he ultimately makes the choice, he likes others informing him on this one. >> i think we have pete williams back with us. pete, i'll start asking the question. i hope you can hear me. danny cevallos was just saying, the issue of court appointments, supreme court appointments, a bit of an exception to our understanding of this administration in terms of how orderly it is, how much they hue to a traditional process. a little bit more than a decade ago we did see a republican revolt against a republican supreme court nominee, harriet miers, with george w. bush. when you look at the dish namff names bandied about for this opening, are there any names that could prompt some sort of backlash from republicans? >> any name is going to prompt some backlash, certainly from liberals and democrats. none of the names that i -- that come immediately to mind would be viewed by republicans as so far out of the conservative mainstream that they couldn't support them. in fact, that's one of the things fat federalist society and other groups advising the president have had in mind from, is from that list, you

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is with us. pete, to talk about cory booker's point there, and this is something that was echoed by the justice who wrote in a dissent based on the evidence in the case that she says a reasonable observer would conclude the proclamation was motivate i did anti-muslim animus. so the dissenters seem to be reflecting what you're hearing now from, for example, the democrats. but the court overall, justice roberts, kennedy, and others are saying this was based on national security. >> reporter: so what the justice says in her dissent is that the majority completely sets aside the president's charged statements about muslims as irrelevant. that's the view of the dissenters here. now, let me just get a little bit legally nerdy here for a second. >> please do. >> reporter: the courts have long established sort of three levels of review when you look at whether a government action is illegally discriminatory. the toughest one is when you discriminate on the basis of race, it's almost impossible to justify

let's get to our reporters in fact pete williams was outside the court when it happened. lisa green is with us. hans nickels is at the white house where we're expecting a response shortly. pete, let's be clear. you've outline third down well in an article for nbc. this is the third version of the travel ban. it's like the court kept on telling the administration how to rewrite this thing so it could finally sustain a challenge, and it did. >> so the administration said this one was different, because the administration surveyed roughly 200 countries around the world to look at how well they fought terrorism within their own borders, and how well they provided information to the u.s. about people seeking visas to come here. that's really the essence of this resolution, this proclamation announced by the president last september. it was a restriction on which people from which countries can get visas to come to the u.s. what the supreme court did today is struck down a lower court order that was imposed to block enforcement of the travel ban. that court order was actually li

pete williams at the supreme court. >> in arizona new revelations today f driving uber car. police say it was entirely avoidable. and that the back up human driver was streaming a tv show at the time. the accident was captured lon dash cam in march. now criminal charges could be filed. nbc national correspondent miguel has more on the story. >> reporter: the fatal self driving uber accident on dash catch was avoidable says tem tee police. they blame the driver for being distracted. moments before the deadly collusion, video shows the driver looking down perhaps at her phone. after obtaining search waurts and reaching out to netflix and hue loo, investigators say thee was treem streaming television episodes for three hours. they say vasquez was watching the voice at the time the police believe the victim was hit outside the crosswalk, 39 miles an hour. >> unfortunately seen a number of deaths because people are relying on technology that is not designed to take over for human capabilities. >> reporter: in their report investigators say vasquez had been paying attention, the c

our justice correspondent pete williams begins our coverage. >> reporter: anthony kennedy's retirement will set in motion the biggest change in the u.s. supreme court in half a century, that's because kennedy is often the most influential justice casting the deciding vote in closely divided cases. >> this was anthony kennedy's court because you couldn't get a major issue decided without his vote, almost without exception if it was a critical, ideological hot button issue, it was up to him. >> reporter: he hand delivered this letter to the white house today calling it a respectful and formal notification he intends to retire july 31st. although ronald reagan put him on the court for his conservative credentials, he's been the swing justice for 12 years, ever since sandra day o'connor retired. when kennedy voted with the four conservative justices, the court upheld the trump el corporate money in politics. when he voted with the four liberals, the court cut back on the death penalty and declared detainees at guantanamo bay have legal rights. and limited state crackdowns on immigrants. in

our veteran justice correspondent pete williams has details. >> reporter: the inspector general says james comey broke long-standing rules in handling the e-mail case, but concluded that the fbi had no political motive to help or hurt hillary clinton or donald trump. as for comey's july 2016 statement, announcing no charges but severely criticizing clinton and her staff -- >> they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive highly classified information. >> reporter: the report says it was extraordinary and insubordinate for comey to do it without telling attorney general loretta lynch beforehand. the report found no good reason for why after more clinton e-mails were found on the laptop of anthony weiner in late september 2016 it took the fbi a month to start examining them. there's no evidence the fbi was biased in its slow response, the report says, but it reveals that in august fbi lawyer lisa page texted about trump. he's not ever going to become president, right? right? and peter strzok, a senior agen no. no, he's not. we'll stop it. strzok chose to put more pri

