why could we not develop a system where the chief justices, in fact, the senior justice? >> there would be nothing unconstitutional about that if you are an original list. well, if you were an original list it goes by the intent of the framers, obviously, those who framed the constitution seem to assume that somebody would be nominated and confirmed to a position of chief justice and would hold that position to life that is the original understanding, but it is not -- it is a very interesting question. >> i really could not add to that. whether it means that it really is the roberts court or the rehnquist court, i think it is just tradition that we call it that. i will say that during one of the interviews i had there was the justices said he did not understand why supreme court's were called after the chief justice. he said, why should renquist be blamed for what that gore did? and it suggested, instead, that the court been named after the president and named to the last justice to the supreme court which would make this court the obama court which i think would come as a

it is about as close to spin as the justices can get. they are able to tell the public which parts they think are important and the nuances. there has been some discussion, senator durbin toward the end of the term asked the court to allow the broadcast of opinion announcements. a very unsuccessful campaign has gone on for decades to allow camera coverage of the arguments. he was focusing on the opinion announcements as a foot in the door. that is an interesting idea, and i think it would get rid of some of the objections that justices have about cameras, the dynamics of justices interacting. the problem is the court does not like the idea of opinion announcements being featured. they do not want lawyers citing the words of the opinion announcement instead of the opinion itself -- it is a summary and it oversimplifies things. there is something interesting about the separate entity of opinion announcements as far as the public access to that. i wish it was greater. >> the audio of that does become available at the end of the term. there i

calling for a change to the justice system. the protesters feel justice was not served when george zimmerman was found not guilty in the shooting death of trayvon martin.they say it highlights some of the problems with our justice department. the protest tonight is at 5:00 in mckeldin square and they expect hundreds of people to attend. reporting live at the inner harbor, kim dacey, wbal-tv 11 news. we talked to a local law attorney. he says besides the emotion, there was no clear-cut verdict. there was evidence on both sides. the jurors did not have an easy job. >> kim dacey, thank you. >> there were three more shootings from over the weekend. someone shot and killed ramon rodriguez near safley high street. lee high street. boy.e say someone shot a police have no suspects in any of the shootings. police are investigating an incident involving an amtrak train in middle river. a conductor said he thought he hit a child around eastern boulevard. crews check the area and did find blood and clothing what they did not find a victim.

the justice are quite alert. eight of them like to ask a lot of questions and there is only an hour to do it in. but the number of questions is quite high. justice sotomayor asks more than average of 21 questions per hour of argument. that is a lot of questions from a single justice. >> does that kind of style make it even more important for litigant to have experienced supreme court practitioner representing him or her? i think many of you have written about the increasing specialization of the supreme court bar. joan, you wrote a very funny story about a guy from guam who had his pro se case accepted this term. maybe we should start with that. would you like to tell us the story? >> all of us have written in one way or another about the how the elite bar is contracting and there are more and more clients turning to this core group of private practitioners and it's become more proannounced because of course the court's calendar been shrinking over the years, fewer cases. what i wrote about the fam no that then ha

this system which he fought for so long in the justice. the decision was law of the land. equal justice under law. >> when a supreme court decided the gideon case, they really brought light to that phrase. it doesn't matter if you are rich, it doesn't matter if you are poor, you get the same equal chance. >> just look at what happened to gideon. the supreme court didn't set gideon free but it gave him a fair trial with a competent attorney. >> not guilty. >> clarence earl gideon was a free man. the man who won a landmark supreme court case went to live a normal living with a job pumping gas. >> when i read where it says equal justice under law, i'm very inspired by that. i'm very comforted by that. but i know a lot of people are treated unfairly. i see it as something encouraging but i don't see it yet. >> it's written into constitution and established into the goal for society to reach for and live up to. people will fall short, rights can be ignored or even trampled. with nothing more than a pencil and knowledge. >> if you know your rights you can protect your rights. if

