done to the educational system of this country. adam cohen is the author of a new book called "supreme inequality." stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are spending the rest of the hour with adam cohen, author of a new book called "supreme inequality: the supreme court's 50-year battle for a more unjust america." so we are talking about welfare rights, talking about poverty. progressiveow about taxation and what the supreme court did. agaiain, most people think the president is the movers, congress is the movers. you are really centering a lot of what you're saying happens in america in the supreme court. >> that's correct. the lack of progressive taxation ---- why don't we have higher taxes on the wealthy? well, every time they take a poll, voters overwhelmingly what higher taxes on the rich. that is acacross the ideological spectrum. of the people who don't want to

our large campaign contributors. and that is something that hahas unundue influence on conongress because of the supreme court. why is that? because in 1976, there was a .ritical case called buckley for the fifirst time the supreme court said monday is a speech. he did not have to say that. the lower federal court that heard the same case, and the case was challenged to very strong campaign finance law that congress had passed in reaction to the wawatergate scandal, , te lower r court said this is fine, perfectly constitutional to limit contributions to candidates and expenditures. the supreme court overturned the decisision and says, no, it violates the first amendment because money equals speech. that equation of money and speech, first of all, i don't believe it and it makes no sense, but also that open the floodgates to everything we have seen with citizens united and other cases allowing huge special interest money and corporate money to really

control our politics. amy: talk about lindsey graham. >> the influence of m money on x policy w was made very clear at the end of 2017 when the trump tax law was about to be voted on. there were some of those polls i mentioned showowing the voters d not like the idea of l lowering taxexes on the rich, but a at te same time, we heard large campaign contributorors be more outspoken than ever talkining to the press and sayining, unless e geget our taxes lowered, we're going to stop contributing money to republicans. lindsey graham actually made a statement to his colleagues and said, our contributions will dry up and a lot of our republican income is will not win reelection unless we lower taxes on the rich. that is the supreme court talking. amy: i want to try to president obama responding to the citizens united, ththe controversial 2010 suprememe court ruling that oped the floodgdgates for unlimited cocorporate spending on election campaigns. close ththe united statess or pt court handed a huge victory to

lobbies. strikes our democracy itself. i-5-four vote, the court overturned a more than century of law. amy: adam cohen, your response? close he's exactly right. it was a radical move and really the step between money and speech for individuauals and s k industry for corpoporations, the idea that corporations have a right to principate in our elections is a radical one step it is definitely changing our policy. amy: i don't want to end this without talking about education in america. >> one of the most tragic parts of the story. in the late 1960's and early 19 evan's, there was a strong movement to try to createte wee equal publblic schools around te country. one important part was the campaign-finance movement. the idea was all schools and poor districts in the state should be funded equallyly and w professors and courts were

beginning to say the equal protection clause, which requires government to treat all of its citizens and everyone equally, means they have to find rich and poor districts equally. there were a lot of rulings that said that. in texas, a group of parents and children in san antonio who the children attended one of ththe poorest, heavily mexican-american school districts, they saw how bad their schools were compared to the largely white schools down the road. students walked out and protest. the parents filed this lawsuit saying the poor lelevel fundingf their school violates equal protection. they went in the federal or in texas, he goes up to the supreme court and it is reversed 5-4. the courts has given more money to rich districts than poor districts is perfectly constitutional. a year later, another tragic case where in detroit the naacp was representing black schoolchildren in the city who wanted an integrated education. the judge in detroit rightly found there was no way to integrate the schools if you

just included detroit. there were not enough white students. he ordered a metropolitan area remedy, which meant you would bust people across district lines, urban and suburban, to make sure everyone attended an integrated school. he came up with a great plan. all of the schools would havee been 70% white, 30% black, reflecting the racial mix of the metropolitan area. the supreme court reversed that. if those two decisions had not bebeen reversed by the supreme court, we would have very different public schools for the last 50 years and i think a very different country. amy: as we move forward now, what do you see happening to the supreme court? are you looking particularly at any cases? the most recent case is the supreme court answering this louisiana abortion case, which could lead to, i mean, perhaps one clinic in all of louisiana if louisiana is lucky. >> we are at a turning point for a lot of things. abortion rights. justice kennedy, who left the court replaced by cavanagh, was one of the moderating forces of

ababortion. we donon't know what five justis will do now. we don't know what they will do on affirmatiti-action. chief justice roroberts is outspoken on all racial remedies. thead as things are on current court, it president trump gets a second term, is able to replace one more liberal justice -- perhaps justice ginsburg -- there's no telling how far they could go. there is a right-wing movement that says, basically, all of the largest social programs that were created during the new deal come the social safety net, is unconstitutional, that it exceeds the power of congress. we could see a radical conservative supreme court in a few w years actually striking dn things like a federal minimum wage. amy: we will leave it there. i want to thank you so much, adam.. adam cohen, author of "supreme inequality: the supreme court's 50-year battle for a more unjust america." that does it for our broadcast. democracy now! as a number of

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