our justice correspondent pete williams has details. >> reporter: paul manafort's arrival at his st moments as a free man after mueller's prosecutors charged him with trying to influence witnesses who might be called to testify about his lobbying for ukraine. in court, judge amy berman jackson said there was no way to prevent him from doing it again. this is not middle school she said. i can't take away his cell phone. federal marshals took him into custody in the courtroom, and just before leaving, he turned and waved to his wife kathleen. she left the courthouse without her husband of 40 years. president trump called it tough. didn't know manafort was the head of the mob, very unfair. today he seemed to distance himself from the former campaign chairman. >> paul manafort worked for me for a very short period of time. he worked for me for, what, 49 days or something? a very short period of time. >> reporter: in fact, manafort worked for the trump campaign 144 days. today's order means manafort will spend at least the next three months in jail waiting for trials in both washington and north

pete williams, i know you got a lot to do. pete, if you read anything else that's pertinent, please come back to the camera and we'll put you on tv immediately. >>> let's bring in jess mcintosh and ben wittis, senior fellow in governance studies at the brookings institution and msnbc legal analyst and a friend of james comey. jess mcintosh is a former clinton campaign advisor. >> i mean that sound you hear is the collective clinton campaign screaming into the void today. of course the fbi acted inappropriately throughout that investigation. of course what james comey did dramatically hurt hillary clinton. he said what he said in public. he allowed donald trump to stand on stage every night and say, americans can't possibly -- you shouldn't even be allowed to run if you're under fbi investigation. that's his number one case that he's making in the final days of the campaign. and the fbi was all right with that knowing full well that he was under investigation. somehow james comey decided that that was going to be an honorable th

our justice correspondent pete williams has details. >> refugees are welcome here! >> reporter: after a year and a half of confusion, chaos at u.s. airports for those caught up in the first travel ban, repeated smackdowns in the lower courts and revisions from the white house, the court said this latest one can stand. supreme court upholds trump travel ban president trump tweeted. wow. led by john roberts the court's conservatives said the ban is legal as a presidential act to protect national security. it's an imrtant difference the court said that this one was based on a review of how well more than 200 countries do in fighting terrorism and verifying the identity of visa applicants. it restricts travel from five muslim countries. iran, libya, somalia, syria and yemen. today's ruling notes the president's anin the campaign and in office. >> donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states. >> reporter: apart from any religious hostility, the travel ban is based on legitimate concerns for the country's safety and th

. >> we start now with nbc news justice correspondent pete williams, jacob soboroff, one the few journalists inside one of those detention centers is with me, garrett haake on the hill and kristen welker is at the white house for us. pete, let me start with you. what do we know about this executive order that the president has indicated is he going to sign? >> reporter: well, i can tell you, craig, is what eye i am toy the officials is in the draft that they believe the president will sign. i say thats a caveat sometimes before they signed there can be last minute changes. but the spirit of it is to end the separation of families at the border through a couple of ways. number one, i'm told that this will happen immediately, that you and jacob and the people down on the border may see a change here immediately. now that doesn't include the children that have already been separated, they're going to have to figure out how to reunite them. but in terms of how this goes forward, people arrested for illegally crossing the border, parents with their children, will continue to be charged with a cri

our justice correspondent pete williams explains. >> reporter: it's a clear win for jack phillips of denver, who said baking a cake for a same-sex couple would violate his christian beliefs to artistry. >> my life is tied to my believes. this is an extension of it. >> reporter: when he turned down david and charlie who wanted a cake for their wedding celebration, they sued. >> we hoped that people now know that in every kind of business every day. >> reporter: colorado said phillips violated a state law that bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation but a 7-2 vote the supreme court says phillips wins because colorado didn't take his religious claims seriously enough. >> the court said religious freedom is an important value that needs to be weighed in deciding these cases. it doesn't tip the scale one way or another but puts it back on the scale. >> reporter: the win was a for phillips and doesn't say whether florists, photographers and more havehe religious freedom to refuse service to same-sex couples. >> a ruling that says businesses like this bakery have a right to d

