this morning my question, what do these supreme court decisions mean for the rest of us? plus, an important deadline looms in north carolina. julian bond comes to nerd land. first, if you don't know, now you know. this is the republican party. good morning. i'm melissa harris-perry, and, you know, we've been hearing about the tea party for years. ever since a group of americans got worried about president obama and his health care reform plan. they convened at congressional town halls and they went to the

washington, d.c., mall en masse and they atonight eatonighte ee language of the american revolution. we heard about the tea party wave of 2010. in reality 85% were re-elected to the house of representatives. tea party kcaucuses were launchd in the house and in the senate. well, they're basically nonex t nonexistent today. but the tea party dominates still in our political news. let's take the primary that wrapped up this week. here are some of the headlines. first, tea party versus g 0 op since cantor's defeat. there's a tea party versus establishment matchup. cochrane holds off tea party challen challenger in mississippi. will the tea party actually ditch the gop? i'm just going to put it out there. the tea party is not a real thing. nobody. not real. it's as imaginary as the tea that i am pouring right now. it's all an illusion.

the tea party that's just a fancy is name for, well, the republican party. exhibit a, john boehner as speaker of the house is as establishment as establishment gets. the lead er of the republican party. that's the only part of government that the party controls and this week speaker boehner announced he is doing something that so-called types like former virginia governor, attorney general -- not governor but attorney general ken kuch kne nellie and greg abbott love to do, sue the president of the united states. >> i believe the president is not faithfully executing the laws of our country. on the behalf of our institution and constitution, standing up and fighting for this is in the best long-term interest of the congress. >> so mr. boehner says the suit will l l c will challenge the use for executive orders and people he meets regularly express to him

this sentiment. we elected a president. we didn't elect a monarch or a king. now the president hasn't said which are monarch enough to warrant legal challenge. actually he said he hadn't even decided yet. he claimed it isn't is a precursor to impeachment of the president or to rally american voters ahead of the 2014 elections. the speaker boehner unquestionably an establishment republican. he was in congress nearly 20 years before the label tea party was even a glimmer in the right wings is doing the same thing that a tea party would do if given the chance. do you see what i'm saying here? tea party/republican party, there isn't any difference. it is short hand for republicans who demand a teeny, tiny, very, very small government, low income taxes, minimal social programs. it's an ideology that has been around forever.

they seem more willing unto compromise and to say outlandish things like this. >> do you like green eggs and h ham? i do not like them, sam i am. i do not like green eggs and ham. >> what's better for a tea party than a little dr. seuss? the tea parties are idealists, take no prisoners, burn it to the ground, close down the entire government, do nothing, spend nothing, hear nothing republicans. but, yes, tea party republicans we are implying there are other types. we call them moderate. who is establishment and not tea party? is it speaker john "sue the president" boehner? is it senate minority leader mitch "only a gop senate majority can humble the president" mcconnell? mr. mcconnell is establishment and yet he talks about crushing

the tea party at the same time that he does things like, you know, block the veterans health bills over feigned concern for the budget. or the establish lt, people like former senator olympia snowe who quit the senate in 2012 because there was no long er er any pla for her in the increasingingly polarized congress. still, tea party is a useful short hand for those of us in media to make politics seem more interesting. take mississippi where six-term senator thad cochrane beat back a very nearly successful challenge this week by state senator chris mcdaniel. it was billed, as i said earlier, as the establishment versus the tea party. much of that came for each candidate was getting his money and endorsements. in cochrane's corner was national party chair haley barbour, senator john mccain, the u.s. chamber of commerce, the establishment. mcdaniel had sarah palin and the senate conservative pac and the

club for growth, the tea party. the major policy difference between cochrane and the challenger, their views on what to to with federal fund iing. cochrane has a track record of funneling federal dollars from 2008 to 2010 alone he secured . 2.6 billion in earmarks for projects in mississippi. that was before the earmark ban, a tea party concoction which he opposed. he used to be really good at this. and assuredly that contributed to the fact that mississippi gets nearly half of its general revenue from federal dollars, the most of any state in the country. mcdaniel's supporters attacked cochrane for bringing home the bacon. >> in mississippi thad cochran's name is on many buildings. it's on bailouts, tax hikes and debt, lots of at the time. >> the tea parties to not like pork with their tea. in the end cochran, however, won

in no small part of his efficacy to getting money. cochran's campaign highlighted federal funding. he's been able to get for black colleges and other projects in the state's african-american communities and a pro cochran pac hired african-american leaders including preachers to encourage black voters to cast votes in the republican primary. a republican in mississippi actively courting black voters is not something we have seen much of since recon are construction ended in 1876. mississippi may be more politically divided along race lines than anywhere else. most mississippi democrats, 75%, are black. and most black voters in mississippi vote for democratic candidat candidates. and on the other side, very nearly all republicans, 96% of them, are white. and almost 90% of white voters in mississippi vote d for mitt

romney in 2012. that is 30 points higher than the national average. that's why even though mississippi has the highest proportion of african-americans of any state, 37%, the state still votes reliably republican in every presidential race and hasn't sent a democrat to the senate since the label mississippi democrat was synonymous with segregationists. in this context cochran's public effort to get black voters to not only vote for him but to vote in the republican primary, that was surprising but it turned out to be politically ingenious. turnout went up with the highest percentage of african-american residents and it went up to cochran's advantage. the in the end even if we never know if it was democratic voters who were the decisive factor in the race, we do know that congress ran felt he needed to go outside the gop in order to win. and we know mcdaniel, who has not conceded, feels that he would have won if only

republicans came out to the polls this past tuesday because mcbe daniel, as the super conservative tea party take down the federal government and all that comes with it candidate, is the republican party now. the guy who says things like this. >> if you can't fight against this president, that is truly unfortunate. that is truly unfortunate. >> that's his pitch. he'll fight the president. that's the goal, whether you're chris mcdaniel or john boehner. mcdaniel is not an outlier. he's not the fringe. he's the new mainstream. the rift between the tea party and the republican party is alive. the tea party is the republican party now.

