. >> all right, nbc's pete williams. we will definitely be checking back in with you from the courthouse in d.c. thank you very much. again, we are standing by for that 3:30 formal arraignment today. but still, an important day as this suspect in the benghazi attacks has made his way to u.s. soil. we'll check back in with pete williams. >>> also need to turn to what's happening in iraq. right now, u.s. flying armed drones over the iraqi capital of baghdad. the unmanned aircraft and fighter jets as well part of an aerial umbrella that the u.s. is mustering to help protect the capital and u.s. advisers on the ground there. the u.s. amphibious assault ship is surging toward the persian gulf carrying 1,000 marines in case they're needed to evacuate american personnel in baghdad. richard engel is in baghdad. richard? >> reporter: the iraqi military is now trying to fight against

it's an all-out assaults on contraceptives. >>> pete williams continues to standby at the high court. we like to give him three or four minutes to thumb through that. how long is the decision, pete? >> let me look. it's 49 pages. here is a key part of it, i think. it says in this sort of expands on something i was talking about here. let me just read a little out of it. our decision in these cases concerns solely with the contraceptive mandate. it should not be understood to hold. an insurance mandate -- other coverage requirements like immunezations may be supported by different interests like the need to combat the spread of infectious diseases. it came up in oral argument as well, the so called heard necessity if you leave people out of immunizations they can spread it and you need to immunize everybody. then they say that the dissenters raise the possibility that discrimination in hiring, for example, on the basis of race could be cloaked as a religious practice to escape legal sanction. i'll quote them, our decision provides no such shield. again, language trying to make it as na

pete williams will join us when we come right back. us. ♪ thoughtful combinations, artfully prepared. fancy feast elegant medleys. inspired dishes like primavera, florentine and tuscany. fancy feast. a medley of love, served daily. >>> we want to go back live to nbc justice correspondent pete williams. in the last half hour we've seen reports of major judicial actions on the same-sex marriage issue. in two traditionally red states, first indiana and now in utah. that seems to be the more significant one. that's the first time a federal appeals court has struck down a state's ban on same-sex marriage. is that right? >> you said it kristen. that's the important thing. this is the tenth circuit court of appeals ruling very quickly on the utah ban. as you recall, the trial judge in utah struck the ban down. the state appealed. now for the first time a federal appeals court ruled a state ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. we expect to hear from the same court about the ban on same-sex marriage in oklahoma. it was argued a week af

we begin with our justice correspondent, pete williams. good evening. >> reporter: it is surprising and it is unanimous and so bold, and shows this that court which still gives out quill pens to the lawyers who argue here is thoroughly up to date on smartphone technology. so many people now carry cell phones that a supreme court says a visitor from mars might assume they are part of the human anatomy. 12% use them in the shower. but it's what they can hold that made the difference in the ruling. a strikingly unanimous court, chief justice roberts said that

nbc justice correspondent pete williams has been inside that courthouse. ou've been in the courthouse. what do we have? >> reporter: the hearing has just ended. it was, as we expected, brief. it lasted about ten minutes. he was led in wearing a blue hoodie and dark pants and he stood and got on earphones because apparently he doesn't speak english. a translator explained to him what was happening. he was given a charge of one count filed bay grand jury of assisting terrorists, conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. he was appointed a federal public defender. he'll have a status hearing on july 8th and a detention hearing on july 2nd. but it was a very brief proceeding. he doesn't speak much english. i think he looked a bit dazed. we were told by authorities that he was just brought to u.s. this morning after a roughly two-week trip on a may navy trip from th mediterranean, from libya where he was snatched, and flown to washington, and to the u.s. courthouse he was driven this morning and just had this hearing that ended. so he's now formally

>> pete williams, tonight. pete, thank you. >>> late word tonight that president obama will name a new v.a. secretary as early as monday to replace eric shinseki who stepped down last month, following reports of chronic delays for medical treatment and veterans dying while on the waiting lists. tonight a scathing new report on the v.a. cites significant and chronic system failures. nbc's kristen welker has more. >> reporter: the new white house report says the v.a. is plagued by a corrosive culture. deputy chief of staff rob nabors and acting v.a. secretary sloan gibson told the president on friday, the v.a. needs to be restructured and reformed. whistle blower dr. sam foote was the first to reveal widespread misconduct. >> i was somewhat shocked in how dead-on accurate it was. clearly mr. nabors and acting director sloan gibson did not pull any punches on this. >> reporter: the reports' key finding, the v.a.'s goal of scheduling patients for treatment within 14 days is arbitrary, ill-defined and misunderstood.

