pete william's is nbc's justice

first of all, pete williams called this a stunning decision. others are using the word "a land squn ma landmark decision." what are you calling it? >> landmark decision. it definitely is for lgbtq people all across the country. lgbtq people have been protected by federal civil rights laws. federal courts issued ruling after ruling after ruling and, yet, this case was presented to the u.s. supreme court. the underlying question was, does federal civil rights law protect lgbtq people from being fired at their jobs? the short answer that the supreme court issued, less than an hour ago, is yes. federal law does protect lgbtq people from being discriminated against at work. no one should be denied a job or fired simply because of who they love and who they are. so this is a landmark victory for lgbtq equality. >> as you know, the vote, 6-3, with the decision being written by justin neil gorsuch, who was appointed by president trump. i think a lot of people may find that to be surprising. what does that say to you? >> that says to me, we have to reme

and bring in pete williams, also following this. pete, significant development. we heard the decision there from tom goldstein being read to us. give us your initial take on this, particularly the basis for the decision by the chief justice john roberts here. >> well, louisiana had a really tough road here. because the odds were against louisiana's winning for the simple reason that two years ago the supreme court looking at virtually the identical thing said you can't do that. now, the big change, of course, between two years ago and now is that anthony kennedy, who was generally one of the court's supporters of a woman's right to choose, has left the supreme court, replaced by brett kavanaugh and brett kavanaugh today voted basically against the -- he was one of the dissenters today. the chief justice, what he says is i didn't think this was right when we decided it, two years ago, but that is what we decided. and under this long-standing view of the supreme court, that once you decide a case, you don't simply switch and go the other way, what lawyers call star

when we do get it, we'll bring in nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. to give you a sense of what is at stake here, let me read for you the three cases that have essentially been boiled into one decision coming out any minute now. it was the trump verse the na p naacp, mckinnon versus nadal and the department of homeland security versus regents of the university of california. here is what is at stake in this supreme court decision. essentially the supreme court going to decide any minute now whether president trump can essentially shut down the obama era program as i said that is known as daca. it essentially granted temporary protection to deportation from 700,000 young people brought into this country el legillegal. we cross over to pete williams. >> the supreme court said the trump administration wrongly tried to shut daca down so daca is going to survive. the trump administration could try again to shut it down, but that seems like it would be unlikely something that the government would try to do during an election year. so here is what happened.

to help us get into more of the depth of this, we are joined by nbc news justice correspondent pete williams, who has been following many of these stories from their inception, including, many will remember, the marriage equality ruling. pete, here, the court in a way, goes further. walk us through what they ruled today. >> right. the marriage ruling, of course, was a constitutional ruling. this was interpreting a federal law. the most important civil rights law ever passed by congress. the 1964 civil rights act. you noted it is very surprising that neil gorsuch joined the majority. it is doubly surprising that he wrote the decision. what he said is, yeah, sure, same-sex discrimination and transgender status were clearly not on the minds of anybody in congress when they passed the civil rights act 56 years ago. he says, that doesn't matter. what matters is the cold words of the law on the page. he says discriminating against someone on the basis of sexual orientation or transgender status are both forms of sex discrimination. so that's a very surprising outcome here. i think the reason the c

committed in connection with a noose found in the garage used by nascar star bubba wallace nbc's pete williams joins us now pete, what have we found out? >> well, the fbi and the justice department now say it does not appear anybody intended to express hatred for bubba wallace. the discovery of a noose in his nascar garage touched off a huge and emotional show of support for him at the track in alabama. now the fbi says the noose had been there for at least six months since last october and that wallace was only assigned that specific garage last week investigators determined nobody could have known he would be assigned to that garage, conclusion no evidence of any federal crime nascar says it was a garage door pull rope fashioned like a noose and says it is grateful to learn this was not an intentional or racist act, savannah >> all right pete williams with the update thank you. >>> a growing battle in this country tonight over the removal of monuments viewed by some as symbols of racism, with the president now weighing in. nbc's garrett haik with our report. >> reporter: police in washington