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president obama doesn't think much of house speaker john boehner's plans to sue him over his executive orders. here he is speaking with abc's george stephanopolous in an interview that aired on friday be on "good morning america." >> you know, the suit is a stunt. but what i told speaker boehner directly is if you're really concerned about me taking too many executive actions, why don't you try getting something done through congress. the majority of the american people want to see immigration reform done. we had a bipartisan bill through the senate. and you're going to squawk if i try to fix some parts of it administratively that are within my authority while you are not doing anything? >> at least we know one thing speaker boehner has the tea party doesn't, a direct line to the president. joining me now the associate professor of social and cultural analysis at nyu, robert george, associate editorial page editor at the "new york post," and nicholas, who is a political

reporter at the "new york times." thank you all for being here. >> thank you. >> so let me start with you. is there a difference between -- i mean, the reporting is there's this great battle between the tea party and the mainstream republicans. i spent a lot of time saying, no, they're the same thing. what do you think battle or the same thing? >> to the extent that the tea party is a grassroots insurgency with the party, they are two different things. in the big picture, though, they are -- and to me a battle over fundamental principles of the party and how best it to execute them in a legislative or governing concept. and that's where there's -- and that's where there's a difference. the tea party people feel the leadership has either not combatted president obama enough or cut deals the of the once

you're part of a governing body, you have to kind of get things through and there is compromise and that's something that the grassroots on either side doesn't always understand. >> that's an interesting point. i was on reverend al's show last night and we were sort of talking about the speaker ba boehner suit and the president calling it a stunt. but then e.j.dionne said something interesting. he suggested this is, in fact, boehner playing a middle ground that we just may not be recognizing. i want to play e.j. here. >> oddly john boehner is trying this because he doesn't want something worse to happen. and from his point of view, the worst thing would be outright impeachment of the president. the problem -- because he knows that nothing -- nothing would with push out the democratic base more than if the republicans made overt impeachment moves. >> so do you buy that, that the suit is actually sort of pulling back from the tea party a bit? >> actually i think it's a way

to deflect some heat from himself and the leadership. it's a way to channel some of the pressure he's under from parts of his party into something that ultimately will not matter that much. will put on a show of force and show that he cares about what they're arguing about. that he, too, is angry about the executive action. i agree with e. jflt. i think it's a smart tactical move and puts off something worse for the leadership in the house. >> when you say that, when you say part of what he's trying to do is to cope with the republictist of this tea party, part of what i'm thinking about, we know when you look at the normal curve as a political scientist you can't have a third party that sticks around. third parties come but they have to displace or realign. is that what we're seeing? will the tea party basically meld the republican party, smoosh it over to the right and then those establishment republicans who can't continue to walk that boehner line end up as democrats? >> well, that's going to be very interesting to see since they're

re really talking third party. you're getting some bubbling of that. we don't talk about it enough, that establishment is not synonymous with with moderate. and that establishment republicans have the same policy preferences as tea party republicans. so most of what we're talking about when we talk about them being different is the difference in style. it's aesthetic, a tone issue a the lot of the time. the media has been very bad at helping voters understand the difference between style and substance. i think the fact you're talking about shared policy preferences is really important. i do think there is something different about the tea party in that they are fundamentalists around the question of governing, and they really do feel the system is broken and they think the very idea, i think, of working with people who think differently than them. there's not a lot of room for pluralism in terms of acceptable -- that's different. >> there is a look at immigration reform, a look at earmarks. >> obama care, gun control, abortion. they're the same. >> are real differences.

thad cochran won election by broadcasting that he was a guy who brought home the bacon, that he was in favor of disaster relief. >> and mississippi happens to be the number one state in terms of what it gets from the federal government versus what it pays in in taxes. >> because it is a poor state. living in louisiana, we abut mississippi the the we appreciate mississippi because it so often makes us the 49th in things. >> military bases. >> that's right. and so for me that seems like a reasonable use of the federal government, right? and our previous understanding of what grassroots voters would have held an elected official to, they would have asked, did you do something for our locality? it is very hard for me to imagine just sort of, again, what i learned in political science 101 that what they would be asking is how little have you done for us. >> right. >> the interesting thing about that over the last few years because earmarks have become a dirty word, it's done two things. it's, one, made it harder for

republican politicians to talk about bringing home the bacon but it's also made it harder for a john boehner in terms of leadership -- >> to actually get anything done. >> to control -- >> that's right. that's right. stick with us. i promise we'll do more earmarks. i want to ask the nate silver question that was asked this week, has the tea party outlived its usefulness? first, before we it continue our discussion, i do want to bring you up to date on some developing news that we will continue to report on this morning. the justice department says that libyan militia leader suspected of playing a key role in the 2012 attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi is in law enforce lt custody. according to "the new york times," abdallah, captured two weeks ago, arrived in washington this morning. nbc news reports that he could be brought before a federal judge to face charges perhaps as early as today. four americans including the u.s. ambassador to libya were killed in the 2012 attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi.

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keep heart-healthy. live long. for a healthy heart, eat the 100% natural whole grain goodness of post shredded wheat. doctors recommend it. this weekend in jackson, mississippi, civil rights lead remembers commemorating the 50th anniversary. their actions including the ultimate sacrifice made by three volunteers who were murdered that summer helped lead to the passage of the voting rights act in 1965. which finally secured the right to vote for african-americans in the south. the commemorations are taking place the same week that black voters in mississippi are once again in the news. this time for crossing party lines to vote in the republican primary for the u.s. senate and li likely ensuring the win of senator thad cochran over conservative challenger chris mcdaniel. mcdaniel has refused to concede

and is looking to challenge the votes cast by democrats which in mississippi means after african-americans. joining us now from jackson, mississippi, legendary civil rights leader and a key participant in that summer 50 years ago, julian bond. so nice to have you. >> my pleasure. thank you. >> so first talk to me about this recent primary. do you see this as a sign of the empowerment of black voters in mississippi and, therefore, in line with the legacy of freedom summer? or is it about the fact they have these fundamentally constrained republican choices? >> well, it's a little bit of both of those things. particular hi i think it's about black mississippians saying we can make a difference here. we can choose between a nut cake and the incumbent senator and we chose the incumbent senator. >> have you talked to anyone who cast a vote? i'm interested in what they're saying about the choice. >> as a matter of fact, no. because i've been with the people who came to mississippi 50 years ago and almost none of

them became mississippians. there are some mississippians here at this convention but, no, i've not talked to anybody who cast their votes for anybody here. >> so, you know, here on "mhp" we raise concerns about con contemporary voter suppression. stunning how much there is to cover. i wonder when you lack at what you're seeing right now in voter suppression efforts across the country whether or not you see that as distinct from the forces you were battling 50 years ago or very much connected to those same battles. >> no, it's absolutely a repetition what was happening 50 years ago. 50 years ago we fought against these kind of restrictions and we overcame them with the veiti veiting voting rights act. now the chief justice opposed to voting rights since he worked for ronald reagan years and years ago, managed to eviscerate the voting rights act and the states have jumped into the