pete williams will discuss what they mean. first, let's get to our election day after dateline mississippi. just three weeks ago, the death nail was ringing for senator thad cochran. >> mississippi, where a six-term senator is in serious danger of losing his seat. >> hold the phone on mississippi. the republican senate candidacy is now officially a run-off. >> thad cochran is now fighting for his political life after an unbelievably close republican primary last night. a lot of people are expecting cochran can't pull this off. >> but pull it off he did. so just how did the embattled 76-year-old republican senator become mississippi's comeback kid? it's called creative campaigning, my friends. after their primary night drubbing, cochran's people shook it off, put on their man pants, and got to work plotting a three-week resurrection campaign. by yesterday, as politico writes, a collection of groups that might be dubbed the emergency committee for mississippi had spent millions of new television ads, knocked on tens of thousands

justice correspondent pete williams is standing by at the high court. we will bring you those decisions as soon as we get them this hour. good thursday to you. this morning we start with iraq where u.s. surveillance planes are now patrolling the skies. u.s. navy fa-18 fighter bombers, hawk eyes and prowlers are among the planes being launched from the george w. bush aircraft carrier that's right now positioned somewhere in the gulf. they'll be gathering video and photos from military intelligence to analyze. meanwhile, down on the ground, the fighting rages on key oil fields between the iraqi military and fighters with the al qaeda off shoot isis. exxon and bp are evacuating staff and back here in washington, president obama briefed top political leaders in the oval office telling them that he plans to keep them in the loop on any major decision he makes with regard to iraq. that does not exclude air strikes as we heard from secretary of state john kerry on that exclusive interview on today. >> all options are still available to the president. the presi

nbc's justice correspondent pete williams joins me now. n protester law. was this at all a surprise or no? >> reporter: well, it did seem from the oral argument that the court had reel doubts about the constitutionality of this law. the opinion of the court says that it's simply too blunt an instrument to paint a line on the sidewalk 35 feet from entrances as massachusetts has done and say no one can enter that zone toro

>> pete williams in washington for us tonight. pete, thanks. >>> it was just as we came on the air last night, we showed you the video of an extraordinarily powerful storm system in the upper plains, including dual tornado funnels touching down at the same time. after a long night and the first light of day today, we learned the extent of the destruction. the number of dead and injured. nbc's john yang is in what is left of things in pilger, nebraska. john, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. this is what three quarters of the buildings here in pilger look like tonight -- absolutely flattened. two people died, including a 5-year-old girl and more than a dozen people were injured, all because of a devastating hit by a rare and deadly tornado. captured on camera, a twin tornado, sometimes called sisters. two funnels descending from a single storm cell, cutting a doubly broad path of destruction across northeastern nebraska. >> do you see the tornado? >> oh, gosh. >> reporter: veteran storm chaser ben mcmillan thought he h

pete williams standing by for us at the high court. ion. >> and craig, good day to you from the supreme court. can you hear horns honking in the background. in is not somebody getting married. this is some kind of demonstration by the city's cab drivers. just going on in the street between me and the u.s. capitol. but back to the business at hand. the supreme court ruled that aereo, the internet streaming service that allowed people to watch broadcast tv on a mobile device like an ipad or cell phone violates federal law by retransmitting copy righted programs without paying a copy

let's start with nbc's pete williams, who has been working the phones. what is the latest you can tell us? >> we will get some more details out of this news conference, but it does appear to be basically as we have known it for the last couple of hours, that there were three people shot today, two of them killed, one student, the person with the gun and a teacher, todd, a track coach and health teacher, who received a very slight, superficial wound on his hip. he was not even transferred to the hospital. his friends say that he's otherwise okay. the shooting took place according to several witnesses and law enforcement officials in a locker room or at the -- near the gymnasium of reynolds high school, which is the second largest high school in oregon. so it's a big school, about 2,800 students total, though they were not all there today. now, officials say they're pretty confident at this hour that only one person was involved in the shooting. however, we've heard from several students that at least one student who was coming out of the building after th