but will the justice department follow that advice? an league, the former mayor of new orleans. he's a good friend of ours. mark, thanks very much for coming on. >> thanks, wolf. >> you are a lawyer. you grew up in a city where there were serious race issues that have always been out there over many, many years. so do you believe realistically the attorney general, eric holder, has enough to file a civil rights suit, a charge against george zimmerman? >> what i would say is based on what i think the attorney general will say today that he has committed to going forward with the investigation. and i think it's easy for us to say there are -- there is or is not enough evidence. but one of the things that a federal investigation may in fact, yield is additional evidence and additional take on the existing evidence that was uncovered in connection with this case. and i do believe there's sufficient grounds when you look at all the circumstances for a charge that george zimmerman engaged in a hate crime, number one, or number two, in actions

i love the department of justice. and i've never seen some of the things that have happened, that have happened in recent years. and i believe the public needs to know more about it. i've tried not to be too critical in -- of attorney general holder and haven't. but i'm concerned about this. so later, two attorneys in the department of justice defied the department and actually agreed to testify against the department's recommendation before the commission on civil rights, at considerable risk to their careers. jay christian adams and christopher coats, the former chief of the voting rights section. mr. coats was the former chief of the voting rights section. adams and coats stated that -- quote -- "political appointees declined to prosecute the new black panther case because they were interested only in civil rights cases that involved equality for racial and ethnic minorities and would not prosecute civil rights cases in a race-neutral way. adams called the actions in the new black panther case -- this is what the at

this was outside the justice department. a few people with a lit sign, "justice for trayvon." chicago, hundreds of people gathered for a moment of silence. before the verdict, there was a fairly concerted effort, i should say, to terrify the country about what kind of horrible reaction there would be to the verdict. there was a verdict, indeed, this weekend. people responded with demonstration. they were almost entirely peaceful, emotional protests all around the country. >>> just 11 days after he was sworn into office, january 27th, 2010, virginia's brand spanking new governor bob mcdonnell got a gig on the main stage. he was chosen by the national republican party to give the party's official response to the president's state of the union address. those were very heady times. >> it's not easy to follow the president of the united states. my 18-year-old twin boys have added pressure to me tonight by giving me exactly ten minutes to finish before they leave to go watch "sports center." >> the governor responded to the very real pressure of that post state of the union assignme

the department of justice should look into this. l case explored. i just think that we need to respect the entire system. i think done a good job respecting this jury's decision at the state level. but there are other levels of our system that should be allowed to go forward. >> quickly to both of you, van, you first, the florida state attorney who led the prosecution, even though she wasn't necessarily in the courtroom, she just told our sister network hln that one word to describe george zimmerman, and she called him "murderer." does that respect the system? >> well, her job was to bring forward a prosecution, if she did not believe he was a murder, she shouldn't have charged him with second-degree murder. so i think it's consistent with her role and her function, her duty. i think obviously if i were mr. zimmerman, though, i would take offense and i think most americans think that that was ill-considered on her part. but i understand her trying to be consistent. she might be criticized if she were to say he was not a murderer, hav

pleaing is what the criminal justice system does. that's actually what these officers are prepared to do. the sheriff's criminal case going to trial dropped sharply. in 2010, it's less than 5%. so what we're seeing is a system that now has, can dangle much harsher possible penalties for people. the much harsher penalty is the thing that scares people into pleaing. we have a system that is only equipped to plea people out. if everyone went to trial, the entire thing, right, the entire thing would collapse in on itself. >> what we effectively do is curtail the right to a jury, a trial by jury of your peers. because you have two options, and a draconian sentence or a possibly terrible plea bargain. >> right. >> and so this is what we have. we wind up with situations like marissa alexander which we should say the issue is not solely her, but what happens to the next person who's innocent and knows about this case? they take a plea bargain. something they really shouldn't have ever been charged. >> people will say about the criminal justic

i think the justice department's doing this for two reasons. u may recall texas immediately -- the same day the supreme court announced the decision -- said okay, we're going to go back to our old legislative districts and congressional boundaries and we'll reimpose our voter i.d. law. so it is a response to that. but secondly i think the justice department is trying to send a message to other states that the cop is still on beat, that they shouldn't get the idea that they have a free pass now. i think as if may happen later today north carolina changes its voting laws to do away with longer early voting and to impose a strict voter i.d., the justice department may try the same thing there. >> we've seen in a number of areas -- you cite north carolina -- right after the supreme court -- even before the supreme court ruling came, states, legislatures were taking these steps, preliminary steps, on voting rights. is the next step that texas will challenge the justice department once the justice department does something and we're going to be back i