battle and increase the kind of -- of awful restrictions on vote voters, these voter id and other things and made it more difficult for americans to vote. so we are seeing a repetition of what happened 50 years ago but despite these restrictions i think we're going to see a black turnout on election day greater than anybody expected. >> in fact, i'm wondering if this cochran primary might, in fact, leave the establishment gop to feel differently about voter suppression given that in this case it lacks like black voters were critical, were pivot t al in returning this incumbent. >> maybe ordinary people would say, gee, we need to do things differently. i don't think they have the slightest idea of doing that of the. >> i want to play for you a little bit of sound. this is mcdaniel who was the challenger talking about sort of

what happened. i have to say the language sounded very reminiscent to me of an earlier period. can we listen to this? >> sure. >> as you know today, folks, there were literally dozens of irregularities reported all across this state. and you know why? >> yes. >> you read the stories. >> yes. >> it's a rough state. >> you're familiar. you're familiar with the problems that we have. now it's our job -- now it's our job to make sure that the sanctity of the vote is upheld. >> i'm not even sure if that's a dog whistle because i can hear it. >> i think it was a dog whistle. what he's saying is what really happened he lost the election and he can't deal with it. black people crossed over to the republ republican primary which they've not done before and made the difference in the outcome. this is a major, major dog

whistle. and you're probably going to hear more of this because he refuses to concede and still thinks he's very much in the race. >> last quick question for you. are you at all optimistic that we can get a new vra formula for section 5? >> no, i'm not the very optimistic about that because there's no -- almost no republican support for it and the democratic support is not that vigorous. so i'm not optimistic about that at all. i'm usually optimistic about everything but not about this. >> that is fascinating particularly your point there about the democratic party with which is part of what i'm going to ask my roundtable here when we come back. julian bond in jackson, mississippi. it is a pleasure to have an opportunity to speak with you this morning, sir. >> my pleasure. thank you. and so when we come back, we'll continue to talk about whether or not what happened in mississippi is indicative of the republ republican party doing something interesting and great or the democratic party really making a mess of it. some things you have to squeeze to make sure they're soft.

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we may never know for sure if it was really black democrats who gave senator cochran his win in the mississippi republican run-off this week. but we do know that the higher the percentage of african-americans in a particular county, the bigger the gains cochran made in the run-off as compared to the original primary. as the data mining blog 538 put it, the ten counties where the incumbent senator improved most, those were where blacks make up 69% or more of the population. is this the moment you have been waiting for? black people determine the republican nominee in mississippi. >> as i tweeted on that night, this was the first gop primary determined by the black swing vote, at least this century. the two things that struck me in your interview with julian bond, one was that clip we had of chris mcdaniel talking about the problems that were going on.

that reminded me of trent lott 12 years ago actually when the quote that doomed his career as majority leader was, he said had we voted for strom thurman we would not be having all these problems talk iing about mississippi again and the problems talking about black voters participation. the other point i thought was interesting, there's been a lot of discussion about this idea of voter suppression and what is voter suppression. what i thought was interesting and something that both republicans and democrats should keep in mind was this was actually the first primary that is run in mississippi with voter i.d. mandated. and i think it's interesting that in its run-off you have this historic moment of african-americans participating in the republican primary and they've got voter i.d. so on the one hand republicans can't complain, oh, they're illegal voters because they have

the i.d. but democrats have to put out voter i.d. does not the always equal voter suppression. you've laid a lot on the table. i want to dig into a couple. one of the points you made, i went back and looked at it empirically. in fact african-american voters in mississippi going back to '04, so well before the obama moment, outperformed white voters in turnout. so that even in '04, 6.6% of african-americans turn out to vote. even in the midterms, 50% of black voters. so in many ways it feels like that legacy of freedom summer, of folks who worked hard for the vote and, therefore have not lost -- >> the original tea party. >> other side. freedom tempt party. look, as i look at what happened in this case, here you have black voters who have been showing up to vote, who show up even over and above voter i. dflt. but for whom the choice is cochran versus mcdaniel. and i'm thinking where in the

world is the democratic party? why have they completely given up on the deep south and why is there no sense there would be a meaningful alternative, a possibility of electing a depp krat statewide? >> it's a huge amount of low expectations and the fact the democratic party can -- and democratic voter and african-american voters were really pragmatic. they were very smart, pragmatic voters. i think the part you made in relating this to freedom summer when large numbers of african-americans vote or poor people vote, latinos vote, immigrants vote, that is treated by a big segment as a suspect class by the gop. the very act of blacks voting constitutes an ig regulrregular. the sanctity of our vote really speaks to that language that assumes if that population is voting in large numbers they're not part of the real american electorate. they're a suspect class in their eyes. >> what if republicans, mainstream republicans who i claimed earlier, just are the

tea party, if they distinguish themselves from the tea party, hmm, maybe there are black voters who needle some alternatives and actually true to get their support? >> rand paul. >> jack kemp. >> this has been what we see at the presidential level certainly. every cycle the candidates the on the republican side try to figure out what's the one issue they're going to do to combat the idea that they're too harsh as a party? with bush it was compassionate conservatism and education. with chris christie now it's drug treatment. with rand paul, it's felonies. >> really that's not a make believe issue. >> and he is going around saying, look, we have to broaden our audience. we have to broaden our appeal. and what's interesting to me about that is sometimes with these issues, they seem more like a play for moderate white votes, right? that feels like a play for black

votes because it is a central issue. >> stick with me because i really do want to dig a little bit deeper, go back 0 to the earmarks we talked about before. and i really do want to ask, is there a way we could begin imagining not only a realignment of the party but black voters. ♪ ♪ [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ [ birds squawking ]

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>> that was the campaign strategy. >> right. and yet that discourse, right, if you're talking about the style versus substance, right, but if you are the gop establishment are you thinking this would be a different way to run it? >> i think that's a very interesting point and this is an opportunity for republicans. i don't think the republicans should try to be selling big government and things like that. they should have at least a consistent message. but they now do have a list of after african-americans who have cast their very first votes in republican primary. and that's a great opportunity for them to start making select calls. they're not going to necessarily be going on an anti-obama rant. they are going to be saying think about some of the things

the republican party can do for you. >> the republican party doesn't need 40% of the black vote. they need 5% of the black vote to stay home and 3% to vote for republic krans. and that is the margin of victory in 2016. >> we have to elect or our party where we believe, right? they're a community that has beliefs and needs and policies they favor and part of politics is where can you find common ground what they want, not the what you want and want to get them to want. >> this is one of the different instances between the outreach in the gop. they think if they have leaders in the gop that are latino an electorate will emerge out of that. i think there's a different sense when you have african-american leaders. there's much less of a faith there's an electorate that would be african-american. there's a sense -- and they know that. >> and, look, policies are part of it.

