♪ amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> not my king! >> not my king! amy: at least 52 protesters were arrested in london during the coronation of king charles iii. we will look at the protests and calls from groups in former british colonies for the king to pay reparations and apologize for britain's legacy of genocide and colonization.

then the u.s. supreme court temporarily stays the execution of richard glossip in oklahoma. we will speak to his spiritual advisor sister helen prejean. >> we saw such a quick decision by the supreme court to stay an execution and grant this man. i had never seen anything like it. amy: plus, we will look at growing calls for new ethics rules for supreme court justices as more information emerges about clarence thomas's secretive financial dealings with republican billionaire and gop activist harlan crow. but we will begin the show in brownsville, texas where eight people have died after an suv plowed into a group at a bus stop near a migrant shelter. most of the dead are reportedly men from venezuela. at least one witness reported the driver gestured at and insulted migrants as his car plowed into them. all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in texas, a man armed with a semiautomatic rifle killed eight people and injured seven others saturday at a suburban shopping mall outside dallas, before he was shot dead by a police officer. hospitals treated victims as young as five and as old as 61. among the dead was christian lacour, a 20-year-old farmersville resident who'd been working as a security guard at the mall. there was also an engineer from india who had two bullets removed from his body. one young boy was found beneath the body of his mother, who died protecting him. over 100 spent shell casings were recovered from the scene. authorities haven't yet cited a motive but are investigating whether the 33-year-old gunman had ties to white supremacist groups. he wore tactical gear and a patch on his chest reading, "rwds" -- for "right wing death squad" -- a slogan popular among neo-nazis.

as texas governor greg abbott spoke sunday at a prayer vigil and alan, protesters outside demanded reforms to gun laws. meanwhile in brownsville, texas, eight people were killed and at least 10 others injured sunday after an suv plowed into a group of pedestrians near a shelter for migrants and unhoused people not far from the u.s.-mexico border. the driver was treated for injuries and is likely to face reckless driving charges. investigators say the driver is refusing to identify himself and is not cooperating with their probe into whether the killings were intentional. at least one witness reported the driver gestured at and insulted migrants as his car plowed into them. an unidentified witness reflected on the journey taken by migrants. >> we hope they will recover because they have families far away who count on them. we crossed mountains, past migrations. we fought hard to be here.

amy: the aclu of texas noted the crash followed weeks of escalating anti-immigrant policy-making by texas lawmakers, and while the biden administration considers imposing a new ban on the right to seek asylum in the u.s., when the trump-era title 42 policy and sunday 11. -- ends one may 11. in a statement, the aclu added, "president biden, texas gov. abbott, and other elected officials continue to spread fear about immigration instead of treating the needs of people crossing the border as a humanitarian matter.” we will speak with jennifer harbury. in the occupied west bank, israeli soldiers shot and killed two more palestinian men saturday, both 22 years old, during a raid on a refugee camp near the city of tulkarem. elsewhere in the west bank, israeli forces demolished a palestinian elementary school in the village of jabbet al-dhib, near bethlehem. the european union, which funded the school, condemned its destruction and called on israel to halt all demolitions and evictions. this is student mohammed ibrahim. >> we were ready to come to

school but when we arrived, we didn't find the school. we want to study. if the israeli forces keep demolishing, we will keep building. we want to study at our school. it was a nice school. we want another one. amy: here in the u.s., minnesota democratic congressmember betty mccollum reintroduced a bill friday that would bar u.s. aid to israel from being used to detain of palestinian children as well as military activities that lead to the “further unilateral annexation” of the occupied west bank. the bill is backed by 17 democrats. meanwhile the world food programme says it will suspend food aid to over 200,000 palestinians starting next month because of funding shortages. russian drone strikes rained down on kyiv and other parts of ukraine overnight. kyiv's mayor says over the weekend over 30 were shot down. over the weekend, ukraine also said it downed a russian hypersonic missile over using the u.s. patriot defense system.