we begin with our justice correspondent, pete williams. good evening. >> reporter: it is surprising and it is unanimous and so bold, and shows this that court which still gives out quill pens to the lawyers who argue here is thoroughly up to date on smartphone technology. so many people now carry cell phones that a supreme court says a visitor from mars might assume they are part of the human anatomy. 12% use them in the shower. but it's what they can hold that made the difference in the ruling. a strikingly unanimous court, chief justice roberts said that the 90% of adults who have a cell phone keep a record of nearly every aspect of theirs lives, from the mundane to the intimate. to search one, police must get a warrant unless there's a genuine emergency. a huge victory for advocates of privacy in a digital age. >> just because the police pull you over for speeding, they shouldn't have access to your entire life. your phone records, your bank records. photo albums. frg everything that people carry around with them in their phone. >> repo

we get our report from our justice correspondent, pete williams. >> reporter: with more than 165 million americans now using social media, the experts call it digital courage. posting comments that probably wouldn't be said to someone's face. a worker at a pennsylvania amusement park, anthony alonis, got in big trouble four years ago after his wife left him and took their two children, leaving him despon department. ripping on a comedy troupe's routine about free speech -- >> it's illegal, a federal offense -- >> reporter: he wrote on his facebook page, "did you know it's illegal for me to say i want to kill my wife?" after she got a restraining order against him, he wrote, "put it in your pocket, is it thick enough to stop a bullet?" two years before the shoot ing at sandy hook he wrote, "enough elementary schools in a ten-mile radius to initiate the most heinous school shooting imagined." he was found guilty of posting an online threat. the judge said it wasn't whether he intended to make a threat but whether a reasonable person would have considered the words threatening. a lawyer for

>> pete williams after a busy final day this term at the supreme court. pete, thanks. >>> as thousands of undocumented immigrants cross the border into this country, many of them children, the president said today he'll no longer wait for congress to act on broad immigration reform. he announced his intention to move on his own starting with an action to make it easier to deport people who cross the border. >> i take executive action only when we have a serious problem, a serious issue and congress chooses to do nothing. and in this situation, the failure of house republicans to pass a darn bill is bad for our security, it's bad for our economy, and it's bad for our future. >> and along our southern border today, the humanitarian crisis was only getting worse at what one congressman is calling refugee camps. we have more on that tonight from nbc's miguel almaguer. >> reporter: this is what an immigration crisis looks like. waves of children risking their lives. today along the texas border, the influx continues. since october, 52,000 children, many traveli

pete williams standing by for us at the high court. pete, let's start with that aereo decision. >> and craig, good day to you from the supreme court. can you hear horns honking in the background. in is not somebody getting married. this is some kind of demonstration by the city's cab drivers. just going on in the street between me and the u.s. capitol. but back to the business at hand. the supreme court ruled that aereo, the internet streaming service that allowed people to watch broadcast tv on a mobile device like an ipad or cell phone violates federal law by retransmitting copy righted programs without paying a copy right fee. aereo claimed the way it was set up where each viewer gets the antenna and space in a rack of digital video recorders was like recording programs at home using your own dvr. but the supreme court rejected that by a 6-3 vote. it's probably a death nail to aereo which said before the decision that if the supreme court went against it it, would probably not stay in business. aereo is something like 12 cities right

>> pete williams, tonight. thank you. >>> president obama will name a new v.a. secretary as early add monday to replace eric shinseki. tonight a scathing new report on the v.a. cites significant and chronic system failures. nbc's kristen welker has more. >> the v.a. is plagued by a corrosive culture. rob neighbors told the president on friday, the v.a. needs to be restructured and reformed. whistle blower dr. sam foote was the first to reveal widespread misconduct. >> i was somewhat shocked in how dead on accurate it was. clearly mr. neighbors and abilitying director sloan gibson did not pull any punches on this. >> reporter: the reports key finding, the goal of scheduling patients for treatment within 14 days is arbitrary, ildefined and misunderstood, and that may have incentivized inappropriate actions by va personnel to hide the treatment delays. the report also says the va has technology that's outdated and a shortage of doctors and other health care professionals. tom tarantino of the iraq and afghanistan veterans of america says the president needs to do a