the general revenue that comes from federal aid, something like 4 45.8% coming from federal aid. cochran himself pulling in 754 earmarks that he sponsored. $2.6 million in federal fund in. there's a republican argument that is a horrible thing for those of us living in post-katrina gulf coast communities. that sounds like he was an effective representative. >> a lot of them were built with billions and billions of dollars of federal spending and pork over two generations. >> never mind the reconstruction dollars. they're a taker state. >> the entire state. the and only 37% of them are african-america african-americans. >> the true believers on this

don't even want to fund pork for themselves. they don't believe in the federal government doing this. it's a scary principle. and that's fascinating. >> there's another element here, too. an incredible number of military bases down there and you knew this, within the african-americans a lot of military families. that's another entry they can have. >> none that have can happen if, in fact, the republican party equals the tea party and chris mcdaniels is running around with the dog whistles. thank you to you. happening recently as the 1970s, it was legally sanctioned and it was about as horrible a thing that a government could do to its citizens it is supposed to serve. now reparations are being paid. that story is next.

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north carolina is paying reparations. some survives of systemic enforced sterilization in the state of north carolina are eligible for a share of a $10 million fund to be split among those who were involuntarily stripped of their ability to have children by a state sanctioned program. the north carolina state eugenics board operated from 1929 to 1974. the winston-salem journal reports for more than 40 years north carolina ran one of the largest and most aggressive sterilization programs. it expanded after world war ii even as most other states pulled back in light of the horrors of hitler's germany. 7,600 people were either forced or coerced into sterilization. they were disproportionately african-american, poor people, and the disabled.

today about 1,800 of those targeted are still alive. time is running out for those survivors to make their claim with the state. monday is the deadline and currently only 630 have filed with the office for justice for sterilization victims for their legal share of the reparation. as part of an msnbc original report one of the survivors deborah blackman beand her fami shared their story. >> my sister was a daddy's girl. and he tried to protect her all he could. so it was hard for the family. i remember social workers coming to our house. they would always talk to my parents. they came so many times and then

the next thing i knew was my father telling me my sister was going to have surgery. i don't think they really understood, you know, what was going on. you don't hardly find too many men that cry, but my dad pulled out some tears the time my sister spent in the hospital. my dad told the doctors, he said, take care of my baby. we seen all the pain that she went through. >>s this is the document they actually had her to sign and they had her to put her signature here consenting to her

having this procedure done, a 14-year-old. final diagnosis, mental retardation, severe. eugenics sterilization and total abdominal hysterectomy. >> i remember when they were shaving me, they said we'll go down to your surgery. okay, i'm going to take the surgery. and i went down and they gave me a sedative. these social workers knew that they didn't have very much education and they pretty much convinced them this is what you need to do because you have a ment mentally retarded child. they labelled us as poor people.

uneducated. black. being mentally retarded. >> these people were dehumanized. they treated them like animals. they manipulated them into thinking it was the right thing to do. but it makes me sad not just for my aunt but all the victims that you would make a decision like that for sun else's life. >> joining me now is msnbc national reporter erin carmone. erin, help us to understand the history of the eugenics board in north carolina. >> well, eugenics spread across the country legitimized by the supreme court. in 1927 the buck versus belle decision said that if you could have mandatory evakt wagss you could have mandatory eugenics sterilization. the idea being that if you

forced people it to -- if you denied people their right to reproduce you would somehow be able to better the human race. after that eventually 30 u.s. states passed these kinds of laws that allow the state to have extraordinary power to sterilize sterilize, to issue tubal ligations. >> north carolina was not alone but it was clearly one of the most aggressive. >> in other states it focused on institutionalized people. in north carolina they focused on institutionalized people and social organizationers, as in the case of the blackmon family that you saw, social workers could just show up at your house. we interviewed rape victims who when they became pregnant, social workers would show up and have them sterilized. there were mothers and daughters who were sterilized. there were fathers who were committing incest had the

victims sterilized. it was an enormously comprehensive program that reached into people's homes. >> the reporting on this for years now, he is living right there in north carolina writing in north carolina. what is his motivation for revealing the story and getting us to a place where there's some recompense for these victims? >> well, at the same time that a historian was working on this, the winston-salem journal had a team of investigative reporters working on this and john moved over to the editorial page and started advocating. under democratic control in north carolina, unfortunately, there really wasn't a big push for these kinds of reparations but from the editorial board of the winston-salem journal there was this constant drumbeat what are you going to do for the survivors? >> and what are we going to do? who is eligible and what do they need to do? >> well, eligibility is going to be determined on a case-by-case basis. but on monday there is a

deadline to apply. it involves notarized forms, getting official documents so you have the university of north carolina center for civil rights that has free legal clinics. you have the naacp in north carolina really trying to do outreach. it's been on the local news. after those documents are in on june 30, they're going to start evaluating their claims against the records of the eugenics board which may mean that some folks, we don't know yet, but it may mean that some folks who were victims of the eugenics sterilization law, because they don't have the right kinds of records, they may be denied the kind of compensation that other folks are getting. >> i want to ask one more question around the sterilization because i think you use the word tubal ligation at one point which i think many people recognize and think of tubal ligation as what primarily was happening. as we heard in the blackmon story a 14-year-old girl having a complete hysterectomy.

that goes beyond the issue of sterilization. a variety of it physical issues that arise. are any of those issues also part of what can be made as a claim or only the aspect of sterilizati sterilization? >> there's been some conversation about mental health care as well. the truth is these folks were already vulnerable, didn't have access to health care. it's difficult to find them as a result of their marginalized state in society. this is something that disproportionately targeted african-americans and african-american women and sort after broader program of reproductive control. >> a reminder that justice delayed is, in fact, justice denied over and over again. thank you are for your reporting. you can see more of erin's reporting on this topic online right now on msnbc.com. please remember the deadline to file for these reparations is on monday. coming up next, since when does our current supreme court

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wrote the majority opinion imagines a more civil process. he wrote petition he is wish to converse about fellow citizens about an important subject on the public streets be a sidewalks, sites that have hosted discussions about the issues of the day throughout history. that is the key to how the court ruled. the petitioners made it about their right to have free speech be and argued that the buffer zones made it impossible for that to happen. the court agreed writing the buffer zones impose serious burdens on petitioners' speech. at each of the three planned parented clinics where petitioners attempt to council patients, the zones carve out a significant portion of the adjacent public sidewalks pushing petitioners well back from driveways. the zones thereby compromise petitioners abilities to initiate the close personal conversations they view as essential to sidewalk counseling.