pete williams for us at the supreme court on this particular ruling. >> let's bring tom in. tom, what is your take on the ruling? >> pete is right. the court has dodged the broader question. i think that gay rights groups probably take a lot of solace. seven members of the supreme court, including alito, have said you must respect the rights of same-sex couples, endorsing the supreme court's earlier decision. but the real, real question that was out there is, how much of this is really free speech, this writing on a cake, taking a photograph. supreme court says nothing abo that. i think the justices are sending a signal to the country. that is, be reasonable. respect the rights of gay couples, but also respect people's religious views. try to accommodate each other. that's what the justices themselves did. they came together in a sense, and are trying to get the country to do that. unfortunately, the fights are unevidentabu inevitable because the views are so strong on both sides. >> will this ruling be misinterpreted? at first blush -- >> it looks like a setback. >> they say

pete williams has deils. >> reporter: the inspector general says jas comey broke long-standing rules in handling the e-mail case but concluded the fbi had no political lp motive to her hurt hillary clinton or donald trump. as for comey's july 2016 announcing no arges but criticizing clinton and her staff. >> they were extremely careless in their handling of very classified highly information. >> reporter: the report says it was extraordinary and insubordinate for g omey to do it without tellintorney general loretta lynch beforehand. go they found no reason why when more clinton e-mails wereun on the laptop of er anthony wein in 2016, it took the fbi a month to start examining them. there is no evidence the fbi was bias in the slow re the report says but reveals in august, fbi lawyer lisa page texted about trump, he's not ever going to become president, right? right? and peter struck a senior agent on the investigation 'sresponded no, no, not. we'll stop iru chose to put more priority at the time on russia's election meddling. the report says we do t have confidence strzok's. the curr

nbc's pete williams is in our washington newsroom. pete, what do you have? >> well, this is a lawsuit filed by a woman from guatemala, born in 1979, who says her 7-year-old son was taken from her a few days after she was detained by the border patrol crossing the u.s. border in may, in mid-may, may 19th, and her name is beata mariana dejesus mahea. she said she crossed the border with her son, they were detained and a few days later her son was taken from her. she was moved to a detention center in arizona. she said she was allowed to talk to her son once on the phone. that he cried in a distressed voice, mama, mama, mama. and she asked repeatedly to know where he was. all she could find out that he was in phoenix, in the custody and care of the department of homeland -- or rather, department of health and human service refugee resettlement. this is the office that takes these children once they've been turned over by immigration authorities. now, she says she was released from custody on june 15th and allowed basically to bond out, waiting for her hearing o

nbc's pete williams will explain. >>> president trump says he has absolute power to pardon himself as his top lawyer says he could shoot the former fbi director and the president would still not be indicted. >> can't be indicted, and we think we have a very good argue in a practical sense. this isn't just theoretical. he's not sitting up there playing tiledywinks. he's involved in four or five historic negotiations right now. >> and him too? bill clinton's explosive "today" show interview on me too movement and his apology for the monica lewinsky affair went far enough. >> you didn't apologize to her? >> i have not tald to her. >> do you feel like you owe her an apology? >> i do -- i never talked to her. but i did say publicly on more than one occasion that i was sorry. that's very different. the apology was public. >> and good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. we begin with that breaking news from the supreme court. nbc justice correspondent pete williams joins me with details on a narrow decision from the justices, but on a very prominent case, pitting gay ghts again

the disappointment of both sides. >> again, that report tonight from our justice correspondent pete williamsporting from washington. >>> another break for us, and coming, another norm being undone by this white house. we'll explain when "the 11th hour with brian williams" continues. here to tell you about the colonial penn program. ou50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three p's. what are the three p's? the three p's of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54. alex, what's my price? you can get coverage for $9.95 a month. i'm 65 andake medications. what's my price? also $9.95 a month. i just turned 80. what's my price? $9.95 a month for you too. if you're age 50 to 85, call now about the #1 most popular whole life insurance plan, available through the colonial penn program. it has an affordable rate stting at $9.95 a month. no medical exam, no health questions. your acceptance is guaranteed. and this plan has a guaranteed lifetime rate l

pete williams has the story. >> reporter: we are a nation of nearly 400 million cell phones and manye more than one. today the supreme court says police must get a search warrant for our phone records to track where we have been. as we move, our phone connects to each cell tower and each connection leads to digital trails. sometimes the police can tells where we have been. police seek that data tens and thousands of times a year. in a 5-4 decision, the supreme court says it is a detailed records of our movements, it nearly turned the phone into an ankle monitor. we expect for it to be private and the police will need a court order to get it. >> we have a solid majority of five justices who recognized these device that is we are carrying around is a threat to our privacy. they're going to hold the government to account. today's ruling says the police can still get the phone records without a search warrant. when someone is threatened with harm or if a suspect is getting away. civil liberties group hopes today's ruling of privacy -- pete williams nbc news, at the supreme court. >> than