russia has evacuated over 1,600 people around the beleaguered zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant ahead of an expected ukrainian counteroffensive and as the u.n. nuclear watchdog warned the situation at the plant was potentially dangerous. the leaders of russian mercenary force wagner group has backtracked on his threat to withdraw from the war-torn city of bakhmut after he said the russian military agreed to send more ammunition. ukraine has accused russia of using white phosphorus in bakhmut, which is considered a war crime. in the democratic republic of congo, over 400 people were killed and entire villages wiped away after torrential rain thursday led rivers to burst their banks in south kivu province. a head of a local civil society organization said his group is appealing for whatever help they can get as many people have lost everything. >> people are sleeping out in the open. there are schools that have been

washed away. we don't know how our students will study. the hospitals have been taken away. amy: the tragedy comes just days after floods killed at least 136 people in neighboring rwanda. while visiting the region, u.n. secretary-general antonio guterres offered his condolences and said, "this is yet another illustration of accelerating climate change and its disastrous impact on countries that have done nothing to contribute to global warming." during his talk in burundi, guterres also called for a halt to violence in the drc. >> i renew my call for de-escalation, appeasement, and restraint of armed groups, whether local or foreign, they must lay down their arms in the drc. amy: in the northeastern indian state of manipur, at least 30 people were killed and hundreds more injured since fighting broke out between two ethnic groups last wednesday. the clashes were triggered by a dispute over the state's largest ethnic group, which is seeking a special tribal designation that

would grant members certain benefits including access to colleges, government jobs, and elected positions. members of the arab league moved to readmit syria after 12 years of suspension during a meeting in cairo sunday. it's the latest push to re-establish ties between arab nations and damascus, after syria's arab league membership was revoked in 2011 after president bashar al-assad ordered a violent crackdown on protesters that drove syria into a devastating civil war, killed an estimated half-a-million people and displaced millions more. this is ahmed aboul gheit, secretary-general of the arab league. >> the return of syria is the beginning of a movement, not an end. the direction of the resolution of the crisis in syria will take time for procedures to be implemented, and it will be gradual. the task of this committee is to follow up on those procedures. it is not meant to resume relationship between arab states and syria. this is a sovereign decision

left for every country to take on its own. amy: in chile, right-wing parties have won a majority of seats on a 50-member commission tasked with rewriting the nation's pinochet-era constitution. sunday's vote was another defeat for president gabriel boric, after voters last september rejected a proposed progressive constitution that would have expanded rights for indigenous peoples and abortion seekers, guaranteed universal healthcare, and addressed the climate crisis. in britain, thousands of guests packed into westminster abbey to witness the coronation of king charles, saturday. outside the ceremony, police officers cracked down on protesters arresting at least 52 people. activists from the anti-monarchy group republic say their leader and other members were arrested before they even started protesting. environmentalists with just stop oil and other groups were also arrested. demonstrators condemned laws suppressing public protest, the monarchy's colonial history, and its anti-democratic nature. >> my intention is to show there

is a movement in the u.k., and it is growing every day. more and more people dislike the monarchy and want an elected head of state or democratic alternative to what we have now. amy: back in the u.s., the supreme court -- this comes after the republican oklahoma attorney general filed a joint motion to halt the execution. glossip has maintained his innocence for the past quarter century. later in the show, we will talk to his spiritual advisor, sister helen prejean on. and washington, d.c., peter schwartz, a pennsylvania man who attacked police officers during the january 6 insurrection was sentenced to 14 years in prison, the longest yet for a rider. in deer park, texas, workers

were hospitalized after a show petrochemical plant exploded. according to the climate justice alliance, 40% of u.s. residents live within a three-mile radius of high risk chemical facilities where they face a risk of explosions. i just abortion it share of those at high risk are from communities of color. those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin in the south texas city of brownsville along the u.s. border with mexico were a people were killed and 10 more injured on sunday after an suv drove into a group of people at a bus stop near a shelter for migrants and people who are unhoused. police say the driver is hispanic and is in custody but is not cooperating with their investigation into his motive. most of the men killed were venezuelan and had arrived in the u.s. days earlier. their identities are still being determined by customs and border patrol. one survivor said the driver was shouting obscenities and yelled that immigrants were invading

the united states as he plowed into the group of men. this is a witness. >> we hope they will recover because they have families far away who count on them. we crossed mountains, marched in past migrations, it was a long way to come here, and we fought hard. amy: this comes as a number of people approaching the border is expected to rise as the front-era title 42 policy ends thursday. a coalition of more than 240 rights groups will call today for the biden administration not to use immigrant jails to address the expected increase. just last month, two dozen camps were set on fire in mexico across the border from brownsville, and another fire killed 40 men across the border from el paso, texas. for more, we go to weslaco, not far from brownsvilletexas by