sidewalk counseling? i have seen this sidewalk counseling firsthand when i volunteered as an escort for women seeking abortions. and this was anything but counseling. as the women were shown pictures of dead infants, bloody crosses, and they were subjected to horrific taunts like baby murderer. chief justice roberts went so far as to say they are not protesters. the they seek to express their operation enduring freedom position and to inform women of various alternatives and to provide help in pursuing them. if all that the women can see and hear are vociferous opponents of abortion the buffer zones have effectively stifled the message. intended or not the court's ruling gives it to anti-choice advocates to counsel a pregnant woman about the choices she should or should not make with her own body. yet these counselors don't have to hold any particular license to hole these sidewalk counseling sessions. what about the rights of pregnant with women who want to keep their condition, you know,

p private? the court's decision can be viewed as narrowly tailored. it is a step towards taking away a woman's access to full reproductive care and preventing had her from enjoying the full breadth of autonomy. erin carmon, akhil from yale university. michelle, who is a clinic escort be a defense organizer. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having us. >> i have many feelings. this a unanimous decision. i have enough respect left for the court that it makes me presume this must have been legally the right decision. >> well, i have some questions. here is the good news.

they love the first amendment. >> well, that's good. everyone does and the first amendment has never been so strongly protected. the bad news is all you have to do sometimes is call it the first amendment and all sorts of other things start creeping in. so free marketeers, well, we have a first amendment right to say all sorts of things about our product and you can't restrict us. they called themselves counselors rather than protesters and here is the third point, this is the sidewalk and the court thinks sidewalks are spaces for public conversation. now here's what can be done to push back because there's another thing this court respects, private property. so one possibility would be to actually sell the sidewalk in a 35-foot zone to the clinics so

this would be their private property and then they would be able to control access to it. the key to the case was, this was speech on a sidewalk. >> on a public -- because, of course -- and i think this is part of what's driven a the lot of us nuts in the reproductive community, we know that the supreme court operates behind a much larger buffer zone, but it happens to be private property. >> right because the sidewalk is free. then they have the steps and the plaza behind the sidewalk and they say that's not the sidewalk. >> right. that's right. you can't protest there. erin, i wanted to go back to this counseling thing for a second because you and i were talking about the sterilization question in north carolina. and so as part of that we pulled up an old pamphlet that explained the necessity of eugenics sterilization. and in the pamphlet it explains why the feeble minded can't be trusted to have children and why those who are -- they literally used the language of moron. it's a very sort of well put together north carolina state

pamphlet for why these reproductive choices should be made in this way. it's such a reminder to me, such a stark example that sidewalk counseling is not medically or politically reasonable necessarily. >> there's a profound paternalism at work here. it's the idea that somebody has a right not just to speak -- you know, they can still speak 35 feet away. that's still first amendment expression. they have a right to come up to you, to be in your space, and they have to right to express their opinion about the contents of your uterus. that is a real expansion of those kinds of rights and the idea, i went to organize argument for this case. first of all, the ideal of the paternalism, that person being entitled to speak to you is the same mentality we were just speaking about in the eugenics sterilization, the same denial of reproductive autonomy and the idea that somebody else knows better than you about what to do with your body. >> can we manage that i would

have the right to produce with my church, for example, a pamphlet on kidney disease and as you went into the dialysis center, i should be able to stand and whisper into your ear about whether or not you get die dialysis. gross. why would you have something to say about this had? >> it's really unfair. what brings me to this work is my own experience in massachusetts. i'm trying to get reproductive health care at a clinic. and prior to my politicalization and i was entering the facility and i was physically attacked. i was physically assaulted. he was grabbed. people were saying don't do it, don't do it. they don't know why i was there. >> don't get that pap smear! don't do it! a breast exam. >> so they don't know why -- and it shouldn't matter if i'm getting an abortion, if i'm getting contra session, if i'm getting birth control. it doesn't matter. women should be allowed to access the care that they need without intimidation, without

fear, without sygma. and it is unjust. and women of color in particular are disproportionately impacted. these clinics provide safe spaces, confidential care for women despite income status, immigration status. our community is often disproportionately impacted. the. >> it does for me tie back the point of paternalism. if i am a wealthy woman, or at least middle income woman who has private health insurance and seeks my medical care at a private facility who does eyes, ears and throat and all other kinds of things, you won't know why i am entering. i won't be subjected to your sidewalk counseling. and so it is ultimately over and over again women of color, poor women, women without insurance most likely to be subjected to this. >> and we heard from women, women of color who heard racial slurs. they were called a race traitor entering the clinic. and for me personally going through that experience, you're shaken, you're stirred, but i became angry.

what they did was create another advocate because i decided to fight to ensure women in the future will never have to go through the experience. >> i appreciate your point that the personal experience can be politicizing. we're going to take a break and as soon as we come back i want to talk to you about your experiences as an escort, the first political work that i ever did that i didn't think of as political work at the time but walking that gauntlet is not friendly sidewalk counseling. you used to sleep like a champ - then boom... what happened? life happened. stress. fun. bad habits. kids. kids. kids. now what? not milk. not sheep. not that. let's think smarter. let's get some science in here. let's build a bed. another bed? no, a smarter bed a entirely new sleep number bed that tracks your movement, your heartbeat, your breathing - sensors working directly with the dual air chambers - yeah you need the air chambers. introducing the sleep number bed now with sleepiq technology.

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the targets two abortion clinics in suburban boston, and two people are dead. >> eyewitnesses say he arrived dressed in black, pulled out a .22 caliber rifle and as they ride to flee opened fire. the gunman shot four people before escaping here.

one woman, a clinic worker, died at the scene. but the terror wasn't over. just ten minutes later a similar attack at a clinic blocks away by a gunman also dressed in black. three people were injured at the second clinic including one woman who died at the hospital. >> that was the nbc n"nbc night news" broadcast from the night of december 30, 1994, the same day a gunman killed a total of two people and wounded five others at two separate abortion clinics in suburban boston. that shooting along with a history of harassment and violence at the clinics led to the 2007 massachusetts law that created the 35-foot buffer zone t the supreme court just ruled unconstitutional on the grounds it violated the protesters' first amendment. this is part of the work that i do, michelle. >> absolutely. absolutely. i am wondering where is the patient's first amendment liberty not to have to hear this

speech. in fact, we'll talk about it later. i'm not a legal expert. that is a case. it is a first amendment case that is about a corporation's negative liberty not to 0 have to provide birth control. and so we're saying that is prote protected by the constitution. i would very much love to live in a society where any repr reproductive health patient's right not to be harassed, to be called horrific names, not to have enormous posters shoved in her face. i want to live in that country and that's not the one we live in, not even in clinics where we do have private property. >> a captive audience is a nice phrase. and let's remember also some of these women might be wanted pregnancies. they're extremists. it's not that different. there was a funeral protest c e