nbc justice correspondent pete williams joins me live with the details. what do we know at this point? >> i think we are beyond what you said. there's official confirmation now. the president made a statement about it. the attorney general said it shows that the u.s. will do whatever it takes to bring those responsible to benghazi -- for the attack to justice. and he says -- this is eric holder, the attorney general, we retain the option of adding additional charges in the coming days as we work to identify, as well, and arrest any of his co-conspirators. officials say it happened on the weekend on sunday in libya, an effort by u.s. special forces aided by the fbi to arrest this man we've known of for so long, ahmed abu khattala, accused of being one of the co-conspirators, ringleaders, master mind if you will on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. he had actually been designated a terrorist in january by the state department which called him a senior leader of the benghazi branch of ansar al shariah, the terror group the government blamed for the attack. the

to look at the legal calculous behind this decision let's go to nbc correspondent pete williams. , can you give us a sense of the unanimity in this decision, the one that we had yesterday seemed like a surprise. were you surprised all nine justices were in agreement on this? >> i guess, yes, in terms of how the court aligned and how they decided to decide this case although it did seem from the argument that even some of the court's more liberal justices who generally support abortion rights thought this was too much. as the court -- as this case came to the court it was framed not about violent protest s although that's not one of the motives they had for passing the law. the challengers were a group of women who wanted to simply talk to patients as they entered the clinic and what they said is if they have to stand 35 feet away they have to kind of yell at them and then that spoils the ability to have a one-on-one conversation it's that logic that the supreme court used to strike down the the buffer law in massachusetts. what the court said is it's a public sidewalk where the pr

pete williams with the latest reporting on that breaking news. >>> that's going to do it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." yand andrea is traveling with secretary of state kerry. >>> remember to follow the show online and on facebook. you can do it on twitter as well, @mitchellreports. follow me @peteralexander. "ronan farrow daily" is up next. thanks for joining us. ugh. heartburn. did someone say burn? try alka seltzer reliefchews. they work just as fast and taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. mmm. amazing. yeah, i get that a lot. alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief. there are cameras,, police, guards...ds us. but who looks after us online, where we spend more than 200 billion dollars a year. american express can help protect you. with intelligent security that learns your spending patterns, and can alert you instantly to an unusual charge. so you can be a member of a more secure world. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. if yand you're talking toevere rheuyour rheumatologistike me

pete williams joins us from outside the supreme court. it starts with helping folks understand in the first place what the straw man purchase is. >> right. that's when someone buys a gun for someone else. now, the court here before the supreme court is is it illegal if the person you're buying it for is legal ll lly entitled toa gun. normally the straw purchases are made for people who couldn't get them themselves. this case involved a policeman in virginia who thought he could get a discount for his uncle. he bought the gun and had then gave it to his uncle. he was charged under the law. he challenged the law. today the supreme court, by a 5-4 vote upheld the law. and said it doesn't matter whether the person you're buying it for is legally entitled have the gun or not. you can't buy a gun for somebody else and lie about it on the form. there's a place on the federal form that says are you the person, are you buying this gun for himsel

nbc's justice correspondent pete williams joins me now. pete, let's start with that abortion protester law. was this at all a surprise or no? >> reporter: well, it did seem from the oral argument that the court had reel doubts about the constitutionality of this law. the opinion of the court says that it's simply too blunt an instrument to paint a line on the sidewalk 35 feet from entrances as massachusetts has done and say no one can enter that zone to protest or express any views and talk to people as they're entering the clinics. what the majority says here today -- by the way, this is a unanimous opinion -- they say that these were really not protesters at issue in this case. these are people who wanted to talk to the patients and keeping them away is -- violates the first amendment. it's shutting off a traditional public forum, which is a sidewalk. while the court says it's easier for massachusetts to enforce this kind of law, it isn't balanced that the constitution's first amendment requires. it is unanimous, but beneath that unanimit