where we are joined by jennifer harbury, a longtime human rights lawyer along the u.s.-mexico border, and an activist with the angry tias & abuelas, who support asylum seekers in the area. jennifer's late husband, efrain bamaca velasquez, was a mayan comandante and guerrilla who disappeared after he was captured by the guatemalan army in the 1980s. after a long campaign, she found there was u.s. cia involvement in the cover-up of her husband's murder and torture. she is also the author of "truth, torture, and the american way: the history and consequences of u.s. involvement in torture." jennifer harbury, welcome back to democracy now! tell us about the bishop enrique san pedro ozanam center, and the people killed outside. jennifer: good morning to you first of all. i am glad to be back. all of us here have been working so closely with the migrant communities since 2017. many of us are heartbroken

today. i can only describe this as a hate crime, motivated by hate that has been of course fomented for a long time by the right wing, especially during the trump administration. these people had made it from venezuela and other countries, all the way across mexico, which is a horrific journey, and managed to make ito the border. i work on the mod tomorrow side, in 2014, and close to 100% of the people i interviewed have either suffered a rate, vicious attack, kidnapping, or worse on the way north. or these people to have led venezuela, made it all the way north, waited to cross legally across the bridge with the app on their phone, were at

a shelter, and then were at the bus stops to go to the airport to reunite with their family at last and wait for the courts to decide on their immigration status, for them to be plowed down by a vicious american spurred on by hate, it is killing all of us, to be honest. all of us that have seen what they have been through. we have held their children. we have held their hands when their children have died. these are horrific backgrounds. most of us are pretty traumatic, too. to have them mowed down with an suv, i am at a loss of words. amy: i wanted to ask you about the comments of the aclu of texas, noting the crash father weeks of anti-immigrant policy -- followed weeks of

anti-immigrant policy made by texas lawmakers, while the biden administration considers imposing a new band on the right to seek asylum in the u.s. when the trump-era title 42 ends thursday. in a statement, the aclu wrote, president biden, texas governor and other officials continued to spread fear about immigration instead of treating the needs for people crossing the border as a humanitarian matter. can you talk about the context this is all happening in? jennifer: certainly, there's been a ridiculous amount of fear mongering and billing is asian, politically expired, beginning with the new migrant wave. certainly starting in 2017 but even before. remember, they are all rapists and murderers. in fact, the majority of them are families. if your little boy is between

eight and 10, they are going to come for him. one mother said no, and they chopped the child's fingers off with and ask to convince her. we have to understand, these people are not coming to buy a fancy beverage reader. this is an incredible migration north of a desperation to save the lives of their children, whether from political violence or from cartel violence, which is now out of control. i know for most of these areas, the u.s. department of state has declared a category 4 of insecurity, the same as iraq and afghanistan. when we tell people to go back where you came from, we are saying, why don't you just sit down and watch your children dropdead? we need to think about that. not just legally, but we need to think about that in terms of our

national identity. this is a nation of immigrants but for the native americans. we are telling these people that they should sit and watch their children die? why? amy: jennifer, you are responsible for the release of that famous audio babies cing. jennifer: i am laughing only because it was a bit of relief but people need to see and hear the reality. i watched a short video clip last night of the scene when people were still lying on the ground, bleeding to death. needless to say, it made me ill, i have not recovered yet, but it was not the blood and incredible scenes of cadavers lying whe they were thrown in the air by the van. the worst was the soundtrack

accompanied by a shadow of a man holding his hand to his head, screaming for his brother. no, my brother. no, no. it is the tone of utter despair. they were just about to reach safety with their families, and now the young man is dead. most people like to read statistics. they like dry press articles. i invite any of them to come down here. people are pretty much scared to come down here know that there was the shooting. but this is an hourly reality for the migrants. someday, history will show who the migrants really were. the fact that we know perfectly well who they were. and then everyone will ask us, chiltern and grandchildren, why did you turn a cold shoulder to them?