pete williams is joining me now. e, i understand in the last couple minutes we're learning more about a potential gerrymandering case the court was looking at? >> reporter: so this is among the cases the court declined to take, that's right. so in order that you asked about them, the florist in richland, washington, had gay customers but when one of them said we'd like you to do the flowers for our wedding she said, no krirnt do th -- i can't do that because it would violate my religious principles and my relationship with jesus. washington says you can't discriminate on the basis of sexual discrimination. so the customer and the state sued and she lost. she appealed to the supreme court and today the supreme court said, okay, we're granteding this case, we're wiping outs the lower court ruling and sending it back to the lower courts with instructions to follow the advice we gave in the case two weeks ago of the colorado baker who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex couple. now, the baker won that case, but on very

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams will offer an explanation when we come back. u. pain. it comes when your insurance company says they'll only pay three-quarters of what it takes to replace it. what are you supposed to do? drive three-quarters of a car? now if you had liberty mutual new car replacement™, you'd get your whole car back. i guess they don't want you driving around on three wheels. smart. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, we'll replace the full value of your car. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. mom anit's not theirs.car... it's mine. mine. mine. and it always will be, forever and forever. the new rx 350l with three for sen passengers. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. >>> the u.s. supreme court returned with a decision today in one of the most closely watched cases of this court term. as the justices sided with a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple in colorado. but so many of the qutions in the case remain unanswered. this was not one of the decisions where the court speaks once. pete williams has

with me with the latest on that is pete williams. pete you have had a little bit of time. i know you have been on tv a whole lot so you haven't had a ton of time to go through it but you can bring us the main points of this investigation? >> the insub or the gnat claim that the inspector general says in his report is for comey's decision to have that news conference july 5th of 2016 without telling the justice department what he was going to say. namely that the fbi concluded that hillary clinton was not prosecutable for the way she handled her private e-mail server that included some classified e-mails. and the ig says it doesn't take issue in any way with the fbi's investigative decisions. here's a quote from the report. it says, we found no evidence that the conclusions by department prosecutors were affected by bias or other improper considerations. rather we concluded they were based on the prosecutor's assessments of facts, the law, and past department practice. now, the department -- the report does reveal a new exchange of text messages in the month preceding the d

pete williams there at the supreme court, thank you. peter alexander, as well, awaiting that rally in wisconsin. thank you. >>> again, this, the latest, maybe the most dramatic installation yet in the court wars, the judicial wars, that have been raging for years, to set up the current moment, let's take a very quick look back five years ago at something that happened. >> the changes we made today will apply equally to both parties. on republicans in power, these changes will apply to them as well. that's simple fairness. it is something both sides should be willing to live with to make washington work again. >> so that was harry reid. he was then the democratic leader of the senate, the democrats had the majority in the senate. when was that? november 2013. why is that significant now? because there was a key event that happened then. democrats had the majority, they had the votes in theory to confirm president obama's court nominations and yet that wasn't really happening. they said republicans were abugs t abusing filibuster. democra

pete williams joins us now. pete, you've had some insight into what may be in some drafts of the executive order. we don't know until he signs it and we read it exactly what it is going to say j right. but here are the key points i'm told it will include. it will not end of the zero tolerance policy which is the one announced by attorney general sessions that says parents who cross the border illegally with children, whether they claim asylum or not, go to court for a quick hearing and are charged in essence with a misdemeanor. so the problem right now is, or the issue right now is that when those parents are taken by the federal marshals, that triggers a federal law that says if the child is unaccompanied, the child cannot be held by immigration authorities for more than 72 hours and that's high they get handed off to hhs for the contract people who try to find places for them. so that zero tolerance policy will continue. what the exact mechanism will be to avoid triggering that law so that the child doesn't ha

here's pete williams. >> reporter: it has, but in the narrowest possible way.s is really a ticket good for one ride only. this is a victory for the baker, but what the supreme court says here is because of the peculiarities of his specific case, he wins but the court doesn't answer the larger questions here, which is what about some other baker or florist or person who prints wedding invitations or is a dj at a wedding, do they have a first amendment righto refuse to serve same-sex couples because it would violate their religious principles? that was the issue here, this was jack phillips, a baker in denver who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex couple's wedding celebration. he said that would violate his religious principles and would violate his right of free expression because the state wouldn't in essence under its human rights law be forcing him to express a view he didn't agree with. he argued that his cake baking as was was a matter of free expression. >> i want to bring in danny. danny, pete talked about is, one and done. what kind of broader nationa

