who do you think should play clarence thomas? go to the abc 7 facebook page, weigh in and we'll get some of the best answers coming up. who knows? maybe one watching. >> danny glover? >> don't you think? that's my vote. >> still ahead at 4:00 the tale of dara of missing dog is heating up. why there's a custody battle over the veteran dog he thought was missing. >> and "7 on your side" with why insurance rates are going up. >> at this hour, rain is moving closer to the area this evening. >> our chief meteorologist doug hill is on storm watch for us tonight with the very latest as we head into the weekend doug. >> hey, alison and kimberly, it's just a matter of time. rain is large, huge area of rain to the west and it's moving in. let's get started. first off, temperatures not too out there. low to mid 50's metro area cloudy skies a little cooler towards gaithersburg and baltimore. annapolis getting a breeze across the river, only 42 at the naval academy. as the evening wears on the clouds will get thicker and the rain will arrive

i tell you at that time the time clarence thomas and i not only people at yale law school in the same class we were people of color at yale law school in the same class, and, as i said, clarence thomas intended to be a civil rights lawyer, at least at that time and i i agree withh you that people should be judged by, by what they're saying, and i can not predict or can not explain to you why justice thomas, who as you say benefited from affirmative f action andce certainly when he was at law school was also very concerned about integrating the integrating the number of lawyers in georgia which is wa where he wanted then to go back. so i can't explainas' clarence thomas's psychology to you but i can just give you the facts. >> host: is he still a friend of yours?yo >> guest: he is very friendly with me, yes. >> host: are you friends withiend any of the other supreme court justices acquainted with?quai >> guest: i'm aquainted with. to be a friend with somebody on the supreme court is a little intimidating and it is also --th there is an awe about it. not awful but awe a-w-e. my son is g

you can assume that justice clarence thomas is in that sense as well. it didn't get transaction with the traditional liberals. in the center, you had chief justice roberts, who barely said a word in the entire nearly... >> that has a lot of attention that he didn't have much to say. >> yes, coming into this a lot of people thought he was the vote. mostly because of the vote in 2012 to uphold the law. the case is different. he may not have been as reliable for the government as he was in the 2012 case. and he really did just want to tip his hands. the questions that he did ask were not really on the substance of the statutory interpretation here. they were on peripheral issues. he played his cards, no one knows where he's standing on that. >> then is the moment where it was said there was a serious constitutional problem, we accept your argument. what was he getting at. >> that was an important argument. carr von makes the art that the law said what he -- argument that the law said what he says, and the subsidies can't be made available. to tell it, he's

. >> my question to professor gunier is my understanding that associate justice clarence thomas was a beneficiary of affirmative action, yet he did opposed to affirmative action. do you have any thoughts about this contradiction? >> host: what is your view leo of affirmative action so-called affirmative action? >> caller: i just think that people should be judged by their abilities. it's just that if someone takes a position -- someone is a beneficiary of something and then turns around and says, hey i'm against it, it looks like it's contradictory or their vacillating. i expect someone who is a judge to have some consistent theories and concepts as to what the law is. >> host: thank you sir. professor? >> guest: well leo you've asked -- you're asking somebody who knows clarence, and i know him well from having gone to law school with him and at the time i actually got him his first job, he was interested in being a civil rights lawyer. he wanted to go back to georgia because that's where he grew up, and i got him his first job at a law firm in savannah georgia. he and i had gone to h

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so those six votes, along with clarence thomas who was silent today, those votes seem to be set in stoney to this case is chief justice roberts and justice kennedy. i think predicting those votes is a lot harder. kennedy seemed somewhat more sympathetic to the obama position and john roberts, in what was for me the biggest surprise of the day, said almost nothing at all, which is very uncharacteristic for him. >> thanks to jeffrey toobin for that. >> the supreme court is expected to announce its decision in may or june. >>> when we come back two australians convicted of drug smuggling are waiting for word on whether they will face an indonesian firing squad. the late nest a live report. >>> plus we'll hear from some of the targets of the u.s. raid on maternity tourism. that's after this break. >>> half past 1:00 in the morning on the east coast of the u.s. you're watching cnn newsroom. >> it is very early here. i'm zain asher. the headlines at this hour. the u.s. ambassador to south korea is recovering from successful surgery after an attacker slashed his face with a knife. mark lippert

griffin. >> hollywood reporter is reporting that hbo films is developing a movie detailing the 1991 clarence thomasment. >> the actress is kerry washington star of "scandal" and movie will be titled "confirmation" and during "scandal hiatus." sort of. kind of a resemblance. you can sort of see it right? >> they can turn her into -- >> they'll make that work. >> a great actress. i like her. robert downey jr. plays a superhero on the big screen. also a real life hero to one special boy. >> the boy we are talking about, alex, he is 7. born with partially developed right arm. so, ironman took it upon himself to surprise alex with his very own bionic arm. kind of cool. the kid was excited. downey states in character acetone i stark, complimenting him on his bow tie and fitted him for the arm developed for him through a 3-d printer. >> isn't it amazing what 3-d printers can do. look at the little boy. the bow tie is fabulous. the arm was developed by albert menero, student at university of central florida who founded limitless, a volunteer organization, helping lots of other kids just like alex. >> just