this is a moral and hit store goal -- historical decision from many countries. there is migration for many reasons, including climate but also political and cartel violence. if all of us really want to help with the migration issue, the first thing we should do is take the profits out of the drug trade. a colombian priest, at an event two years ago in san francisco said, i know how unpopular a suggestion this is, but the only way to stop the violence that is killing us in colombia right now, to keep it from coming into your cities is to legalize the drugs. take the profit out and put it into rehab centers, schools, job training. you have to do it now before it is too late. we clearly lost the drug war. it is time to legalize -- as

horrifying as that is too many of us -- but with any kind of narcotic, prohibited substance, people will get it. now it is with fentanyl. now men with ar-15's on the playground literally. maybe it is time to wake up and get that shut down. while we are at it, think about what we are talking about, when we talk about recreational or party drugs. amy: jennifer harbury, the reason i introduced you the way you did, going back in your history, 40 years is hard to believe, about the killing of your husband. it turned out, because of your numerous hunger strikes, almost dying in guatemala, it was revealed in u.s. documents that he was killed by cia-backed informants who murdered him in the guatemalan military. can you trace the trajectory for

u.s. support of right wing regimes and death squads in central america to what we are seeing today? an end with may 11, thursday, president biden is sending over 1500 troops to the border. your thoughts? jennifer: clearly, we don't need more guns. the only people they are getting used on ouromen witbabies anyoung mewho do not want to work for the drug cartels. the fact is u.s. government, during the dirtyars of the 1980's, backed the governments who were large oligarchies, plantation owners. our investments and financial interests squared with theirs. many more parts of our security forces went into guatemala, and we worked hand in glove with the death squads, the military death

squads working for the guatemalan government, and that carried out a campaign of genocide throughout guatemala throughout the 1980's and 1990's, used terror and torture as a daily technique. that is documented in the united nations truth commission report which held guatemala as possible as a government for 94% of the war crimes that occurred. the u.n. forces were found to be responsible for 3%. after the war ended, most of those high-level military officials who were so well trained in torture terror and corruption still needed a good income and they were out of a job. the cia was not hiring as much anymore. by the way, the cia paid $40,000 to one of my husband's torturers

. we knew people were being tortured. we knew where the torture centers were, and we paid money to get more information. we conspired and embedded in murders and torturers. after, where would they go? for a small fee, they would assist colombian drug lords. they were well trained in that, too. they formed their own cartels one of which is operating here in northern mexico. they trained them in torture techniques and the use of rror. that is extremel functional. all of those pple now terrorize the general population, that they are running northward as refugees to our border, and all of us are

villainizing them for doing thsame thing that our grandparents did. in my case, my father running from the holocaust with his parents. they are running from a monster that we created. we can help lessen that current probm, instef givinguge ounts ofoney to corrupt government and want it all flow back to the same drug lords, military units, etc., if we would, for example, allow the dea to arrest and take people that were once cia partners. they are also known to have abetted anided in e murder of a u. citizen. after the uproar of my husband's case, everyone was pointing at him, talking about what to do. the dea has him on a corrupt officers list, but instead of

being arrested, the cia brought him to the country illegally with his family and kept him in a safe place not far from their headquarters. when i came forward to file torture victim protection act cases against him, needless to say, he was tipped off by our own government and fled to guatemala, where he is trying to put me in jail as i move forward with the case. amy: we just have 20 seconds. going through to thursday, the day that title 42 lapses. jennifer: we will not see a different storm or flood of people. there will be a floodf people but th is because many people have left their home countries and are hiding wherever they can. if they know there is a chance if they come to matamoros, brownsville, texas, they will be

in danger but they will at least be able to try. staying where they are or matamoross a deatentence. they are going to try. this is a huge wave of desperate civilians trying to escape an impossible situation. the real question here is not how do we stop them? the question is, how do we as an international community, work to take them in and stop what is destroying them all? amy: jennifer harbury, thanks for being with us. longtime activist and lawyer in the rio grande valley along the u.s. border. i know you are going off to vigiin honorf the pele killed and injured. next, we look at the coronation of king charles the third and calls for him to pay reparations and apologize for britain's

legacy of genocide and colonization. back in 30 seconds. ♪♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we turn now to britain where king charles iii and queen camilla were officially crowned on saturday in a ceremony at westminster abbey. it was the first coronation in britain in 70 years. archbishop of canterbury justin welby administered the coronation oath. >> the coronation oath has stood

for centuries and is enshrined in law. are you willing to take the oath? >> i am willing. >> will you solemnly promise and swear to govern the peoples of the united kingdom and great in northern ireland, your other realms and the territories to any of them belonging to or pertaining, according to their respective laws and customs? >> i solemnly promise to. the things which i have promised, i will perform and keep, so help me god. amy: outside westminster abbey police arrested at least 52 people including numerous anti-monarchy activists who say they were detained before they even started protesting. this is graham smith of the anti-monarchist group republic. >> we are very much protesting. we have been sticking to the police, we have been candid about our plans, and we have