joining me now is nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. he's outside the court. d to be major statement about privacy in the digital age. walk us through the significance, what the real meaning is. >> reporter: it means the police can't use your cell phone to see where you've been. when you move around your cell phone contacts to connects to a different tower. the police thousands of times a year go to the phone company and say give us peter alexander's reports. we want to know where he's been. the supreme court said you have a legitimate expectation of privacy expectation in where you've been and those cell phone records so the police can't get it without a wrasearch warrant. they can't just use your records to sort of snoop around and see where you've been. this is the second time the supreme court has said cell phones are just different. here's the background here. the supreme court for many years said when you dial a number on that phone that you used to have at home that was connected to the wall, you have to privacy interest in the record of the numbers you'

here's nbc justice correspondent pete williams wh more. >> the supreme court also said one of theeans they were upholding this is because it is in a sense a limited use of presidowtial. secondly, they said it's supposed to be a ro best waiver system that people from these countries can still come to the u.s. if the can make a persuasive case and the supreme court said that's a important eck on the president's power as well. so for all thoset reasons,was upheld. i don't think theyil eas translate to the situation on the southern border. >> pete williams notes that the travel ban upheldco by tht today differed stasubstantially from the previous two versions that ran into road blocks. >>> we're monitoring briekieaki news at the r hen restaurant. protesters have gathered. at least one man has been arrested. we watched him pour something on to the building before police put him in handcuffs. you'll remember this is the restaurant that would not serve the white house presssecretary. this is the first night it's been open since. red hen is normally closed onnd sundays mondays. >>> now to the

justice correspondent pete williams is outside the supreme court for us and here in the studio with us, legal analyst danny cevallos. pete, start with you, sir. did the court address -- well, actually, i guess the best question is what did the court address and what did the court not address, argues is gijust a important? >> reporter: allegations are important. this is a nir scenario ruling an it be narrow 7-2 vote? on very narrow grounds deciding that the baker of denver should prevail only because of t way his specific case was handled in colorado. the justices said in their majority opinion they didn't give his religious views serious enough attention. for that reason the finding in his case was defective. colorado has a human rights law, you can't discriminate on sexual orientation. two men went in and asked for a cake to celebrate their wedding was turned down. they sued and they failed. because colorado didn't give the baker enough consideration and take his religious seriously enough, he wins. what didn't they say? didn't give a clue about how to resolve similar cases in the fut

pete williams at the supreme court and ron claim, supreme court nomination aid under the clinton administration you for being here. peter i want to start with you, you've been tracking this since it was announced yesterday, this earthquake of an announcement, who do you think the too much picks are to replace justice kennedy? skb >> reporter: i can only say my conversations with white house aid, right now, amy barrett of indiana, they're all appeal less court judges, and the republican mantra h mantra as you know, ever since the bush has been no more daft suitor. thomas ha thomas hardman, present cavanaugh of maryland. and the additional advantage of being from the senate majority leader's home state. >> you have been reporting that the timing of this is significant. because it could actually push the whole confirmation process once it gets under way do happen a little bit faster? >> reporter: on the one hand yes, justices say when they announce their retirement, their retirement will be official when the next justice is named. if the president and the senate want to have nine justices here whe

. >> nbc news justice correspondent pete williams joins me to break it down. so pete, not a surprise here. this fits into the trump attempoghen the broader boarders, but what are the implications of this move? >> we don't know what the attorney general is going to call for specifically. he says the asylum process is out of control. he says, for example, only 20% of asylum claims are ever verified and allowed, and that the number of asylum seekers has exploded in the last few years. 5,000 of them in 2009. 94,000 in 2016. so he says theord has gone out apparently if you claim asylum, it's a way to get into the country. uslly people who claim asylum are released until their hearing comes out. so he wants to tighten this up. his part is the immigration courts, the initial decision is made by border officials. so wll findut later in the day what he has in mind here, kristen. >> pete, inow you've been tracking the supreme court's decisions for the past several weeks. today they ruled in the case of ohio's voter purge systems, making it easier to purge the voter rolls