. >> and pete williams is joining us now, our justice correspondent. pete, i know you've checked with federal authorities, they are not yet involved? >> no, and you know, it's -- the word has very very sketchy information that we have back here from federal authorities who are monitoring the situation. but what we're told is by one official that the -- the shooting in any case is appears to be over, that there were reports that shots were fired. but one official tells us there has been no word of any fatalities. we don't know beyond that whether students were wounded or whether people were hurt. we just don't know very much at this point, andrea. >> and we don't know yet whether there were any magnetometer and not being an urban school it's less likely there would be bag checks. mr. mayor, if you're still on the phone, wondering whether there were any procedures in place to check for weapons at this particular school? >> yeah, at reynolds high school, like i mentioned, it's the second largest high school in oregon. there's thousands of students. there a

nbc's justice correspondent pete williams joining me now from the supreme court. okay, pete. break down this ruling for us. >> okay. well, what the court said is you have a test that's laid out by federal law. when a company says that abiding by a law would violate its religious beliefs, then this test kicks in. first the court said, yes, a for-profit company can assert religious freedoms. the mere fact that a group of individuals choose to do business as a corporation doesn't require them to set their religious views aside. that's step one. step two, they say, is what the government wants them to do, an important thing. and the court says, yes, it is important to make sure women get contraceptive coverage. the court agrees with the government there. then the third question is where these companies win and the government lose. the court says, is there some other way to achieve that end, namely getting contraceptives, without violating the religion beliefs of the company? the court said the answer to that is yes. it said the government is already doing it. because people, wome

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is live at the supreme court with more. hobby lobby is the biggest one politically, i think, when i look at it in my world, if you will, pete, about stuff that could have some traction on the campaign trail, depending on which way the decision goes. what's your sense of which way that decision you thought was headed at the time and what else are you watching? >> reporter: well, we may get that decision this week. it could be early next week, we don't know. but judging from the oral argument, it did seem like the court wanted to find some way to accommodate companies that are held, closely held by a family. the question is given that these are corporations, the justice department says a corporation is intended to be at arm's length from the owners. that's the whole idea of a corporation. does a corporation have religious beliefs and can it assert that in saying that providing contraceptive coverage would violate those religious beliefs. so that's the question for the court. we're also expecting, i think, another issue that w

nbc justice correspondent pete williams joins us now with more. pete? >> well, andrea, this administration official says this all happened over the weekend, that it was u.s. military operation with the fbi there to maintain the legal chain of custody of necessary continuity and that it happened with basically no casualties. it was relatively smooth operation according to a couple of administration officials that i have talked to. and they say that the suspect ahmed abu khattala is now being held at what they described as a secure location outside libya. now, we can be certain that right now he's being questioned for intelligence purposes. the normal practice in a case like this would be -- and this always is a question that arises when you arrest a high profile person overseas, the normal process and i have no reason to think it won't be followed in this case is he'll be questioned for intelligence purposes first and then at some point when they decide that that has run its course, then a second team of interrogators will come in basically starting all

pete williams, thank you so much. joining me is jim cavanaugh, a retired special agent, hostage negotiate and msnbc analyst. >> there was lots of nices in, tweets saying there were multi- shootersers. does all that information help or hurt law enforcement while trying to respond to a situation that's in progress? >> joy, it's a great question. it really helps. law enforcement officers are trained and experienced in dealing with a lot of information and able to assess it quickly. they know they get sometimes erroneous information. we always receive information from witnesses that was not correct or often times you see receive information that is not correct. columbine, you had had two shooters, you saw the terrorist situation in pakistan. so don't discount there could be multiple shooters. social media can help to us reduce the killing because it can help police to get to the shooter quicker, thereby stop him, isolate and take him so he can't hurt anybody else. >> we are looking at live pictures right now of parents an

pete williams is live outside the court juggling live shots and legal decisions today. pete, can you break this down for us and give us a sense exactly what we refer to when we say this is a narrow decision? >> narrow because while the supreme court said yes, a for profit corporation can they sat it's exempt from certain laws that would violate the company's religious freedom. it's only going to work in a few situations. when you have a family owned company, closely held, not publicly traded that has a clearly established religious view. and secondly, it's a balancing test. when the courts can find that the company's religious objectives on the one hand outweigh the government's interests on the other. and the government's interest on the other, in this case, were making sure that the women who work for these companies would get insurance coverage for contraceptive care. not all kinds but they were basically four kinds of contraceptives the company said would be the equivalent of abortion and violate their religious beliefs. what the majority says is there are other ways