also had five other protests around the country within short distance of the king and each time they have gone off without any problems at all. there was never any intention to disrupt anything. i think they were hoping to stop us from staging a last peaceful protest on the edge of the coronation. i think that was a spectacularly poor decision, not least because there were no grounds for arresting us, but it is an affront to democracy, attack on our rights. backfired in the sense that his -- this has become a major story. amy: ahead of king charles' coronation, groups from 12 former british colonies wrote a letter demanding the new king pay reparations and apologize for britain's legacy of genocide and colonization. we are joined now by priya gopal. she is an english professor at the university of cambridge and author of "insurgent empire: anticolonial resistance & british dissent.” her latest piece for al jazeera english is headlined, “with charles iii coronation, colonialism is coming home to roost.”

start by talking about the resistance this weekend to the coronation. how widespread is this critical discussion, discussion critical of the king, is this a common topic this weekend? and what that letter meant from the former colonies. priya: hi, amy. i think there are two things to say about this. one is, what was striking for them to have been here for so many years, watching jubilees, celebrations, the public celebrations were relatively muted. i don't think the crowds in london were quite as big even for the queen's jubilee. where i live in cambridge, celebrations were quite muted. we know from a recent poll that

support for the coronation, interest in the coronation was actually fairly low. in terms of criticism, there was some rumbling, campaign groups that you referred to tried to protest and they were stopped almost immediately. in the public, media sphere, there is very little representation of anti-monarchy positions, positions that are moderate and critical of the monarchy or imperial system. there is a kind of odd combination of increasing lack of interest in the monarchy, but a refusal on the part of the media, particularly the bbc, to

acknowledge that there is rising criticism and disinterest. the arrest of the protesters before they even began to protest -- and there were two groups by the way. one group was republic, who were arrested even before they had their placards. another was a women's group who were trying to hand out rape alarms, and they were also hassled by the police. the rape alarms were seized and not allowed to distribute them. this is a disturbing development in britain, which is the public order bill, recently passed by the conservative government. what it has done is giving the police sweeping powers to determine who can protest and how far, and whether those protests should go ahead. metropolitan police, a day before they arrested smith and others, said astonishingly that they would not allow anyone to undermine the celebration.

note the language. not criminal activity, not disruption, but you cannot undermine the celebration, which means it can be anything from looking grumpy, might be seen as undermining the celebration. we are in a situation where the police have been given extraordinary powers and this is a very dangerous point. the media and community are suppressing criticism of the monarchy and everything going on around the coronation. amy: britain was one of the largest, if not the largest slave trader in the atlantic in the 18th century. talk about that history. and how much of it is widely known? priya: there is very little public knowledge in britain about either the empire or the years of enslavement. in recent years, things to the efforts of young people who have

been demanding repairing of their career graham -- curriculum, younger people demanding more knowledge about slavery empire, the british school curriculum is famously and woefully inadequate in terms of how much it teaches people about these things. the other thing to say, what is now very slowly starting to come out, which is the monarchy's own implication in enslavement and colonialism. i mean that in two senses. individual members of the royal family, now we know some of them had wrecked benefits, like king william the third, from enslavement. but then monarchy as an institution also has investments in these different enterprises. we will not know about these until charles agrees to open up

the archives. one of the things the monarchy has done, especially during this time, was cover itself up in a vast number of secrecy laws, which means researchers cannot access relevant archives which will show us the extent of the involvement of the monarchy and individual members of the monarchy in enslavement. you asked me at the beginning of the show, the letter from indigenous leaders and others calling on charles to acknowledge the legacies of colonialism and enslavement. this is actually a very big deal. this is a country that has been historically loathed to talk about colonialism or enslavement, unless to say that britain was the nation that freed people from slavery.

you are only allowed to talk about that particular dimension of slavery. the letter from indigenous and other leaders, particularly leaders from australia, is very far-reaching, asking not only for the return and repatriation of artifacts and human remains, which britain is slowly turning toward doing, but is also asking charles to do something the monarchy has historically not done, which is reach an acknowledgment of how enslavement, possession, settlement, other aspects of colonialism work. until we see real movement in this direction, most of us will remain skeptical that any acknowledgment will happen. amy: last question, less than one minute. with charles the third, colonialism is coming home to roost, you write. why don't we end with that.