lester >> all right, pete williams tonight, thanks. >>> as more of the country reopens cases of covid-19 are surging in some areas, tonight a dire forecast from researchers affiliated with the university of washington by october 1st the pandemic could kill more than 201,000 people in this country. sam brock tonight on the growing concern. >> reporter: under a fiery florida sun, tonight the temperatures aren't the only numbers rising so are covid cases today miami announcing a pause in the next phase of reopening. >> now is not a time to let your guard down >> reporter: in the last week the number of cases statewide has soared by 10,000 florida's governor attributing the higher totals to more testing but health officials are worried about the trend. >> i think it's been a pretty rapid rise over the past ten days to two weeks. and so that has to be a concern on its own >> reporter: concern also across the country with at least 16 states showing a spike. in texas, a record number of hospitalizations for covid-19, and growing examples of people ignoring the rules in new york, where cases

clash over highly sensitive cases involving the president's inner circle justice correspondent pete williams reports. >> reporter: jeffrey -- insisting he's still the attorney general -- so the president could nominate jay clayton to take over berman shot back he would have no intention of resigning and would leave only when the senate confirmed a replacement. -- they say clayton played golf with the president a few weeks ago, said he was leaving the s.e.c. and expressed interest in the u.s. attorney position but the president tonight says it wasn't his doing. >> we have a very capable attorney general. that's really up to him. i'm not involved. >> the move to oust berman set off alarm bells because he's been overseeing a federal investigation of the business practices of rudy giuliani, president trump's personal lawyer and prosecuting two former giuliani business associates accusing them of violating campaign spending laws. democrat chuck schumer, new york senior senator said clayton should withdraw to spare hischumer tok clayton's nomination in a letter late today barr said berman put publ

pete williams has details. >> reporter: it's the second surprising ruling this week from a conservative supreme court, a big blow to president trump, and a huge victory for young people in the daca program. >> there was just an enormous relief to truly just, you know, shut down all of this confusion and worry, honestly. >> you can come out of the shadows. >> reporter: president obama launched daca, deferred action of childhood rivals in 2012 by a stroke of a pen, an executive order. 800,000 people known as dreamers brought to the u.s. by their undocumented parents have been allowed to stay, go to school and get jobs president trump could have shut it down the same way, by executive order, instead his justice department declared it illegal and the department of homeland security ordered it ended today by a vote of 5-4 with chief justice john roberts joining the court's four liberals the court said that was too much of a shortcut, roberts wrote the opinion saying the government failed to properly evaluate as federal law requires how ending daca who you would affect those who relied on it

here is nbc's pete williams. >> reporter: it's another surprising ruling from this conservative supreme and a victory for women seeking abortion, like kimberly o'brien, of new orleans devastated to learn that the child she was carrying would have severe birth defects, she and her husband decided to terminate the pregnancy. but she had to go to texas >> i ended up having to go 350 miles away to have my abortion because i couldn't get a provider to do it in new orleans. >> the ruling struck down a louisiana law that would have made that even harder. requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. chief justice john roberts joined the court's four more liberal members in the 5-4 decision he said the law was identical to one from texas that the court struck down fewer years ago. even though he dissented in the texas case, he said it is binding precedent so louisiana's law cannot stand president trump's two nominees, neil gorsuch and brett kavanaugh were among the defenders kavanaugh didn't go that far and said the court should have sent the case back to gather

pete williams has this report. >> reporter: it's the second surprising ruling this week are from a conservative supreme court. a big blow to president trump and a huge victory for young people in the daca program. >> there was just enormous relief to shut down the confusion ask worry. >> you can come out of the shadows. >> reporter: president obama launched daca in 2012 with the stroke of a pen by executive order. since then, 800,000 young people known as dreamers brought to the u.s. by their undocumented parents have been allowed to stay, go to school and get jobs. president trump could have shut it down the same way by executive order. instead his justice department declared it illegal and the department of homeland security ordered it ended by a vote of 5-4 with john roberts join iing the liberals, they said it was too much of a shortcut roberts wrote the opinion saying the government failed to properly evaluate. justice thomas called it an effort to avoid a politically controversial but legally correct decision president trump blasted the ruling tweeting, these horrible and politically char