case. you should have a puffer zone for funerals and there's a buffer zone at the supreme court. so it's interesting. >> be and i want to point out, you were saying -- i think those of us who have done the escort work, the signs and the posters and the screening but i was almost more appalled by robert's discussion of this sidewalk counseling in part because of the paternalism and in part also because presumes that women who do seek abortion don't know what is happening in their bodies when, in fact, we know the majority of them are already parents. >> 61% of women having abortions have already had children. >> so they know. >> they know exactly what's about to happen inside of their bodies. yeah. and i want to make it really claire if you read this decision, it kind of sets up this binary that you have the plump grandmothers and that's who this case concerns. but then you have these mean protesters. i don't see that binary of the esco escorted in clinics at eight

states over the last five years and there is absolutely a spectrum. i've seen quiet rosary praying protesters trespass. i've caught them on the property and had to chase them away. that's a plump grandmother by this alleged binary. i've frequently heard the same people who have these gore posters 6x12 feet large screaming about murder, jesus, death. they'll say come to me. we'll help you. we'll give you anything you need. and if you need counseling, i want you to have counseling. but i'm going to bet that if you are having difficulty with your reproductive health election, you're not going 0 to run to this screaming guy on the sidewalk. >> they are spreading lie, disproven information about abortion causes infertility, causes breast cancer, it will make you kill yourself. it's also false information. i think that's worth saying. >> it can often be false information. let's put that in the case of states requiring a variety of

medley unnecessary procedures -- all of those states, everything you see in yellow, has some kind of trap law that includes things like the width of a hallway, physicians having admitting privileges. so the clinics providing health care have to meet all these standards but the people providing this health counseling don't. let me back up for one second. one second. i want to say the one thing i agree with roberts on. this is a fund you amount alame. there are disagreements of people who are of goodwill and that it is reasonable to have a public conversation about it even as the right to access the medical procedure is protected. so how do we do that? >> even though i'm somewhat critical of the decision as you've heard, here are a cull of things that should be said on its behalf. its tone is not the screaming and yelling. i did identify things that could be done there was an evidentiary

basis. i talked about more targeted judicial injunctions. they said it was really only a problem -- this is what they said -- on saturdays in boston and not elsewhere. but look, you had roberts joined by the four liberals actually so they themselves are kind of m modeling -- this is the same lineup as we saw actually upholding the obama health care law. so at least -- and the volume was toned down in scalia's c concurring opinion. i thought roberts' opinion tried very much to give us a model of what counseling rather than protest might look like. >> i think the challenges of what's happening in the krool is so disconnect ed from the realiy on the ground. so we're seeing so many tactics getting more and more egregious, seeing women -- seeing pictures being taken, license plates being taken, being posted on the internet. so the tactics have become very,

very dangerous and very egregious and that hasn't opinion really considered in this court case and quite frankly this is how these things are still going to happen and we're really concerned about the implementation of what the decision is. >> you bring up an interesting point. i was pushing on this privacy point and i hadn't thought about that, that new technologies often mean not only that they lose, with women lose privacy in that moment, but can lose privacy in a much broader sense to the extent that protesters or counselors want to publicize openly who these women are. stay with us because i to want to talk about hobby lobby a little bit. i real quick want to get a position on one other big ruling that we saw this week. up next, the other key ruling out of the supreme court this week that had the makings of a ninth grade social studies lesson. i want to ask a can khil about it. wondering what that is? that, my friends, is everything.

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a second ruling by the supreme court on thursday sent a clear message that president obama's powers are limited. the court unanimously ruled that the president violated the constitution in 2012 by making recess appointments to the national labor relations board while the senate was on a brief break. in its opinion, which was written by justice stephen buyer, that the senate was in a three-day recess. three days is too short a time to bring a recess within the scope of the clause thus we concluded the president lacked the power to make the recess appointments here at issue. though the court put limits 0 on the president's recess appointment powers in the short term they left open the possibility to be made during breaks of ten days or more. so ten days is a recess. three days is not. you wrote about this back when the appointments were made and said, hey, just write a letter. it will solve it. tell me about that solution that

wasn't taken. >> you see, because a lot of people think this is the president disregarding the senate. in fact, and that's what senator mcconnell says and the minority leader, obama probably will have the support of the ma jjority o the senate the but there was the filibuster. he had 51. so way back when, the day he did this, i said senator reid, the majority letter should get 50 others onboard saying we support what the president it. the president is not tissing the senate. he's actually helping us do a filibuster reform. >> i love that eye tea because it reminds us that, in fact, the senate is controlled by a majority of democrats the and in this case the notion of the president versus the senate is not really quite what happened. i want to talk about one other case coming up that's hobby lobby. any sense from our buffer zones case, from your perspective, erin, about what we can cexpect

with hobby lobby? >> they both set up people who are conservative as the victims as being, as their rights being oppressed and they have overlapping attorneys. the attorney for eleanor mccullen who argued the case, he works for the beckett fund for religious liberty that has brought most of the caseses against the con septembtrace coverage. this whole idea is using the first amendment as a weapon to kind of erode different laws and regulations that have been passed to expand access to reproductive health care. we'll see perhaps maybe the anonymity in mccullen was the sign. i don't know this is the case. perhaps it was the sign that there was some vote swapping because justice roberts really likes unanimous decisions. he likes to look reasonable. perhaps that will mean a less bad outcome for contraceptive

access on monday. >> i'm reminded that, of course, one of the people currently sitting on the court is sonia sotomayor who -- i'm always look ing for sotomayor and the notorious rbg, ginsberg, to scream out, no, no, not this. and so when sotomayor joins in this decision, i started asking, is it about a kind of catholic latino conservatism? and you were saying, no, that is not the way to think about it. >> like the majority of all women, latinas of all faiths use and support contraception. 97% of sexually experienced latinas have used a form of contraception in their life and 90% of catholic married latinas have used a form of contraceptive that is banned by the vatican. it was a big win when they used contraception as preventative care. we are hopeful and want to ensure that the supreme court rules in the favor of religious

liberty of the women, of the families that can make decisions for themselves with their own moral agency, with their own faith, with their own conscience not those of the ceos. >> you don't see sotomayor as necessarily joining as a base level identity politics? >> no. >> let me ask one are more. i want to get you in on this. i want to underline one more time the point that gauntlet that will lead to either the screaming or to the sidewalk counseling is really about certain kinds of communities, certain kinds of women, those marginal i marginalized having to experience it. >> absolutely. more and more, i think, throughout our society we're really seeing this doubling down on privilege, and when you have the supreme court has this enormous buffer zone the justices don't even use the entrance, we can't get a measly 35 feet. we never had a supreme court justice murdered. we had one brought up on murder

charges in the 1880s but never killed. meanwhile, we had eight doctors, workers, providers, escorts killed since 1993. and so you have this history that says, look, to me it's reasonable to say 35 lousy feet away. but, you know, these are folks going into a clinic to receive a stigmatized type of health care. they are women who don't have the private doctors that you were mentioning. it just exposes them in a way that people who do have more advantages in life don't, and that's fundamentally unjust to me. >> thank you all for being here and thank you for, if only they would read your pieces, they would avoid such terrible outcomes. thank you to erin carmon and akhil, jessica, and to michelle. coming up, using art as a kind of 35-foot buffer zone to fend