there's so much talk about the justice department. in fact, we're going to talk with hakeem jeffries and gregory meeks, members of congress who are calling for action. you heard in that sound clip there, the question is whether or not george zimmerman targeted trayvon martin because of his race. that is something, as lisa bloom pointed out, that even the prosecution didn't have a great follow up with while we were watching many days of this trial. >> i will tell you having been involved in and sent a number of cases to the justice department, i know it's a real challenge. the justice department likes cases that have huge impact. if you boil that down to the single case here, it will be difficult for them to conclude that it was based upon race, number one, and then number two, that he had the specific intent to kill him because of race. because of the factual circumstances that we have in this case, they would need more evidence, it seems to me, than what the prosecution had in this case. and they have to deal with that in the context

i know that at least as of late last night, were collected for the justice department to take action. but you're a civil rights lawyer and you know how high the bar is to prosecute something like this. do you see a case? >> i do see a case. i think part of our confusion about whether or not there should be a case is that the prosecutor messed up. the prosecutor decided that they were going to go with a colorblind analysis of what happened. and too often we see the courts and prosecutors doing that and not being able to mention race. look. i tweeted a few days ago, you know, that it is amazing that we have had a conversation about this case prior to the verdict without machinientioning the "r, race. too often our courts are saying that america is colorblind. distort wants us to think that but we know from the experience of millions of people in this country, whether they are black, latino, whether they are muslim, that race does matter and so i think this is going to be the opportunity for the department of justice to make that case. >> a lot of questions were asked in those post verdi

the rallies demanding justice for the florida teen. >> and we have a few changes in the forecast. mostly cloudy skies on this sunday morning. sun and then completely something different from monday. >> literally as if she was running for governor, she went door to door. that is the constituency. >> our political insider with advice on how to move past the drama. >> thanks for joining us, i'm anne makovec. >> and i'm bill. we have a lot of news to cover. we will talk about the demonstrations and the city, how they are handling or not handling the police department. >> we start with developing news in san francisco. one person is dead, another man in custody after a shootout in the tenderloin district at 10:00 last night. an officer stopped two men shooting at one another at larken street. one man was killed an the other tried to run away but was arrested soon after. >> we know the officers came upon a gun battle and as a result of that gunfight, we have one person seriously injured and another who died. >> the officer on scene fired his weapon but didn't hurt anyone. two weapons wh

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last year. >> the department of political justice. >> why does it seem the department of justice is arching orders from the new black panther party? >> i mean, this is like a -- >> ridiculous. >> -- effort to discredit the justice department while there are those that would appeal to the justice department to execute what is fair. and as i just named, have done before under other administrations. >> well, and, hey, as you know, and they know it too, these are career attorneys. these are attorneys that are probably there under the bush administration. who knows what administration. >> right. >> and this is not where -- and you know eric holder like i know eric holder. eric holder is not some dictator. as a matter of fact, a lot of times when we try to have discussions with him, what do you plan to do, look, he has to put all these attorneys together. >> right, and they have to come up with a decision. so fox is disingenuous. >> you've been a long time. >> thank you. >> and say yes and no in a lot of situations. >> absolutely. what they're doing is that they're playing to an audience t

and to teach the justice department all about justice. >> reporter: the national black church initiative, a coalition of 34,000 churches nationwide, organized this demonstration asking the justice department to indict george zimmerman for violating trayvon martin's civil rights. >> this was definitely racial profiling in its worse degree. here's a man who has appointed himself to take a life. he appointed himself god that night. >> reporter: this lawyer says the justice department turned her down when she asked for federal hate crime charges. she represented the family of school principal brian betts who was killed in his silver spring home by four teenagers. >> because we believe his death was motivated by his sexual orientation. similar to the zimmerman case where they believe that the crime was motivated by race. >> reporter: the department of justice is currently investigating the college park confrontation between prince george's county police and students in the street that occurred in march of 2010 after the university of maryland's basketball victory over duke. however