involved far-left groups like antifa, but attorney general barr says they're still investigating. >> pete williams, thanks for report >> let's bring in nbc meteorologist janessa webb she's got a look at our wednesday. hi, janessa, good morning. >> good morning, you two good to see you both good morning, everyone let's talk about your wednesday weather. we still have this storm system that's brewing across the carolinas. i know you've been seeing a ton of sunshine for the northeast, but that's about to change for some sections due to the cloud coverage it's going to start to head to the north. now, rainfall totals will start to be reduced, but now making their way into west virginia, virginia as well we could locally see up to 3 inches on the other side of the nduntry, we have high heat a humidity will continue to build. still, sunny skies for northern new england, burlington, lower 80s. and temperatures are on the cool side, but when will the heat come back? talk more about that >> okay, thank you, janessa. coming up, we bring you the largest active fire in the country where hundreds have fled the

pete williams has details. >> reporter: it's another surprising ruling from this conservative supreme court and a victory for women speaking abortion, like kimberly o'brien of new orleans, devastated to learn the child she was carrying would have severe birth defects she and her husband decided to terminate the pregnancy but she had to go to texas. >> i ended up having to go 350 miles away to have my abortion because i couldn't get a provider to do it in new orleans. >> reporter: today's ruling struck down a louisiana law that would have made that even harder. requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital chief justice john roberts joined the court's four more liberal members in the 5 to 4 decision. he said the law was identical to one from texas that the court struck down four years ago. even though he dissented in the texas case he said today that it is binding precedent so louisiana's law cannot stand. president trump's two nominees neil gorsuch and brett kavanaugh were among the dissenters clarence thomas said the court's abortion precedents are grie

job roberts who cast the fifth and deciding vote in this case, craig. >> justice correspondent pete williams helping us break it all down. pete, thank you, sir. >>> criminal charges filed against police officers in the deadly shooting of rayshard brooks in atlanta. i'll have a conversation with the brooks family attorney about the disturbing new details tra the district attorney just revealed about this case. also ahead, the record number of new coronavirus cases forcing businesses that were reopening to close again. around here, nobody ever does it. i didn't do it. so when i heard they added ultra oxi to the cleaning power of tide, it was just what we needed. dad? i didn't do it. #1 stain and odor fighter, #1 trusted. it's got to be tide. i but what i do count on...ts anis boost high protein...rs, and now, there's boost mobility... ...with key nutrients to help support... joints, muscles, and bones. try boost mobility, with added collagen. so when it comes to screening for colon cancer, don't wait. because when caught early, it's more treatable. i'm cologuard. i'm noninvasive and detect alt

chad wolf and michael osterholm in just a moment and i want to bring in nbc justice correspondent pete williams to talk about the trump administration drama-filled firing of the top prosecutor for the southern district of new york. so, pete, walk us through the last 48 hours where first he was i guess getting promoted to a new job and justice. it was supposedly a resignation and then he wouldn't go and then he was willing to go. how did we get to where we are today? >> our understanding is jay clayton, the sec chairman raised his hand and said i want that job. he played golf with the president a couple of weekends ago, and barr knew him and so they said, fine. according to the people we've talked to barr then said to berman, hey, we want to move this guy in, would you like to be sec chairman or the head of the civil rights division at justice and berman said no. so friday night out of nowhere barr announced that the president would be nominating jay clayton for the onand berman would be stepping down and berman shot back no, i'm want going anywhere, and i was appointed by the court and i will s

i want to turn now to nbc's pete williams. also with us is melissa murray, a law professor at new york university, and former law clerk to then judge sonia sotomayor. pete, same question i asked last hour about the significance of this victory is this for abortion rights advocates? >> i'm interested to hear what our guest thinks. couple things. number one, this was a tough uphill battle for louisiana to try to get this law adopted by the supreme court. it said that doctors performing abortions had to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. it was identical to a law passed by texas that the supreme court struck down two years ago. so in that sense, and what chief justice roberts said, i didn't think that ruling was right two years ago, but that is binding precedent. i have to honor it. for that reason, he joined the court's four liberals in striking down this virtually identical louisiana law. so that's obviously good news for supporters of abortion rights. secondly, the dissenters here say that the people who challenge t