so liberal criticism of condi reese or clarence thomas is principled. conservative criticism of loretta lynch is racist. it's a double standard. but it also highlights their obsession with race. dick durbin and company are obsessed with the color of this woman's skin. she is a symbol, she is a token for them that they want to use to bludgeon their political opponent. >> let's go through some of the history. it gets very vicious over the years. watch this. >> in texas, my father was killed beaten, chained and then dragged three miles to his death all because he was black. so when governor george w. bush refused to support hate crimes legislation, it was like my father was killed all over again. >> they are in favor of affirmative action if you can dunk the basketball or sink a three-point shot. but they're not in favor of it if you merely have the potential to be a leader in your community. don't tell me we've got a colorblind society! >> put y'all back in chains. >> an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward president barack

clarence thomas didn't is ask fwhi questions but his views are usually in line of alito's and scalia's. kennedy several times raised the argument, what does this mean for the states? and to be honest, that's a little mystifies what that means, how that would cut in favor or in opposition to the law. i have never seen him so silent during an oral argument. he didn't want to give much away. he asked a question at the very end but that was really about it. and his views, i think, are pretty mysterious at this point. >> okay, well, i never expected that he was going to be the linchpin three years ago, the first time around in the decision that ultimately went the government's way. but if we're back to having anthony kennedy, the guy who ultimately is the most powerful man in the court because he's the swing vote, did you feel him swing one way or the other or was it that wishy-washy, i see both sides kind of questioning? >> no, the thing about justice kennedy is he's not wishy-washy. he tends to go very strongly in one direction or the other. there were several questions towards the end of

so i would say those six votes along with clarence thomas who almost always votes with scalia and alitos silent today, those votes seem to be pretty much set in stone. the real key to this case i think is chief justice roberts and justice kennedy. i think predicting those votes is a lot harder. kennedy seemed somewhat more sympathetic to the obama position than i might have expected and john roberts, in what was for me the biggest surprise of the day, said almost nothing at all, which is very uncharacteristic for him. >> one thing i want to ask you about is i know that the justices are supposedly above politics but you and i know and the viewers know it's not exactly that simple. i heard it prognosticated by pundits, none with your expertise, but nonetheless, saying the supreme court is probably preparing, people like kennedy, to rule in favor of same sex marriage again and therefore, they might pull back and not support obamacare this time as roberts did last time roberts of course taking a lot of heat from conservatives for ruling in favor of obamacare last time. do they even think th

clarence thomas, they tried to go after ronald reagan and impeach him. time and again they will go after effective conservative which is ted cruz. >> they went after clinton and they managed to impeach him. >> again, when somebody gives the ammo, then it's fair game. that's a different issue. >> i think it happened with ronald reagan. i think the left was so angry that his so successful. so furious about it that they despised him you know what? we are going it get in the mud now and stay in the mud. >> i ran contra. they didn't impeach him. i ran contra. >> we're not talking about the same things here. iran contra was a problem. >> republicans are held to. >> that's a different animal we are talking about. >> i feel like this is something that has gained traction, you know, a much stronger traction in the last, you know, five or six years. >> since the internet. there is no doubt about it. >> they can now smear anybody and the acolytes in the mainstream pick it up. ladies, good debate. thank you. one footnote. i will be discussing senator cruz with dave

peter: they engage unless you're clarence thomas and don't ask any questions.rect level of engagement. there are direct west. the -- they cut them off. and these are experienced attorneys. they've been there before and know what to expect. what is one thing to expect watched the body language. brendan: they tailor their arguments to individual justices. they know what can be one with individual arguments. peter: i think it's it to say the most important player in this, as with the health care law, chief justice roberts. he was the deciding vote. they got to be targeting him because he was the potential swing vote. he's on the fence, at a minimum. the key question here as we talked about earlier, these four words in the law -- did congress truly mean that only people who established state-based exchanges, that only they would be available -- eligible for coverage? the question is, will a literal interpretation of the statute, will the justices side with what the words actually say as opposed to the larger intent of congress? tom: peter, thank you. with us this h

clarence thomas and hill rocked the nation testifying that thomas had sexually ha haszed her.>> i grew up thinking she was pretty. >> have you guys been watching empire? you haven't? >> i got it on dvr. >> every week this show increased. now the show is blowing up even more with amazing guest stars. confirming the news to hollywood. they will be on the show in butler. said he has been begging her to join the series. it's on another network, but it's a buzz. a cultural phenomenon. this makes my heart just explode with love and happiness. he had a partially developed arm working with microsoft, the collective project. he presented alex with a bionic arm just like iron man. >> each one looks the same. >> yours may be better than mine. what do you say we both try them on and do a progress report? >> what's his name? >> robert. >> the arm was developed by a senior director of an organization that develops them to children in meet. they said your interview would be most spectacular. go by and watch the video. the little boy with the arm, it's unbelievable. i watched it over and over

thomas jefferson to life. he had, he was a very human person. it's easy to bring a clarence darrow or a william jennings bryan. but george washington, we have this view of washington, for many people he's like a wax figure in madam trudeau's museum. or a carved figure up on mount rushmore, he is distant to a lot of us. i think a lot of it is that terrible picture painted on the $1 bill, that was paint near death with a bulging, he looks like a squirrel with his oversized false teeth. actually, that's not what washington was like, and i got to see that in this period of his life when he was much younger before the presidency and after he was a general when he was not in political power when he didn't have -- or military power. he didn't have an office. he was a farmer. he was a plantation owner. he was a private citizen. and i could find out that he was a very, very affable person. he was a wonderful conversationalist. he was a great retail politician. he could tell stories at parties. he loved to go to parties, he loved to dance. he would go to a party -- of course, he was t