. >> with me now, nbc justice correspondent pete williams. pete, you have been covering this closely. where are we? >> well, we had a bail hearing for the person who was arrested last night. and he has been held without bail, which is understandable. and at that bail hearing, the prosecutor said that the man you are seeing here, jared ramos who is now charged with five counts of first-degree murder barricaded the back door of the newspaper the only people could have gotten out after he shot his way in through the glass doors in the front of the office. barricaded that door making it impossible for them to get out. adding to the fact that they say say this was well thought out, a point that the police chief himself amplified on at that news conference. >> in may of '13, we did have a situation where on line threatening comments were made. we had a detective assigned to investigate it. the detective spoke with legal counsel for the "capital gazette." several members of the "capital gazette" staff. it was discussed that the "capital gazette" did

nbc's correspondent pete williams is outside the supreme court and halle jackson is over at the white house. and pete, let me start with you, take us through exactly what the court is saying here. >> reporter: the court is saying, in terms of this third version of the travel ban, that did it make a difference that the administration went through this systematically after the first two were shot down in the supreme court or riddled full of holes. how accurate the investigation was that the country was providing when someone applied for a visa so that the u.s. would know that these people are who they say they are and based on that they came up with the travel ban list. you noted venezuela and north korea, they're very minor parts of this. it's five of the seven original countries, basically mideastern countries, muslim countries, but what the supreme court said, number one, the president had the legal authority to do this under the immigration laws and secondly, his anti-muslim statements one of which you just played during the campaign and to some extent continuing in the white house,

justice correspondent pete williams is in washington with more on the enormous potential impact of justice kennedy's decision. we'll bring you in now. pete, give us the back story. he's 81 years old and this was rumored to maybe happening. why now? why did he decide to retire now. >> reporter: strike the word potential in terms of a change. this will bet biggest change in the supreme court in at least half a century. because ever since sandra day o'connor retired from the supreme court 12 years ago, anthony kennedy has been the decider. aand in many ways this is the kennedy court. when he votes with the conservatives, we get decisions dut gutting the voting rights act and giving new life to the second amendment and allowing more union and corporate money in politics and we saw it yesterday when he was in the fifth vote of the decision upholding the president's travel ban. when he voted with the liberals, the court narrowed the reach of the death penalty. it gave legal rights to detainees in guantanamo bay and said states couldn't enforce their own immigration laws and most decisively he's

people williams y-- pete williams, you can tell us he had major roles in big decisions. most notably gay marriage. >> reporter: joining with the liberals on that and voting with the conservative. voting with the conservatives saying you have a right to own a gun at home. he's been the swing justice sometimes with the liberal, is sometimes with the conservatives. based on the most recent decisions from the courts, i can make arguments for and against the idea he's going to retire. if he were to retire, that would be huge because that would allow president trump to reshape the supreme court as solidly conservative for years to come. tomorrow we'll get the janice case. let me explain what that is. that's a big challenge to the political cloud in financial health of public sector unions. unions of the state that represent teacher, firefighters, nurses, policeman. other public employees. the question is whether they have to give a share -- they ionues to cover the cost of collective bargaining. they challenge that saying they violates their free speech right. it seems clear t

that's really interesting to me because long time courthouse observers told pete williams and i before this hearing they weren't sure this was going to happen. they didn't think it was going to happen. judge jackson said there was no less restrictive remedy. she said this isn't middle school. i can't take your phone. she decided the allegations that the prosecution made against paul manafort that he reached out to witnesses in an attempt to get them to change their story was so significant such an assault on the integrity of the court that she had no choice but to send him to jail. he's going to a cell inside this building behind me. he'll be transferred to a county jail awaiting trial. his first trial date is july 25th in virginia. >> joining us, pete williams nbc news justice correspondent and former u.s. assistant attorney in the south korean district of new york. the president trying to down play it earlier today that circus of a walk about on north lawn clearly a distraction, an attempt to distract from the event that are unfolding as the ig report. your take on paul manafort goin

. >> joining me now is craig melvin and pete williams in our washington bureau. pete, in addition to everything we heard, the prosecutor said the suspect barricades the exit door to hold his victims in that news room. what are your big head lieps li far from everything we heard? >> one that a person that was shot tried to get out that door and couldn't because it was barricaded. secondly, the ramos bought the shotgun that he used this attack about a year ago. the fact they are confirming they did identify him through facial recognition software. we have been reporting consistently throughout this whole episode that he was not cooperating. he wouldn't answer any questions. he didn't want to talk to the authorities. he simply refused to tell them who he was. . they figured out by comparing a picture they took of him with a database that the maryland state police have that allows them to look at previous conviction pictures and remember he was arrested and charged with this misdemeanor stalking offense. they could look at the pictures they have on file and that's how