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pete williams in our washington bureau with the latest on trying to stop bolton's book. and we've got kristen welker at the white house. let's start in tulsa. and, cal perry, i want to start with you in the greenwood district there. give us a sense of the scene. i know you have talked to some folks who are not very excited about the president's arrival in the next 24 hours. >> i think a lot of people are here, and they are angry about the president's arrival tomorrow. you have, as you put it, this culmination of stories. these protests about keeping black lives matter in the forefront of people's minds as we deal with police violence across the country. you have the anniversary of the massacre that took place 99 years ago. this was an economic center of activity, even through segregation, people who live here have a life expectancy that is less than their white counterparts on the other side of town. unemployment is twice as high here as it is on the other side of town, in those white neighborhoods. so it's a matter of focus. we just talked to one. she said it's a matter

so joining us now is nbc news correspondent justice correspondent pete williams. pete, explain what this means about the court's position on abortion. >> well, what it means is that this law flunked the test that the supreme court gave four years to an identical law from texas. so the court is basically saying asked and answered already. roberts said i didn't agree with that decision four years ago, but it's now press decedenprece bound by it. a state could come along with another restriction and roberts might be more open to that. on the broader question of roe versus wade, i don't think you can read a lot into what roberts did today. at this point, i don't think you can say he's open to it. but i don't think you can say he's absolutely against it. >> why, if there was an identical suit brought four years ago, five years ago by texas, why was it brought again and how did it make it all the way to the supreme court? >> so the fifth circuit court of appeals said well, things are different in louisiana. we have to look at it case by case and it wouldn't have had the

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has the details. >> reporter: it's the second surprisinging this week from a conservative supreme court, a big blow to president trump, and a huge victory for those in the daca program. >> it was a huge relief to shut down all of this confusion and worry honestly. >> you can come out of the shadows. >> reporter: president obama launched daca deferred action for child arrivals. since then, 800,000 young people known as dreamers brought to the u.s. by their undocumented parents have been allowed to stay, go to school, and get jobs. president trump could have shut it down the same way, by executive order. instead his justice department declared it illegal and the homeland security ordered it ended. by a vote of 5-4 with chief justice job roberts joining the courts for liberals, he said it was too much of a shortcut. roberts wrote the opinion saying the government failed to properly evaluate how ending daca would affect those who relied on it to stay here and get jobs. in a dissent, justice clarence roberts called it a controversial but legally

joining us, pete williams and nbc news contributor claire mccaskill. pete, it's a big deal decided on relatively narrow grounds with the chief justice joining the liberal majority. please, explain. >> reporter: right. narrow grounds of these, andrea. four years ago, 2016, supreme court strum down an identical law passed by texas. the bra houhaha over the passagf that law you may remember. today would have done the same thing. we said that law was unconstitutional and said this was, too. chief roberts says i disagreed four years ago, binding and for that reason i join the spooem court saying that law in texas just like the law in louisiana would be an undue burden on a woman's right to choose. a victory in that way. the second way it's a victory is this -- by the way, women's groups said if this law had gone into effect it would have left a single doctor to provide abortions services for all of louisiana. there was a second issue lurking in this case. louisiana said, you know what? abortion is a woman's right, and the challengers to the louisiana law, do

first, joining me now, nbc justice correspondent pete williams, and an assistant dean at the lyndon johnson school for public affairs in austin, texas. pete, first of all, take us through this decision. >> daca, remember, was born by the stroke of a pen. obama and his administration in 2012 created the daca program. so when you can create by executive order, you can end by executive order. so to be clear, president trump could have ended daca by executive order but he chose not to do that. perhaps he didn't want to take the political heat for it, whatever reason. what happened here is the justice department under jeff sessions said daca is illegal. then the department of homeland security wrote a brief memo for the reasons it shut it down. today the supreme court said that explanation didn't meet the demands of the law. there is a federal law that says when the government creates a program that a lot of people depend on, you have to have good reasons, you have to carefully say why you're shutting it down. that's where the supreme court said today that the administration failed. it said basi

