mary price, william otis. we thank you both. >> thank you so much. >> ifill: you can watch the rest of holder's speech on our website. and still to come on the "newshour": backlash to russia's crackdown on homosexuality; problems plaguing san francisco's bay bridge; convicting whitey bulger and spying on license plates. but first, with the other news of the day. here's kwame holman. >> holman: a federal judge ruled today new york city police have violated the rights of thousands of people with a "stop-and- frisk" policy. the tactic is allowed based on a reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. but the judge said officers stopped mostly black and hispanic men using questionable criteria, so the policy intentionally discriminates based on race. mayor michael bloomberg denied that charge. and he said the policy is a vital deterrent to crime. >> today we have fewer guns, fewer shootings, and fewer homicides. the fact that fewer guns are on the street now shows that our efforts have been successful. and there is just no

people are not, including former special counsel to former president george herbert walker bush, william otis, who characterized holder's move as a move for drug dealers. the professor joins me now, along with laura murphy, director of the washington legislative office of the aclu. professor, make the argument. why is this a win for drug dealers? >> it's a win for drug dealers because under the attorney general's proposed policy, the cost of doing business has gone down. he has said that he is going to allow, indeed he is going to require federal prosecutors from now on to omit the amount of drugs being dealt from the indictment. that in turn will permit judges to go below the otherwise applicable mandatory minimum sentence. when the price of doing business goes down, that's a win for the person doing the business. unfortunately, the business here selling drugs. and we're not talking just about marijuana. the federal mandatory minimums apply as well to child pornography, to selling heroin, methamphetamine, pcp. these are not harmless drugs, and they lead eventually to severe injury and in som

also william otis, adjunct professor of law at georgetown university. and senator rand paul are praising eric holder for a major decision. why? >> well, i have been working for years with pat nolan at the prison ministries and with right on crime. rick perry, the governor in texas, is the leader in 2007. texas has saved two billion dollars. they've closed three prisons. and they have the lowest prime rate they've had in over 20 years. and i think it's because of an intelligent distinction between dangerous violent criminals and people who are nonviolent. >> so you're praising what the attorney general has done -- >> it's the right direction. >> bill, what do you say? >> i think there's good news and bad news in what the attorney general has done. part of the bad news is that the attorney general conflates nonviolent crime with nonharmful crime. a great deal of drug dealing and drug consumption, while nonviolent, is very harmful. when a heroin addict is putting the drug in his arm, it's not violent, but it's harmful and can be lethal. same thing with oth