politics intruding on the criminal justice system. esident obama issued a statement after the zimmerman verdict calling for calm. says he will stay out of the situation even as the justice department investigates. but majority senate leader harry reid is not staying out of it. >> and the president, does he have a role in speaking about it as he did after the shooting? >> yeah, of course. and i think the justice department is going to take a look at this. this isn't over with i think that's good. it's our system. it's gotten better, not worse. >> bill: joining us now from washington to react fox news analyst karl rove. i want to take you somewhere that we haven't been trying to make the point to bernie goldberg anchors, commentators to community. particularly on the liberal networks. bad for business. so they're not going to do it. all right? he they will let whatever said go if it means challenging whatever minority concern is in play. it's the same thing in the democratic party i believe. their base is heavily minority and they're nev

the community? do they feel justice has been served? e other hand 9 and wast( appointed head of the safety committee forw3Ñi the t(distric. he echoed the sentiment of a lost richmond residents. they hoped this is bringing closure to the family and the ,x(ursáhp'd even though this egregious attack happened,fá it forced richmond took lock atlpq sexual violence and forced the best practice measures and haven't seen any,axd tack closeo that since. i think the community is realizing justice is served. i think the community is realizing justice is served. justi] (uáhtp sentence of 33 years to life.Ñi maximum sentence for this a groejuous crime. >> you areÑi here as an independent journalist and not on behalf of the women's development. you have a column coming out any safety improvementsñr taken place? lighting or securit)gÑ place? lighting or securit)gÑ >>çó what happened int( 20(r that a sophomore, a girl left the homecoming dance around i]90 and wasjf supposed to calljf hed for a ride home and was called into a dark part of thei] campu that

on the "newshour" tonight, the justice department move comes after the supreme court threw out part of the voting rights act. we examine the legal battle ahead. >> brown: then, a major hedge fund has been charged with securities fraud and insider trading. hari sreenivasan explores the indictment and the effort to root out financial crimes. >> woodruff: some of california's most dangerous felons are on a hunger strike after being held in isolation for years. we go inside the prison to see what conditions are like for the inmates and their guards. >> i believe that certain people should be isolated. but without no sunlight, going years with no sunlight, it would be nice to look out a window and see the outside. that would be nice. >> woodruff: officials in pyongyang unveiled a new cemetery for korean war veterans, the first of several ceremonies for the 60th anniversary of the end of the conflict. we get a rare report from inside north korea. >> woodruff: and the conversation about race continues after the zimmerman verdict and president obama's personal reflections. we have our own roun

but the justice department stepping in and provide something closure for the family and some justice a lot of people who have been watching this. but also an ongoing conversation and some real policy change in states. ending stand your ground in states and really building a movement to push against the type of laws that not only shielded george zimmerman for so many months but also provided the crux of his legal defense. and sends a message to the other george zimmermans out there that vigilanteism is okay and is support. and then the ongoing work around culture change. and a color of change, we've launched represent.color of change.org. it's a movement to start holding hollywood and the larger culture accountable. when george zimmerman saw trayvon martin he saw a young black man with a hoody. and he didn't see a child. he saw someone he thought was a thug. someone that deserved to be followed. someone that was less than human. and he dehumanized him in that way and every single day, we see images coming into our home that support that. and so at color of change, we're the largest on

it was hard to figure out how likely it might be that the justice department would try to bring that. meanwhile, today, the attorney general today bluntly and without euphemism going right after the state of florida saying its laws contribute to more violence than they prevent. listen to how the attorney general made his case. listen to that. >> it's time to question with laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sew dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods. these laws try to fix something that was never broken. there has always been a legal defense for using deadly force if, and the if is important, if no safe retreat is available. but we must examine laws that take this further by eliminating the common sense and age-old requirement that people who feel threatened have a duty to retreat outside their home if they can do so safely. by allowing and, perhaps, encouraging violent situations to escalate in public, such laws undermine public safety. the list of resulting tragedies is long, and unfortunately, has victimized too many who are innocent. it is our collective

the justice department opened an investigation on the case over a year ago. attorney general eric holder acknowledged today at that event that the investigation is still ongoing. >> i want to assure you the department will continue to act in a manner that is consistent with the facts and the law. we are committed to standing with the people of sanford, with the individuals and family affected by this incident and by our state and local partners to alleviate tensions, address community concerns and to promote healing. >> but how realistic is it that zimmerman would face federal charges after being acquitted? let's bring in our legal panel. sunny hostin is a cnn legal analyst and linda kenney baden. discussion of these federal chashlgs have typicly been applied to public pliies like the police officers in the rodney king case. can you walk us through this high bar? what would be needed? is this really credible? >> it is a high bar. i do, jake, think that it's a possibility. i think it's credible and we do know the justice department has a parallel investigation