pete williams is following this story for us. good morning. >> this all happened quickly. now the u.s. attorney jeffrey berman is out after 2 1/2 years. attorney general william barr announced friday night that he would be stepping down so that president trump could nominate his replacement, jay clayton, the chairman of the securities and exchange commission, who is not an experienced prosecutor. clayton told the president that he was interested in the job and would leave thesec. berman said he would stay on the job until his successor was confirmed by the senate. on saturday, barr said in a letter that he recommended that president trump fire berman. that's what happened. the president said later he had nothing to do with it. this move did set off alarm bells. berman isn't just another u.s. attorney. his office is investigating the business practices of trump lawyer rudy giuliani and two of his ex-associates. republicans and democrats say it's going to be hard for clayton to be confirmed. barr said he is directing the justice department's inspector general to monitor the n

let's bring in our justice correspondent pete williams who joins me now. me the justice department has jurisdiction. this is just -- where is their jurisdiction on this? >> they say this is all about whether or not he lived up to his obligations that he signed when he came to work for the federal government, that he wouldn't disclose classified information. we see these lawsuits all the time, if somebody violates that obligation, those oaths that they sign. so that gives the government jurisdiction here. >> he submitted this for classification. it seemed to go through the process. and that's what's sort of, i guess, odd about this, is that he did submit it through the process, and it was held up and held up and held up, and they didn't -- i guess they violated -- they were supposed to get it back to him in a certain amount of time. is this thing going to go anywhere? >> well, what the government says here, its version is, yes, he was obligated to give his book to the security council for security review and he did it, but they say they're not done. and they

. >> pete williams, i thank you for making sense out of the last 24 hours. >> you bet. >>> joining me now is acting homeland security director, chad wolf. welcome and happy father's day, sir. >> thank you. >> i want to start big picture here. here we are in june. there's been over 8 million confirmed cases of the virus around the globe, and the united states accounts for just over 25% of all cases leading the globe unfortunately in that statistic. how did we find ourselves in that precarious situation. >> well, i think what we saw earlier on in january and february is a virus that came to the u.s. we saw china not being very clear, not being up front about what they were seeing early on. we took a number of dramatic steps t president did, in limiting the spread or seeding of that virus here in the u.s., and what we've seen since then is a white house coronavirus task force working day and night to make sure we have the resources, the testing, the ppe, as well as the guidance to state and local governors to make sure we can open up the economy in a safe and reasonable way. we're seeing

joining me now is nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. pee that's a charge whispered about, had been blind quoted about, sourced up. now hearing firsthand. what is the justice department saying? >> well, remember what the justice department said at the time was that the attorney general didn't think that that initial sentencing recommendation accurately reflected similar sentences for similar offenses and he thought it was out of line. zelens ze len ski doesn't say where the pressure was coming, hearing from the supervisors the attorney in the acting position feared the president and was getting the heat from the justice department to water down the description of stone's crimes and call for a lesser sentence. interestingly, the sentence that the judge ultimately imposed of three and a third years pretty much in line with the justice department's revised sentence recommendations. zelinsky was like seven or eight years but i think interesting things. number one is he is stepping forward to say all of this which is gutsy. he is still an unl

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pete william's is nbc's justice correspondent, and josh lederman is an nbc news national political reporter live at the white house. pete, what more can you tell us about this announcement? >> reporter: this has been a rapidly unfolding thing over the past 12 hours. what happened is last night the attorney general announced in a press release that the person who is now the chairman of the securities and exchange commission jay clayton would be taking over the job of u.s. attorney in manhattan, and geoffrey berman was stepping down in two weeks. that immediately produced a blistering reply from berman who said, oh, no, i'm not. i'm not going anywhere. i have no intention of resigning. i haven't resigned and i will stay in this job until my successor is confirmed by the senate because, he says, he was appointed by a court. so what happened is normally the president of the attorney general under certain circumstances can appoint a u.s. attorney and if there's a vacancy for a certain amount of time, a court can appoint a u.s. attorney, and that's how berman got the job. berman came to work this