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over the last month we've been telling you about the tens of thousands of children coming alone across the southern bored he of the united states. since october more than 27,000 children have reached the border. many of them fleeing brutal violence and extreme poverty in their home countries. as part of the obama administration's effort to stem the tide of people crossing the border the united states is sending $225 million in aid money to the three countries of origin for most of the migrant children. the money is to help assist the countries in ensuring their safety and security once they are resettled. some opponents of the aid program argued a better response to the surge in migrant children is punishment instead of protection which is why my letter this week goes to one of the most vocal and influential of those voices, the vice chair

of the house homeland security committee. dear representative candace miller, it's me, melissa. now i think we can all agree that the sudden surge of unaccompanied children at the border is a complicated problem with no easy answers. but your suggestion that the united states try to solve it by cutting off aid to central mark makes me question whether you fully appreciate the nature of the problem itself. this week you issued a statement saying we need to take some steps to protect america by getting ou neighbor's attention instead of increasing funding by hundreds of millions as the president has called for, we need to stop foreign aid to the centrals immediately. i'm wondering if maybe this is a case of how having only a hammer causes you to see only nails everywhere you look because it seems that your lead ership positions on homeland and border security committees have limited the scope of your perspective on exactly what you are looking at when you see the children at our border. according to a survey of migrant children from the u.n. refugee

agency nearly 60% of children they spoke with reported being forcibly displaced because they suffered or faced harms that indicate a potential or actual need for international protection. the countries that the children call home, honduras, el salvador, guatemala, have some of the highest murder rates on t the planet. many of the children reported vulnerability to widespread gang violence as their primary reason for leaving of the some told stories about the the every day challenges of trying to avoid threats like beatings and robberies and rapes and murders and the inevitability of falling victim if they stayed. from where i'm sitting, representative miller, that isn't a matter of national security or immigration policy. that is a humanitarian crisis. emphasis on humans. thousands of children who are running for their lives. and they won't be made any safer

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that those rights guaranteed by the supreme court apply only to criminal cases. there is no guaranteed right to counsel in civil cases. if you can't afford a lawyer you could be on your own in trying to fight the loss of your home, your money, your children, which in the vast majority of cases are civil matters. and if you're an immigrant facing deportation also a civil case not being able to afford a lawyer could mean you lose everything. but the city of new york is looking to change that with the first of its kind pilot program that has provided free legal defense for poor immigrants. the program, which matched 190 people with attorneys, has been ebbs panneded to ensure representation for all indigent new yorkers who are in detention awaiting deportation. joining me is someone who has been covering that story, reporter for in plain sight, an nbc news project covering

poverty and inequality in america and marina cairo, senior program associate for the center on imfwramigration and justice. let me start with you. talk to me. what proportion of people who are in that new york system are folks who would not otherwise have had a lawyer? >> yes, this program is a program that's helping that population. 60% of people in immigration detention, the deportation proceedings have to go through those proceedings without the help of an attorney. >> and this is sort of an obvious question but i want to be very clear about this, is immigration law relatively simple, something one could figure out for oneself? or is it a complicated ib you? >> no, that's a great point, melissa. what happens is immigration law is often compared to tax law as to level of complexity and this is a real problem because we have people who are maybe speak

english as a second language, maybe speak no english. they are forced to litigate their own case. the new york city has been making great progress in ensuring that new york city families can stay together. >> so this idea of providing for criminal defendants but not for civil ones, seth, i think this is something most folks don't really think much about particularly when it comes to immigration. in your reporting, are folks themselves in these detention centers aware they don't have the right? >> i've been report iing on immigration for years. i spent a lot of time inside of at the tension centers and noncitizens who are detained are regularly going through this system without any idea about what's happening to them. and, you know, the consequence here is a pretty serious thing. it's very often being separated from children, from your whole

community, from your home, and deport deported to a place that for many people for years and years and years. we wrote a piece for nbcnews.com and we covered a story of a young man named leroy samuals who came to the united states when he was 10 years old from jamaica. he has lived here for 14 years. several years ago he got into some trouble. he had a drug conviction and he went through the criminal justice system. he got the defense. he was getting his life back together, was doing really well and then all of a sudden he is thrown into deportation proceedin proceedings. his sister was out of work. they tried to find an attorney. picked up the phone. the attorneys on the other side of the phone said it's going to cost you $4,000. >> whoa. >> she can't do that. she was hanging up on these peep. he was sure he was getting sent back to this place, jamaica, that he knew nobody. had nobody left. and then this program clicked in and he found himself an

attorney. he got out of detention. he's now trying to get a job again. he's back with his newborn kid and his partner and so it really changes people's life. >> and as both of you have pointed out, this is in so many ways a family issue. in 2013 there were nearly 72,400 people who were removed from the u.s., right. this is in new york who were removed from the u.s. who actually have u.s.-born children. in part giving lie to that anchor baby narrative that had emerged politically. your children who are u.s.-born citizens are not in fact anchors. this splits up families all the time. >> that's right. and i can tell you something about the numbers we're seeing that help families stay together here in new york state and they're the pilot, the unity pilot. we're seeing that in 50% of cases attorneys have been able to identify a potential from relief, for people, parents and mothers here in new york city.

this is a very important figure because under this study conducted we found that only 5% of people who are detained and to not have an attorney are able to realize that they have a claim to stay here lawfully in the country. so we're seeing tremendous progress on access to justice and keeping new york city families together. >> so what then is the likelihood that new york, with which has done this amazing pilot program, which is now expanding it, what's the likelihood of seeing this in los angeles, folks and chicago? >> there are cities around, counties around the country looking into replicating what new york has done. just to be clear this is the first time in the united states that a county, or in this case the city of new york, has provided blanket defense for people facing deportation who are poor. it's a really big deal and there are lots of counties around the country look iing to do differe things.