i want to bring in pete williams. first of all, practically what does this all mean?they refer to it -- >> let me explain it. i think the quickest way is get straightforward explay neigh. what it means that the trademark registration is cancelled. it's not protected. the redskins can use it. but they can't sue anybody if somebody else uses their trademark. so as a practical matter, immediately it changes nothing. secondly, it's the second time it's happened. the redskins can appeal. the last time they appealed federal government struck it down and said there wasn't enough evidence. this time the trademark war tried to build more evidence. it's going to be appealed. it's another black mark for the redskins. but it doesn't change anything. they can still use their trademark but for now it's not protected if somebody else uses it. there's no legal recourse for the redskins. >> again, it looks like the patented trademark called it disparaging to native americans. the appeal process continues. >> right. >> pete williams, thanks. >>> an update on the story we've been coveri

. >> nbc justice correspondent pete williams happen following the story.you know every over the last six months and folks asking why now and why does it make sense? >> it's one thing to call someone to ask them to meet you for an interview. it's another thing to ask them to be arrested. the fact that reporters can get to him doesn't really tell you very much. the u.s. had to get a team there. they had to make sure they could get him out of the country. no journalist, i think, had the wherewithal to smuggle him out of the country. i think they are incomparable. i guess it could be fairly asked why did it take so long to do what the government eventually did? as you remember, last fall there was an attempt to arrest him. they ended up getting another man who was now awaiting trial in new york for his role in the african embassy bombing. they had a couple of attempts last year. they were watching him and wait for the best time to grab him when they thought there would be the least amount of opposition and the greatest chances for success. that's what they say

we're joined by our supersize panel, pete williams. nbc news justice correspondent. akil ammar, the constitutional law expert at yale, terry o'neil, president of the national organization for women, karen finney, board member of naral and an mbs nbc contributor and robert, an msnbc contributor. pete, i'll start with you. how broadly does this decision open the door to other businesses that have religious views n don't believe they should be bound by federal law. >> i feel like i'm doing my oral exams. the courts in the past have said corporations have some rights of people. for example, corporations can sign contracts, they can own property. this is another example. and the court went out of its way to repeatedly distress how narrow it intended its ruling to be. number one it applies only to companies that are what are called closely held. meaning owned by a family or group of friends. not publicly traded. secondly, they have to have some kind of history of forming the company with religious principles in mind. and that's certainly true of the hobby lobby and the two

let's go to nbc justice correspondent pete williams map details have we been given?is the first arrest of the suspect charged in the attack on the u.s. embassy in benghazi that has been the subject of so much attention. joint operation carried out by the u.s. military and the fbi. the official said it was carried out with no krauscasualties on u.s. side or either side. it was done at the request of u.s. law enforcement. the officials say that the suspect katala is held. they described it as a secure location outside libya. now, as to what will happen, this person will undoubtly, the u.s. will u undoubtly, at some point, make an effort to take this person to the u.s. to stand trial. the charges are under seal but it's been something of an open secret that criminal charges against some of these benghazi suspects have been filed in federal government near washington, d.c. it seems likely that the person would be brought here to washington at some point. we don't know when to face charges. and this, you know, it's been an open secret that he's one of the people that the

pete williams, thank you. nbc justice correspondent with the latest. see you on monday no doubt. >>> coming up the detroit boy found after 11 days may have gone into hiding for fear of being punished. was he scared simply because he stopped a strict exercise regime? that's what our affiliate is reporting. stick with us. vious. captain: and here's a tip. when you save money on hotel rooms, it's just like saving money on anything else that costs money. like shoes, textiles, foreign investments, spatulas, bounty hunters, javelins... but at xerox we've embraced a new role. working behind the scenes to provide companies with services... like helping hr departments manage benefits and pensions for over 11 million employees. reducing document costs by up to 30%... and processing $421 billion dollars in accounts payables each year. helping thousands of companies simplify how work gets done. how's that for an encore? with xerox, you're ready for real business. time to celebrate ah, thwith your mates,mmer! grill a few dogs-- eh, hot dogs. bacon burgers... dachsh