>> and let me go back to pete williams. pete, have you had a chance to read any of this yet? and does this now apply nationwide? >> yes. the answer is it does apply nationwide. now, some states, a small number of states, had their own laws that made it illegal for employers to fire people on the basis of sexual orientation, but now, this is the guarantee that applies nationwide. so, the majority opinion was written by neil gorsuch. so, clearly, the chief justice assigned him the opinion, which gives it extra punch. and let me just read a couple of lines from what he says. he says, "sometimes, small gestures can have unexpected consequences. major initiatives practically guarantee them. in our time, few pieces of federal legislation rank in significance with the civil rights act of 1964." he talks about title 7, outlawing discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. and he says, "today we must decide whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender. the answer is clear -- an employer who fires an individual for b

let's cross over to pete williams in washington, d.c. pete, you heard morgan talk about these additional charges, i should say superseding charges for derek chauvin, but new charges against the other three officers. break that down for us in terms of where the investigation goes from here. >> well, the charges against chauvin have been more serious. it's second-degree murder, which carries a maximum penalty of 40 years under the third-degree murder charge he was facing the max was 25 years. the theory of the case is now what's called felony murder. the theory of the prosecution is that in the process of using illegal force against george floyd, in essence assaulting him, a murder was resulted. so second-degree murder is felony murder without intent to commit murder. the other officers are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder. what the charges say is that the person to the right of chauvin there, he watched what was going on, he prevented people from coming in to try to stop chauvin from putting his knee on george floyd's

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is here.to a congresswoman, i think this is a surprise for a lot of people, given that he pled guilty. tell us what is happening here. >> well, by a 2-1 vote, a three-judge panel of the d.c. court of appeals granted the motion from flynn's lawyers to direct the district court judge, emmet sullivan, to dismiss the case. you may remember it is true that two years ago flynn pleaded guilty twice, but his sentencing was delayed, he was supposed to be cooperating with the government in a criminal case in virginia against his former business partner. that cooperation agreement fell apart. and ultimately flynn moved to withdraw his guilty plea. then in a surprise move, the government said it wanted to simply abandon the prosecution after a federal prosecutor appointed by attorney general william barr to look into the case determined that there were some improper steps taken and this has been a -- a familiar litany of complaints from flynn's lawyers about the fbi's conduct here. but in any event, what

my colleague, justice correspondent pete williams is joining us now. to put you in a position to see what their rulings are so we'll be brief with you here but there are ten cases remaining, i think. do we have any sense of what one is coming or what may be coming today or perhaps more importantly which key decisions are you keeping an eye out for? >> no, they don't tell us in advance which cases are coming. we never know that until the very last day of the term and then we can tell what's left. then we know. we still don't know what the last day of the term is. this one is stretching into early july because of the pandemic. obviously, the big ones that the decisions on president trump's taxes and financial records, whether committees of the congress and the new york prosecutor can get their hands on them. there's a church -- a couple of church and state issues about state aid to schools, for example. whether the supreme court will uphold the trump administration's broader exemptions for giving out contraceptives under obamacare. the presidential power

here is pete williams. >> reporter: with demonstrators on the streets of oakland last month protesting the death of george floyd, the fbi says a white van several blocks away pulled up to the federal building and someone in it opened fire, killing david underwood, a federal protective service officer, stationed outside. several days later deputies from santa cruz responding to a 911 call about a white van with explosives in it were ambushed one of them was killed a short time later deputies arrested a suspect, dragging him into the street after he tried to steal a home owner's car. tonight federal prosecutors say both attacks were carried out by this 32-year-old, steven carillo, an air force sergeant assigned security at travis air base y in messages he wrote on a car, a clothing patch, and facebook posts he showed an interest in a far right movement called bugaloo boys >> the boogaloo term is used by extremists to reference a violent uprising or impending civil war in the united states. >> reporter: three boogaloo followers were arrested last month in las vegas accused of planning vio