. >> we get details now from pete williams and ken delaney. ken, what did that judge say and do we know where paul manafort is right now? >> reporter: the judge said essentially that paul manafort was a danger to the community. not in the sense of committing violence in the sense of being a threat to the justice system. they got a grand jury to indict him on tampering this witnesses. he pled guilty. the judge said at one point it's not middle school. i can't take your phone away. manafort had previously defied a court order by writing an app ed. she discussed that moment and said look, i have no choice, essentially but to detain you pending trial. the federal martials will only say he's in custody. he may still be in the courthouse. i was told by a source he will eventually be transferred to a local jail today. that could be in aleck sain was d.c. it depends on where the space is. he'll be in a concrete jail cell tonight. >> what was his demeanor like in court? did paul manafort say anything? >> he did not. interestingly our producer tells us

pete williams of nbc news d carl hulls of the washington times. >> corporate funding isby providin- >> their leadershipct is inste. they understand the allenges of today. and research the technologies of tomorrow. some call them veterans. we call them part of our team. >> on an american cruise lines journey among the vers, they trace the route by lewis and clark more than 200 years ago. they travel through americans landsca through historic landmarks where you can expience local customs and culture, american cise lines. proud sponsor of "washington week." additional funding is provided by new man's own foundation donating foundation from food products to charity and nourishing the common good. and the foundation committed to bridging. the contributions through your pbs viewers like you.ga once from washington, moderator robert costa.: roberesident trump may look back on this final week of june as onef the most significant of his term. the supreme court upheld s travel ban and justice kennedy pivotal swing vote has announced his retirement. and on friday the president said he woulde m

nbc's pete williams is outside the supreme court. pete, explain the decision for us. >> right. what the supreme court said is on the way here, this case had a serious flaw and that's why the supreme court ended up ruling for this colorado baker. what happened is a same-sex couple went into his bakery near denver, said we want a cake to celebrate our which hadding. ep sa -- wedding. he said sorr guys, i have some religious principles. i can't bake that cake for you because it violated my preexpression. th free expression. the supreme court sd today the baker wins. the vote was 7-2. what they said is that inases like this, courts have to give serious consideration to the religious concerns of businesses and also to the equal rights and dignity of same-sex couples. and they say that has to be a careful balance and the lower court in colorado failed, they say, because it didn't give serious enough consideration to the baker's views. jack phillips is his name. it said they were dismissive of them. for that reason they say he should prevail. but there is nothing in this decision that

pete williams is standing by. to talk about what the supreme court decision means and does not mean perhaps as well. pete, walk us through the reasoning that we heard from the justices. >> reporter: so, to compare that to what the president just said a moment ago, he said it's a great day for the constitution. the supreme court's ruling is based largely on federal immigration statutes, not the constitution. and the court concluded that under those statutes, longstanding immigration laws, the president has the power to do this. the challenger said no, he doesn't, because immigration law says you can't just cancel immigration from a whole country. and the only thing these people had in common was their nationality. that wasn't enough. under the president's general power to control imdprags amigrd to protect the national ty,e had the power to do this. his statements about muslims violated the constitution, were so discriminatory that they basically proved fatal and the supreme court said no, they looked at, a, whether

pete williams joins me now from the supreme court. so, there are other cases out there, they're still looking for a case, but i guess they don't want to get involved in this. >> reporter: well, for 50 years, andrea, the supreme court has struggled with this question, can redirecting become so partisan, can the party in power so disadvantage the other power that it becomes unconstitutional. the challengers hoped this would be the year they would succeed, but they didn't. the wisconsin case was brought by democrats challenging the way the republicans drew the boundaries for state legislative districts. and there the supreme court said it was a state-wide challenge. that won't work. people that want to bring these challenges have to bring the challenges based on the districts they live in. the supreme court did say that the challengers can try again to overcome the legal obstacle of getting through the courthouse door showing they have a particular injury. they're going to try again. the other case came from maryland. this was just the o

let's go to nbc news justice correspondent pete williams outside the court.hat are they saying there, sneet. >> reporter: a koumg couple of after the supreme court decided a case of a colorado baker throwing the case -- ruling for him in a very narrow way, this is a baker who refused to serve a same-sex marriage, today the supreme court threw out a lower court ruling against a washington state florist who refused to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding saying it woo violate her religious principles and interfere with her relationship with jesus christ. now, what the court did is vacate the lower court ruling or toss out the lower court ruling against her and send the case back with instructions to the washington state court to derive lessons from the court's ruling in the colorado baker case to which i think many people would say good luck with that because when the supreme court ruled in the colorado baker case it sort of dodged the question of how to balance these competing interests of, on the one hand, gay rights and on the other hand religious freedom.