the justice department is investigating. holder addressed it earlier. >> i believe that this tragedy provides another opportunity for our nation to speak honestly about the complicated and emotionally charged issues that this case has raised. we must not, as we have too often in the past, let this opportunity pass. we are resolved, as you are, to combat violence involving or directed at young people to prevent future tragedies and to deal with the underlying attitudes, mistaken beliefs, and stereotypes that serve as the basis for these two common incidents. >> some people might be confused as to what this trial that everybody has been watching for weeks has ended but now the justice department is going to take another look for possible additional violations. you and bob are having a moment. >> he is looking at me really weird like he is going to bite me or do something. not only that, to distract me today which going to be impossible. he used some kind of smelly aromatherapy, odor coming from him. just so you know. that's wh

the last state or the only state that the justice department takes a good hard look at. north carolina being the next state. holder spoke to a crowd of more than a 1,000. no one in the crowd of the expecting that announcement. holder indicating he would use other parts of the vote rights act to bring lawsuits and take other legal action against states that the justice department feels are disproportionately or disenfranchising disproportionately minority voters. here's a little bit else of what he said. take a listen. >> as these and many other cases demonstrate, as too many voters have seen firsthand and as every member of the supreme court acknowledged in the shelby decision in the words of the chief justice, i quote again voting discrimination still exists. no one doubts that, unquote. now although mandated by the constitution, vote rights are not always guaranteed in practice without robust enforcement. that's why despite the court's decision, i believe we must regard this setback not as a defeat, but as a historic opportunity for congress to restore and even to stren

the justice department breeds new life into the voting rights law. the n.s.a. leaker tries to get out of the moscow airport, and anthony weiner says, oops, i did it again. i'm pete williams in for gwen ifill on "washington week." >> i say to these members of congress, you can't just be against something. you got to be for something. pete: the president draws battle lines against republicans and they push back. >> the speedster bounds to be all sizzle. at some point campaign season has to end and the working with others season has to begin. pete: but are both sides forgetting that americans are fed up with washington? the attorney general flexes his muscles on voting rights. >> even as congress considers updates to the voting rights act in light of the court's ruling, we plan in, the meantime, to fully utilize the law's remaining sections to make sure the voting rights of all american citizens are protected. pete: a new chapter in the saga of edward snowden. >> he's not a dissident or a human rights activist. mr. snowden alkt to be returned to the united states

look at the criminal justice system. it sort of suggests there was some sort of racial controversy against george zimmerman to proint him out as a racist. that's the theme, too. those by and large on the right, this is about messaging to them. there's a lot of conversations going on. those are the people who provided support. those are the people in the potential jury pool. this jury was conservative, gun owners, et cetera. also one other case is shelly zimmerman perjury case, which would also be tried in sanford. i thought that was statement was so jarring. >> we're talking about what the next step might be. to answer that, i'll bring in two attorneys, benjamin crump. thank you for joining us. benjamin, i'll start with you. can you just tell us -- i'm sure you've been in communication with the family since last night. what is their mood like? what are you hearing right now? >> well, initially when the verdict came, they were heart broken. it's painful. the killer of their unarmed son was not held accountable so they're t

you look at the department of justice, it is really the department of selective and social justice. is is the most dangerous thing of all, justice is supposed to be blind. but this administration only looks at it with a left eye clearly. >> you know, how, do you think he's serious? is the follow- up question about pursuing this case? it has worked its way in the court system which was the reason they stepped aside after beginning the investigation and letting its way working through the system. dow see them pursuing this as a civil right's case? >> they have a pr campaign and strategy to pander to the trayvon martin supporters, and the lobby. after the ncaa a noupsed, there they were. and christian adam and andrew mccarty on the show, talked about the fbi looked into this case and found no grounds to charge george zimmerman with any kinds of civil right's violation. but for the narrative and optices they have to feed the public perception that george zimmerman is a racist devil when this is ridiculous. and winding back to the discussion of hollywood, there is a pop culture incentive