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has the story. >> reporter: michael flynn's long legal sagald soon be over because of an order from the panel of the washington, d.c. appeals court. by a 2-1 vote, the court said decisions about whether to prosecute are the justice department's alone and cannot be second guessed by a judge unless there's evidence the government intends to trick the defendant by dropping charges and refiling them. so the court said judge emmett sullivan must grant the government's motion to dismiss the charges against flynn. >> i'm very happy about general flynn. he was treated horribly. >> reporter: flynn himself talked briefly with rush limbaugh. >> we are so happy with the decision, not only for our family, but for our country. >> reporter: he was one of the first people to be prosecuted by robert mueller's special counsel team, and twice pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi about his conversations with russia's ambassador to the u.s. but last month the justice department moved to dismiss the case, attorney general william barr concluded that the fbi had no le

pete williams joins us from washington with this. pete, good morning. what does the decision say? >> reporter: another big surprise. the supreme court said the trump administration wrongly tried to shut daca down. daca is going to survive. the trump administration could try again to shut it down, seems unlikely, something the government would try to do during election year. here's what happened. daca, this is the program that says young people brought to the u.s. by illegal grinimmigrant parents can stay in the u.s. 800,000 known as dreamers have taken advantage. it was set up by executive order by president obama. and no one has disputed if president trump wanted to, he could by executive order shut it down. that's not what the trump administration did. instead, the attorney general of the time jeff sessions said daca was illegally started, so department of homeland security based on that guidance ordered daca be shut down two years ago. a number of states and university of california has been sued, saying that can't be right, that when you have a program that many people depend

court ruled employers cannot discriminate based on gender orientation or status here is nbc's pete williams. >> reporter: it is a stunning ruling from a more conservative supreme court, a major decision on civil rights. the court set a 56-year-old law, the 1964 civil rights act, also bans job decisions because of sexual orientation and gender identity because they're forms of sex discrimination. it is a victory for gerald bosstock, fired from a job in georgia. >> my heart stopped. i went into shock. i didn't ask for this journey, i was willing to do it because no one should go to work fearful of losing their job because of who they are, who they love, or how they identify. >> reporter: the vote 6-3 with chief justice john roberts and neil gorsuch joining the court's four more liberal members. more surprising, it was gorsuch, president trump's first supreme court appointee who wrote the ruling congress might not have anticipated this result when it passed the civil rights act, he said, but, quote, the limits of the drafters imagination supply no reason to ignore the law's demands, only the w

justice could furnish more twist as this normally conservative court issues a string of nbc's pete williams >> reporter: the latest surprise, monday's ruling on abortion rights, striking down a louisiana law that would have required doctors performing abortions to have admitting privilegeless at nearby hospitals. the challenger said it was medically unnecessary, and would have left the entire state with just a single doctor to offer those services. >> had to pause everything and run down the hall to yell at the staff "we won, we won." had we lost this case, two of the three clinics currently providing abortion care would have probably had to close. >> reporter: chief justice john roberts joined the court's four more liberal members in the 5-4 decision. he said the law was kitt identical to the one from texas the court struck down four years ago even though he dissented in the texas case, he said it's binding precedent so louisiana's law cannot stand. roberts has been key to surprises this term casting the deciding vote to save the daca program that allows young undocumented dreamers in the

joining us now is nbc news justice correspondent pete wi williams. this news dropped on our air about a month ago. bring us up to speed what has happened and what is happening today? >> so this is all about a rule of the courts that says when the justice department seeks to dismiss a case and drop a prosecution the judge shall grant it unless he finds that it's not in the public interest. and the question is how much latitude does the judge have to actually look behind the curtain about why the government wants to drop the case and intoday by a vote of 2-1 a panel of the federal appeals court here in washington says very little. the panel says based on supreme court rulings and other case law the only time a judge can look under the hood is if there's some indication the government is trying to pull a fast one on the defendant by dropping the charges and then refiling them again. the court says there's no indication of that. gameover, the judge must drop the charges because the decision about whether to file or withdraw charges is exclusively one for