priya: there are a few things that can define a colonialism. the laboring class. and an increasingly ferocious state that clamps down on protests. all of these aspects are present in britain today. we also have, along the lines of what your previous guest was talking about, tremendous demonization and resolicitation of asylum-seekers while british people are being made very poor. there are vast numbers of people who are unable to heat their homes nv their children. looking at britain today, setting aside the small class of very wealthy billionaires, we see a very large number of impoverished people and you see britain looking like one of the colonies that it left behind in

the middle of the 20th century. amy: priya gopal, thank you for being with us, english professor at univ of cambridge and author of "insurgent empire: anticolonial resistance & british dissent." we will link to your piece in al jazeera “with charles iii , coronation, colonialism is coming home to roost.” next, we look at the growing calls for ethics rules for the supreme court justices as more information emerges about justice thomas' secret dealings with a republicabillionae. ba in 30 seconds ♪♪ [muc break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. calls are growing for new ethics rules for supreme court justices as more information emerges about justice clarence thomas' secret financial dealings with republican activist billionaire harlan crow. last week it was revealed that thomas failed to report frequent trips paid for by crow, including aboard his private yacht and jet. thomas also failed to disclose he sold property to him, including a home where his mother now lives rent free. in addition, he paid for the tuition of his grandnephew which is over $6,000 a month. the washington post reports conservative judicial activist leonard leo arranged for clarence thomas's wife, ginni thomas, to be paid at least $80,000 dollars for consulting

work over a decade ago. without mentioning her name. month later, the nonprofit filed an amicus brief in shelby county v. holder, in which thomas cast the deciding vote in a 5-to-4 ruling that gutted the voting rights act of 1965. despite these revelations, the supreme court chief justice john roberts has refused because to look into ethics rules for justices. then we have the case of his wife adding over $10 million for being a headhunter for elite firms. these law firms often have cases before the supreme court. we are joined by dahlia lithwick, who covers the courts and the law for slate and hosts the podcast “amicus.” her recent book is titled: "lady justice: women, the law, and the battle to save america." she is joining us from seattle. thank you for joining us again democracy now!

respond to this avalanche of information, starting with justice thomas, but not ending with him. dahlia: it is such an amazing story, and it is really in some sense surprising to me, that a story that i thought would be a one-day story when we heard about this super yacht, travel day story, has turned into weeks of sustained focus as investigative reporters for a bunch of outlets essentially say, but that is not all. you are right, the capstone of it in a sense of where the end of last week, both about harlan crow paying for clarence thoma'' grand nephew's tuition without disclosing, despite earlier in career that justice thomas said that he was getting his tuition paid for. he knew this requires disclosure. in some sense, the more nuclear story that came on thursday night, as you said, leonard leo,

who is the front man for a bunch of groups that have worked to take over the courts, was literally directing kellyanne conway to put money into ginni thomas's pocket, including a note that said " no mention of ginni, of course." he knew this was wrong, nobody disputes it is wrong. now what we are doing is haggling about the price. amy: i want to go to senate judiciary chair dick durbin on sunday. >> you are not willing to subpoena the chief justice john roberts. you have indicated it is unlikely that you can pass legislation that will impose an ethics code on the court. and you have said you don't think the justice department should investigate justice thomas' actions. in essence, aren't you throwing up your hands and sing the supreme court is not accountable to anybody but themselves? there is nothing you can do even though you are the chairman of

the senate judiciary committee? >> not at all, jake. the bottom line is everything is on the table. day after day, week after week, more disclosures about justice thomas. we cannot ignore them. the first thing we will do is gather the evidence, the information we need to draw conclusions. i'm not ruling out anything. amy: dahlia lithwick, if you can respond. dahlia: it is such a weird moment, historically, where for some reason, congress has taken the posture that they cannot do anything to regulate the court. the court conveniently takes the same posture that this is a separation of powers issue. it is important to remember, and a professor at ut austin have been making the point for weeks, congress has regulated the courts conduct for centuries. congress has a term of the jurisdiction of the justices for a long time. they forced the justices to travel around the country and