nbc's pete williams joins me live from the supreme court to explain. , pete, explain these rulings today. >> reporter: they both were unanimous and the first ruling about the recess appointment power basically all but dooms it for practical purposes because if you think about it, a president is most likely to do these recess appointments when he can't get his nominees through the senate because it's in the hands of the opposing party. and it's the opposing parties who have come up with this strategy to try to defeat a president's recess appointment power by every three days during the christmas holiday or the summer vacation or whatever. having what they call proforma sessions where they gavel it to order. a new seconds later, gavel into recess. and they say that shows that the recesses are only lasting, like, two or three days and the supreme court said that's going to work. that a recess has to last at least ten days for a president to be able to use the recess appointment power. so, for all practical purposes, while it's not formally dead, it's pract

pete williams will discuss what they mean. our election day after dateline mississippi. just three weeks ago, the death nail was ringing for senator thad cochran. >> mississippi, where a six-term senator is in serious danger of losing his seat. >> hold the phone on mississippi. the republican senate candidacy is now officially a run-off. >> thad cochran is now fighting for his political life after an unbelievably close republican primary last night. a lot of people are expecting cochran can't pull this off. >> p

nbc news's justice correspondent pete williams is outside the supreme court. good day. >> good day to you. it's one of those days i'm sure you would have want to have been here yourself. >> that's exactly right. reading justice roberts today, extraordina extraordinary, unanimous opinion. he says in 1926, it's a totally different thing to search a man's pockets and use against him what they contain from ransacking his house from everything which may incriminate him. that's no longer true. a cell phone search exposes far more today. it also contains private information never found in a home. pete, walk us through what he and the court are saying there. >> well, that's an interesting passage you cite because when this case was argued, there was some head skrachg by the justices, which raised concerns that maybe they were not fully hip to what cell phones do. but any notion of that is completely gone by reading this opinion. for over 100 years, the courts have said that the police, when they arrest someone, can search that person. they can look in their pockets, b

our justice correspondent pete williams at the supreme court tonight. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. this court is deeply divided on the issue of abortion. but it was unanimous today in declaring that massachusetts went too far in trying to prevent violence at clinic entrances. massachusetts was trying to avoid scenes like this -- >> they're lying to you and they're going to kill your baby. >> reporter: patients at abortion clinics confronted and hassled, sometimes even violence. so the state passed a law painting a line on the sidewalk 35 feet from clinic entrances. inside that line, no protests. but the court ruled in favor of eleanor mccullen, a 77-year-old grandmother, and others who said the "no protest" zones violated their free speech rights to try to calmly suggest alternatives to abortion. >> when they need somebody to care for them and i care, i truly care, but then when we get to the buffer zone, i have to stop and then they keep going and i lose. >> reporter: writing for a unanimous court, chief justice john roberts sa

our pete williams is live at the courthouse for us. >>> also, on a mission in iraq.t's counteroffensive against militants from isis. >>> is it true? excuse me, sir, did you abuse your son? >> police now focusing on the dad of that 12-year-old boy who disappeared for days, then turned up in his family's basement. investigators are now looking into abuse

covering the week, near and far, dan balz of "the washington post," joan biskupic of reuters, pete williams of nbc news, and martha raddatz of abc news. >> award winning reporting and analysis covering history as it happens. live from our nations capitol. this is "washington week with gwen ifill." corporate funding for washington week is provided by >> we asked people a question. how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount would last. >> a little further. >> got me to 70 years old. i have to rethink this thing. >> it's hard to imagine how much we need for a retirement that lasts 30 years or more. maybe we need to approach things differently if we want to be ready for a longer retirement >> whether it's discovering an aspirin ai day can prevent heart attacks worldwide or creating cells that regenerate new heart muscles, our goal is to develop treatment that saves lives. righam & womens hospital. corporate funding is also provided by boeing. additional funding is also provided by the annenberg foundation, the co

. >> let's get right to pete williams in washington. what do we know about how this came about and what happens next? >> well, we were told it was a joint operation by u.s. military forces aided by the fbi to detain and arrest him in libya and take him outside the country. he's going to be questioned and then brought to the united states to face charges. it was a year ago, july of 2013, that charges were secretly filed in washington, accusing him of three charges, one of which carries the death penalty. and the u.s. could file more charges against him. we also know that others have been indicted in the same courtroom. and this is the only arrest so far. the goal is to bring him to the united states to face charges. now we're being told that the questioning is being done by intelligence officials. a second team will then come in, and he will be given his miranda warnings, and then he will be questioned again. and among those that were killed were u.s. ambassadors, it would make sense to have the trial le here in the united states. >> tha