the public defenders office there has now brought on an attorney to represent some people who are facing at the portation. it's starting to happen. and i think there's a recogniti recognition. when i talk to mring defenders who represent people on the criminal side, the most frustrating thing in the world is to defend somebody, to get them out of a criminal issue, to get them out of jail, to deal with that issue and then see them slip into the criminal justice system -- i mean, into the immigration, the civil immigration system and find themselves facing deportation, which is just as great of a consequence if for many people. >> real quickly, because i know some folks will be saying if they're providing blanket coverage, that has to be expensive. you say in your article fashionly giving a lawyfashion ly nationally giving a lawyer to every indigent would save close to $175 until in detention costs. so this is not necessarily a massively expensive program. potenti potentially a cost savings one. >> it is an incredibly expensive thing to lock people up and one

of the main arguments you and others have made for the program is that by providing people with legal defense it gets people out of detention. they can fight their cases from outside of detention. the government is not spending money on detention. you know, being detained is a barrier to stopping your deportation. so getting out of at tof detent helps stop the deportation. this representation doesn't fwarn tea that peopguarantee thl be allowed to stay here. >> just like having a public defender does not keep you out of jail but it does give you an access to constituents issue. marina, thank you so much for being here. seth, thank you so much for being here. there is more of seth's reporting on this story online now. head over to our website mhpshow.com, look for the link to in plain sight. up next an artist is using her work to push back, resist, maybe even create a buffer zone around sexual harassment on the street.

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according to a year 2000 telephone poll 2000 telephone poll by a research firm, 87% of women have experienced street harassment by men. in another study in chicago in 2003, 36% of young women said they experience cat calls daily. typical trip to work is all too often derail by whistles and cat calls, piercing stares or downright disrupted by unwelcome presumptuous comments or demands. that makes the behavior so insidious. according to a 2008 survey by stop street harassment, 87% of women constantly assess their surroundings. 40% avoid being out alone. 50% cross the street or alter their route in response to street harassment and the threat for potential violence.

another typical response to these forms of harassment, silence. but our foot soldier has a simple message for street harassers. and for those who view their unwelcome comments as mere facts of life. stop telling women to smile. tatiana fasalasiadi is here as a visual artist who grew tired of the constant cat calls and leers she got on the street. it started which a self-portrait sitting atop the caption stop telling women to smile. after putting this artwork on display, the project really took off. she was interviewing women from new york and boston and chicago to listen to their accounts of street harassment and to create their portraits. complete with the captions that serve as responses to the intimidation. by posting the art in public space, the place where

harassment happens. women a way to take back the space. joining me to discuss her project is our foot soldier of the week. why street harassment as a fundamental artistic question for you. >> well, because it's something that i experience almost daily, and i try to create work that is, you know, powerful and meaningful to me. something that i am passionate about. and this is something that i'm passionate about because i experience it so often. i felt like i really needed to use my art in order to talk about it. instead of talking about it in an oil painting, i just felt like doing something outside in the street would have a better impact and be morphiningful. and so i decided to do some street art about it. >> talk to me specifically about this smile piece. sometimes when i'm talking to young women in leadership training, i'll say, don't nod and smile unless you are happy

and agree. we train girls to nod and smile in order to make the other person in the conversation feel better. what is that particular -- sort of stop telling women to smile, what is happening there? >> being told to smile is something that happens to me fairly often. it's usually from men. it's never something that is coming from this kind of genuine place where they want you to feel better or put, you know, you in a better mood, it's always something that makes me feel like i'm there to entertain someone. like they're asking me to jump or, you know, entertain me, you're here for my pleasure. i'd like to see you with a smiling face because i think it makes you prettier, it makes you more lady-like, it makes you look more pleasant, more approachable. it's always for them, it's never for me. that's where the smile comment comes from. that's why i decided to call this project stop telling women to smile. because for me it fits in the context of street harassment. so i wanted to bring people into the project by calling it something like that so they can question it and ask about it and

consider it. i think sometimes people get caught up on that pacific poster because they think i'm talking about just smiling in general, like i don't want women to smile, period, and that's not what it's about at all. i just don't enjoy being told to smile. >> i want to read to you an excerpt that i often use in my classes that gets a lot of conversation going around whether or not women appreciate street harassment. this is joan morgan who we've had on the show who is an incredible feminist writer, writing, in her 20s, in the book, when chicken heads come home to roost. is it foul to say that imagining a world where you could paint your big brown lips in the most decadent of shades, pile your fat ass into a fave micro mini, slip your freshly manicured toes into four-inch sandals and have not one single solitary man objectify. so she's performing this sort of as a feminist, do i have to not

appreciate being appreciated on the street? she seems to have a lot agency in, versus what you call street harassment. >> i think there's something about being appreciated for the way you look. i think a lot of people want to feel attractive and feel desired. that's not what street harassment is. we're not talking about a compliment here. when someone compliments me, i say thank you. i have conversations with men on street where it's very pleasant and it's more we're speaking to each other as human beings. not when i feel like i'm being sexualized. that's where the harassment comes in. i know people go outside and want to feel attractive, that's fine. but no one's asking to be disrespect order to feel like you are just a piece of meat or feel like you're sexualized. even if you are taking agency over your sexuality and your power in that, that's fine, but you have to have the say on when you feel sexualized, not when someone else does that.

>> i appreciate the art. i appreciate the politics behind it. particularly, as we are watching the supreme court saying that women don't have a right to a buffer zone, i appreciate the art is actually pushing back at this point, even against the supreme court, in creating that buffer zone. thank you so much for being here today. thank you for being our foot soldier. and that is our show for today. thanks to you at home for watching. i'm going to see you tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern. we're working up a segment on the fascinating politics of king lebron james. plus, justin simeon, director of the new film, dear white people, is going to join me. right now, it's time for preview of "weekends with alex witt." >> a gambling glut in parts of this country. how the casinos that were supposed to bring money into communities are now doing just the opposite. also, freedom summer volunteers 50 years later. one organizer looks back at the optimism and the danger they face during those months in mississippi. and you don't see this every day. the story behind why a plane came in for a landing right

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no relief. parts of of this country in the path of severe storms right now. the latest weather details in minutes. at this hour, new reports on the pen ga benghazi suspect in u.s. custody. he's now been moved from off shore. you'll hear where and why in a live report. cross calls and a new look at drones in the sky in the u.s. and the dangers they pose even to commercial airlines. what some basses did this week to answer the demands of rabid soccer fans across the u.s. hey there, everyone, high noon here in the east. 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." we are getting information about the suspected terrorist arrested in connection