here cases. congress sets the number of seats on the court. the notion that congress has no business intervening but how the judiciary works because that would be a separation of powers conflict is simply wrong. what you were hearing from senator durbin there was an understanding that now is not the time to stand back and let the courts say more or less what you talked about in your last segment, the judiciary as a monarchy, cannot be regulated by anybody else but itself. between the hearing we had last week at the judiciary committee and the conversation we are having -- having over the weekend, members of the senate are beginning to understand, it will be incumbent on them to step in and issue some ethics rules or demand the court issue ethics rules for itself. that is the angus king, susan collins bill. but the notion that there is nothing the other branches of government can do because the cord is made up of magic and

unicorns and rainbows, that era is now over. amy: federal judges are now much more strict the regulated. aren't there judges across the country demanding that the supreme court abide by similar rules? dahlia: it has been such an amazing revelation. we heard over the weekend that there was a lower federal court judge, district court judge, who is asking the judicial conference that enforces rules to do something about justice thomas a decade ago. it is absolutely true that lower court judges are bound by really strict rules. you cannot buy them a cup of coffee. i know federal judges who would not get into an elevator with somebody who has business before them. they are very careful to police themselves because they understand -- and this is in the federalist papers -- the only parody judiciary has is public approbation, and that is an incredibly fragile thing.

the idea that the chief justice put forth he said he was not going to testify before the hearing last week, that somehow it is unreasonable to ask judges to police themselves, or that they should be left to determine their own ethics rules, it is not just a question of this looks kind of kinky. they are undermining the judicial branch. every judge except the supreme court justices have to abide by the ethical canons, statutes. the notion that there is some sphere of privacy in'clarence thomas llife, leonard leo saying we did not disclose this payment to ginni thomas because of the gossip, that is not how this works. that is not how any of this works. they are meant to use these laws to guide their conduct, and they choose not to. amy: let's talk about the

specific issue of student debt. before the supreme court is a case of student debt, argued in february. clarence thomas, chief justice roberts expressed skepticism. even this week, the debt ceiling issue could stop all kinds of student loan forgiveness. so it is extremely significant that clarence thomas had his grandnephew, who he treated as a son, sort of adopted early on, this republican activist billionaire paying over $6,000 a month. are we talking about crossing a line between civil and criminal liability here? dahlia: it is really difficult to know what harlan crow could be on the hook for. i certainly think we are crossing the line between ethical rules and corruption. it is worth noting right here that the supreme court has been one of the largest players in changing the definition of what corruption is, demanding that we

talk in terms of quid quote pro corruption is a really narrow definition. that is the supreme court's doctrine in recent decades. under your question is the question of how is it possible that clarence thomas's ruling on the loan forgiveness case that harlan crow's wife gives you an organization, the manhattan institute, has an amicus brief in that case? the argument seems to be personal charity for me so that my grandnephew can go to a fancy private school, but not all of you that need debt relief. this is like a layer cake of misconduct. at every layer of the cake, it is astonishing that justice thomas, who clearly has a vested interest in every level, does not recuse. amy: i want to ask you one question not related to this court but a sensitive question

about senator dianne feinstein. there is very little discussion right now in the media of her mental condition. the idea that she has a case of shingles and people are ruthless saying that she should resign -- of course if she did that would be a ridiculous demand. but this issue of her mental competence, and why i include this in this discussion, she sits on the judiciary committee, and because of her absence, democrats have not been able to approve judges. last year, there was a whole discussion in the media, the san francisco chronicle talking about an unnamed california lawmaker who expected to have a deep policy discussion with dianne feinstein. instead the lawmaker said they had to reintroduce themselves to feinstein multiple times during interactions that lasted several hours. yet congress member said she was an intellectual and political force not long ago, and that is

why my account with her was so jarring, because there was no trace of that. you have nancy pelosi accusing ro khanna of being sexist for saying she should step down. are we looking at a level of mental deterioration that is paralyzing the democrats in the senate? should she step down? dahlia: it is such an echo of the ruth bader ginsburg conversation we were having years ago, this question have how somebody determines for them self objectively as they can that they should step down because they are imperiling the very institution they purport to love. i cannot claim to have any insider information on senator feinstein's cognitive state. i read the same article that you did. rebecca tracer had a phenomenal piece last year making the same claims.