i want to bring in our justice correspondent, pete williams. pete, walk us through, first of all, what stands out to you about this ruling, and how did we get to this point? were there three cases, is that right? >> actually, sort of two plus one. but they were all in one big decision on same-sex discrimination and transgender discrimination. so with a stands out to me, number one, the decision from this newly conservative supreme court. i think many people thought this might be where the court would go if anthony kennedy was still a member, who had written all the court's significant issues in this area. but he's gone, replaced by the more conservative brett kavanaugh. now, in fact, you know, what you have here is kavanaugh joining the dissenters today. but neil gorsuch, who replaced antonin scalia, writing the majority opinion. i can't imagine scalia would have written the opinion today, but gorsuch did. then you have the six-vote majority. it is not just a 5-4 squeaker decision. it is a 6-3 ruling. as i'm sure you've been discussing, the core

joining me is nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. , what can you to help us cut in the back and forth and the blame shifting? what is the back story according to your reporting of why this happened? >> my understanding is jay clayton the chairman is the person they want to put in this job that he simply said i'm interested in that gig that he had played golf at bedminster with the president and mentioned it to barr he was interested in the job and said okay, they both knew him and they knew him better than berman. the president known him for a number of years. they thought okay. my understanding is secondly, they offered jeff berman two other positions, one is to take over the job of sec chairman or become the head of the civil rights division at the justice department and he said he wasn't interested in either one. you thought he would quietly go. >> is there anything -- there is obviously speculation about investigations going on. he over saw the investigation into michael cohen, rudy giuliani and it doesn't seem as though this was

. >> so what's interesting is pete williams summed it up really well earlier today. basically somebody who got married on friday could have walked into work friday afternoon and gotten fired from their job. and then on monday would have been protected from being fired from their job. i believe he sounded a little more concisely and eloquently than i did. but just the turn of events here and how sharp it is, you can get married but you were not protected from being fired from your job. and there's something likes who experiencing a form of mistreatment in the workplace. >> it corrects a great injustice in our country. when congress adopted the civil rights act of 1964, they sought to deal with the crisis of discrimination based on race, based on gender, based on sex. justice gorsuch arrived at the right outcome here. it was a 6-3 ruling, with justices alito, thomas, and kavanaugh in dissent. i believe justice alito deemed the case a travesty and felt that the outcome here should have been one left to political process. but time and time again, efforts have been made t

chief justice john roberts serving as the man in the middle once again nbc's justice corresponden pete williamsith more on that. pete, good morning >> reporter: savannah, this last day of june would normally be the final day of supreme court rulings but because of the pandemic ten cases remain and the chief justice could furnish more twists as this normally conservative court issues a string of surprising decisions the latest surprise, monday's ruling on abortion rights striking down a louisiana law that would have required doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. but challenges said it was medically unnecessary and would have left the entire state just a single doctor to offer those services >> had to pause everything and run down the hall to yell at the staff we won, we won had we lost this case, two of the three clinics currently providing abortion care probably would have had to close. >> reporter: chief justice john roberts joined the more liberal members in the 5-4 decision. he said the law was identical to one from texas that the court struck down fo

. >> joining me from washington is our own pete williams. pete, this has been interesting to follow all week. where is this headed and what are the key next decision dates that we should be looking out for here? >> there's no decision date yet, chuck. i think the most important thing to keep in mind about what happened today is this was not an appeal. remember what happened to how we got here. the justice department last month told the judge they wanted to drop the case. they didn't think what michael flynn did after reflection was in fact a violation of the law. the judge in this case, emmitt sullivan, said, okay, well i have to decide whether to do that or not so i'm going to appoint this friend of course, this retired judge to argue why it shouldn't happen and then i'll hold a hearing in july about what i should do. and then the lawyers for michael flynn went to the court of appeals, this isn't an appeal. they went to the court of appeals and said issue an order telling the judge he can't do that. tell him that he must accept the justice d