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is joining us live from the supreme court.hat is this ruling about? >> reporter: not only could but will effect what you pay online. the supreme court says now states can require internet retailers to collect sales taxes. so that means the things that you buy online the retailer now can charge you sales taxes and in many cases must charge you sales taxes. for the longest time the supreme court has said based on a decision years ago from catalog companies that let the company have a physical presence in the state like retail store the state could not require that retailer to charge sales taxes. today the supreme court said the thinking is out of date, that the internet era has changed everything and that that logic no longer applies, that the physic presence rule has prevented the people who still have a presence in the state from being on the level playing field with internet retailers, that they get an advantage by not having to charge sales taxes and therefore what they sell can be cheaper. the supreme court is opening the d

this happens a lot. >> pete williams there. thank you, my friend nap is not the only big news from the court. president trump is now rallying around this retirement of justice anthony kennedy. and a replacement for him. watch. >> so we have to pick a great one. democrats want judges who will rewrite the constitution any way they want to do it and take away your second amendment, erase your borders, throw open the jailhouse doors. and destroy your freedoms. >> as he goes over his should list, the battle lines are being drawn on capitol hill. democrats targeting mitch mcconnell. he denied garland a hearing in 2016. now democrats say mcconnell should follow his own rules. >> we hold mitch mcconnell to the precedent that he set in 2016. it's not a precedent i agree with or agreed with, but we should expect that he be consistent. >> if he's consistent, uses his own rule, we'll wait for four months, have an election, and let the majority decide. >> i hope he follows his own advice. >> republicans are saying wait this is a midterm yea

tonight, pete williams with new details on the attack. >> reporter: police say jarrod ramos blasted his way into the building armed with a 12-gauge pump action shotgun after first barricading the backdoor exit. anthony messenger in his first month as an intern hid under his desk, terrified when that door wouldn't open. >> i don't know how he locked it but i felt like a fish to a barrel. he's here to do harm and this is a calculated plan. at that point, i thought i would die. >> reporter: after five were fatally shot, police closed in ng under a desk but hours after arresting him they had no idea who he was. he said almost nothing so they used the state's recognition to identify him leading to a search of his apartment where they he planned the attack well in advance. >> i'll say this, the fellow was there to kill as many as he could kill. >> reporter: ramos was no stranger to the newspaper. he had been raging about it for seven years ever since a story accurately described his 2011 conviction for stalking. harassing a woman he knew in high school calling her vulgar names online and tryi

pete williams is outside a rainy court with that ruling. pete, what do we know? >> reporter: big victory for privacy advocates. the supreme court has said that when the police want to use your cell phone to track your movements, they have to get a search warrant. now that's a big deal because so many americans, something like 95% of us own a cell phone. and what happens as you travel around using your cell phone, it connects to different towers as you move around, that's why they call it cells, cell phones. and the phone company keeps a record of every time your phone connects to a different tower. the police can go to the phone company and say give us those records and use that to reconstruct your movements. that's what happened in this case. a man was charged with stealing ironically cell phones from electronic stores ant police convicted him in part by matching up where he was at the times that the robberies were committed and son of a gun they said he was near cell towers where these stores were robbed. but what the supreme court said today is that cell phone

nbc's pete williams has more. >> reporter: the inspector general says james comey broke long-standing rules in handlcag the e-mail, but concluded that the fbi had no political motive to help or hurt hillary clinton or donald trump. as for comey's july 2016 statement, announcing no charges but severely criticizing clinton and her staff -- >> they were extremelys carel in their handling of very sensitive highly classified information. >> reporter: the report says it wasxtraordinary and insubordinate for comey to do it without telling attorney general lorettach beforehand. the report found no good reason for why after more clinton e-mails were found on the laptop ofnthony weiner in late september 2016. it took the fbi a month to start examining them. there is no evidence the fbi was biased i its slowresponse, the report says, but it reveals that in august fbi lawyer lisa page texted about trump. he's not ever going to become t, presid right? right? and peter strzok, a senior agent on the investigati responded, no. no, he's not, we'll stop it. stok chose to put more priority at the time o

>> what we know from nbc news pete williams' scott, an administration official confirming that an executive order is drafted by the department of justice and homeland security to temporarily stop separating children in the parents of people who are detained at the border so a temporary stop to the detention of the children under the executive order drafted. government officials familiar with the early draft say it would allow families to be detained together and not stop the zero tolerance policy of charging people with a misdemeanor for entering illegally. it looks like what's being contemplated here, we don't know if the president signs this particular draft othis paicular executive order the president signaling to sign something today to keep families together what's been contemplated in the draft of pete williams being told about is the idea of allowing those families to be detained but kept together so that we don't see the horrific situations of children, small children, being separated from their families for indefinite periods of time, very scary for the kids and disheartening for t