what is important, clouding this up with questions of ageism, sexism, attacks on the senator, is to really obscure the fact, that as you said, as a result of loose lips, the filibuster, her current condition, we are not getting judges confirmed as quickly as we can. she issued a statement last week saying they were going along at a fast clip, but in some ways, we are not getting judges confirmed at rates we need to see. it seems to me that is a moment for soul searching above and beyond competency to say, how am i hampering this institution from doing the work of government? amy: dahlia lithwick, thank you for being with us. we end today show with an update on oklahoma death row prisoner richard glossip, whose execution

may 18 execution date was stayed by the supreme court on friday, pending the outcome of two cases he has pending at the high court. justice neil gorsuch recused himself, likely because he'd previously dealt with the case as a lower court judge. this comes after oklahoma's republican attorney general gentner drummond filed a joint motion with glossip's defense team to halt his may 18 execution, saying he did not receive a fair trial. glossip has maintained his innocence for the past quarter-century. this was the ninth time he had an execution date that has been put on hold. for more, we are joined in oklahoma city by sister helen prejean, who one of the world's most well-known anti-death penalty activists and is richard glossip's spiritual advisor. welcome back. you learned of this day for glossip friday before the supreme court stayed his execution? tell us how he responded, and your response. helen: i had never heard of an attorney general confessing to

error and with the trial courts had done in oklahoma about richard glossip. eight votes to grant a writ of certiorari and state. richard, we were visiting earlier, and he was just worried because he would need to turn over to the prison officials all of his personal things. his cards, letters, photographs, before he was taken into that waiting cell, awaiting execution, which is a torture chamber for him. he was called to the door by the warden. he went, only to find out, you got a stay from the supreme court. it was so deliriously happy. the way this happened, what made that attorney general do this, it is the hard and good work of don knight, a lawyer in his case, who not only pursue justice in the courts of

oklahoma, but also began to communicate with legislators and the political side of the death penalty. these are all -- 60 of them -- our gop pro death penalty legislators that don works with, educates, and then they do their own research in richard's case, meeting him, and then becoming very committed. and then that number, your ternary general calls them -- the attorney calls them, two times he came within minutes of execution. the man has gone through torture. but it is refreshing to have for the first time in attorney general contest ever in a cased. -- error in a case. normally, everyone holds fast, refuses to acknowledge error,

and allows people to be executed. amy: what happens next? this is a temporary stay of execution? what happened next? len: it will probably be 30 days at first, but i'm hopeful, when you have eight justices taking a writ of certiorari on a case, prosecutors refusing to prosecute, i believe what will happen, they will remand the case, overturn what the court of appeals did in oklahoma, remand the case to a trial court for another trial. they will not touch that with a 10-foot pole because they have exposed to investigation the corruption present in the prosecution of destroying evidence, allowing lies by the chief witness supposedly that richard glossip masterminded it, lied in court, hid from the jury

, the videos show how the active's pump the information into him that richard glossip was the mastermind. all of that stuff will come out in a new trial. i believe richard will walk out a freeman. just all the other guys on death row that are lined up for execution, they don't have teams like this working for them. what will happen to them? my work is to go to the american public. we have to bring people close to the needless suffering, and we can keep our society safe without killing human beings. eight of them came for a visit while i was visiting with richard. they don't have those teams helping them, so they go to richard, can you get us lawyers to help us? i just feel for them.

we have to change the whole thing in the united states to get the death penalty off the table. we cannot handle it. amy: as of january 12, 2023, oklahoma had 39 prisoners on death row, 11 scheduled to die this year. sister helen prejean, you are having a justice rally scheduled for may 9. what is being called for their? we have 20 seconds. and then we are doing a post i can show to talk about your history with richard glossip. helen: the rally, which we encourage people to come to, will celebrate what happens with richard. it is a lot of courageous legislators standing up for him, but to look to the reforms that this bipartisan committee has recommended for the legislature about the death penalty in oklahoma. 40 reforms. we have to look toward reforming

the whole system, and that is what the rally will focus on. amy: sister helen prejean on, thank you so much for being with us. part two will be on democracynow.org. sister helen prejean on, and two penalty activists.

linton besser: on the coast of west africa, the ships arrive day after day with an unrelenting cargo. in ghana, they call them "obroni wawu," or "the clothes of dead white men." emmanuel ajaab: take this bale from australia. linton: they're the charity shop castoffs from the western world. emmanuel: dirty. linton: it's sweat. emmanuel: see. yeah, rubbish. it's like a insult. linton: too many of them arrive in unwearable condition. while the trade in used clothes has created thousands of jobs,