. >> pete williams, what else are you hearing? >> well, the operation happened over the weekend. it happened very peacefully. and is now in a secure location. while it is true that he is, as you said, en route to the u.s., he's not exactly taking an express flight. he's in a secure location, and it seems same to assume that he's being interrogated by u.s. officials. when that process is done, then a new team will come in and begin the process for the criminal justice system. he'll be given his miranda warnings, and be questioned by a second team untainted by anything he said before the miranda warning one given. ultimately, he will be brought to washington, d.c., to the federal courthouse on capitol hill to answer for charges that were filed last july. charges of killing americans in diplomatic facilities. and now, he's being questioned, and will come here at some point. we're also told he was on the run from the u.s., but also persona non grata in libya. so, he couldn't seek refuge with the libyan government from the u.s. and we've known his name for some time. very little doubt

. >> joining me now, nbc justice correspondent pete williams. pete, i dwguess two questions. do you have a sense of where you thought the court was honing in on and, two, is this going to be narrow or broad? it always seems as if on social issues roberts looks for a more narrow interpretation. >> i'll consider those variations on the same question because during the oral argument, it was the chief justice who was suggesting there might be a middle ground here. rather than to say that any corporation has freedom of religion, you know, what's the freedom of religion of ge or comcast or general motors, they might say that companies like these. family held companies that are not publicly owned in which there's a clear record of clearly established religious views, perhaps they would get it. that was the middle ground that he seemed to be searching for. and i think that's the main question here. will the court say any corporations at all can assert freedom of religion, and if so will they limit it. that will inevitably lead to the next question which is, okay, if they're exempt fr

. >> pete williams live with the breaking details from the supreme court. >>> we're following fast moving developments in the crisis in iraq. where baghdad is now bracing for an attack by sunni insir sur gents who captured another major town. the embassy is evacuating some personnel. 100 marines and soldiers arrived overnight provide additional security. the uss mesaer have day arrived in the persian gulf joining other ships already there. all has president obama considers possible u.s. action. secretary of state john kerry spoke a few hours ago. >> the president is evaluating a very thorough vetting of every option that is available. a lot of work has been going on over the course of the weekend. there's a lot of work going on right now to make sure whatever judgments the president ultimately makes have the greatest amount of input and the greatest understanding of what will have the best effect. >> i'm joined by nbc -- and peter alexander at the white house. aman you're on the ground there. what is the latest what we're hearing out of baghdad? >> well, as you mentioned, the situation in

pete williams has been following this story from washington. thank you so much. what more do we know now? >> not much. here's the situation. why it's taking so long and the reason is we're told by law enforcement officials is police are actually searching all the students as they leave the high school. this is a large high school. this is according to the mayor of troutdale, the second largest high school in oregon. it has about 2700 students in four grades normally, 9 through 12. most of the seniors were not there today. it's just two days from graduation. so it's mostly the 9th through 11th graders, three classes but a large number of students in the school when it happened. as each of them leaves the school they are being patted down because the police want to make certain that only one person was involved, only one person was armed. so that's why this is such a slow process. that's on the outgoing students and then the other part of the slow process is that police are now going through the school room by room to make sure that they have the scene fully under

pete williams, thank you. we'll turn to the partisan divide on where to try this individual and also very serious questions about how long it took to come to this question in bringing him to justice. on that question, i want to turn to maryland democratic congressman chris van hollen. let's look at the venue. should ahmed abu khattala be tried in the civilian court? >> no, we should try him in our criminal court. the military court system, there are a couple of questions. one is the legality of that and if you went through that system, there's a much higher likelihood that he would be released on appeal. number two, the track record in federal criminal courts has been much greater suck scess. why would we go the route that has the lower success rate than the federal criminal court. >> i think this is a step towards the right kind of commitment to due process but it's causing waves on capitol hill. the livibyan government respond and said that he's got to be returned to libya to be tried. clearly, that's unlike