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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Trump To Host Saturday Night Live; Nine-Year-Old Shot Dead, May Have Been Targeted; Ohio Voting Today On Marijuana; Passenger Jet Slides Off Runway; Prosecutors Appeal Pistorius Decision; Feds: Transgender Students Deserve Access To Locker Room. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired November 03, 2015 - 12:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:30:05] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN HOST: Are you ever going to head back?

SEN. AL FRANKEN (D), MINNESOTA: Head back to SNL. I go there every once in a while to watch, you know, the hang out and watch the show.

I don't think while I'm in the United States senate, but maybe when I'm very -- when I'm elderly.

BANFIELD: Certainly you're good enough and smart enough, Senator Franken. It's nice to have you...

FRANKEN: Thanks for remembering.

BANFIELD: ... on the air. I can't forget. It's been a delight to having you on, thanks so much.

FRANKEN: Thanks Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: And we look forward to working through the arbitration story with you as well, because obviously there is still a lot more in the pipeline.

FRANKEN: Thank you for paying attention to that.

BANFIELD: ... we like to have you on again.

FRANKEN: thank you, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Thank you, senator good to have you. And be sure to watch the Republican Presidential Candidate Jeb Bush, because he's talking today we're going to have that interview first on the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer coming up at 5:00 P.M. eastern time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:35:08] BANFIELD: A horrific deadly shooting of a 9-year-old boy in Chicago has that community and quite frankly the whole community around the country wondering at this point if this child was intentionally killed.

Police are not sure why this little boy Tyshawn Lee was killed, and they are searching right now for the suspect who pulled the trigger, understandably, his mother is distraught.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARLA LEE, VICTIM'S MOTHER: I don't have my baby no more. He is a good kid. He don't deserve that. He don't deserve that.

DEAN ANDREWS, CHIEF OF DETECTIVES, CHICAGO POLICE: It is unclear if this was a targeted incident or a tragic case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

At this time, we do not have a concrete motive, but we will be working around the clock to find out more.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: CNN's Rosa Flores is covering the story, and trying to do exactly that to find out more.

What do we know about the circumstances of this child, where he was, what happened and what surrounded the shootings, Rosa?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Ashleigh, I'm standing in the alley where this shooting actually happened.

Now I'm not going to be zooming into the gory details, because they are too gory, but if you look behind me, this alley meet the street. There are dots of blood and in some cases globs of blood leading from where I'm standing back to where this alley meets the street.

Now, let me set the scene here, because this is the neighborhood with a lot of houses around. According to the authorities, this shootout happened at about 4:30. So there is daylight. You can see that there's a lot of homes, and there's garages that meet this alley. According to police, there was some sort of altercation yesterday at about 4:30.

And now this 9-year-old boy, we're told that he was taking a shortcut, because his mom actually lives down this alley. And you can see it back there, there are a few people out here, you'll probably see some investigator, Ashleigh, because we've been seeing them all day long. They're going door-to-door and asking people questions.

Now, there's a small memorial here, and there's a story behind here, Ashleigh. I talked to people who have, you know, dropped off these bears, and that basketball, and we know that this little boy really enjoyed playing basketball, and so one of the gentlemen here told me that when he learned that he went and purchased this basketball for this little boy.

But again, investigators are going door-to-door asking people, because look around, there are so many homes here, and so, they're thinking that someone must have seen something.

Now, you were mentioning authorities saying that they don't know if this was targeted or not. One of the reasons why they're really looking into that possibility is because police say that the shots were fired at close range. Now, it doesn't tell all of the story of course, because they don't know exactly where all of the people that were gathered here how the altercation happened. But they're sure digging into this, Ashleigh. I can tell you, there's a lot of police presence in this community as detectives go door-to-door and asking residents in this community a lot of questions, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: So I guess, I'm just sort of -- I'm so confounded by a 9- year-old being shot in broad daylight in a nice-looking neighborhood like this.

What kind of groups, and like what people are we talking about? Was this a gang of kids, were these teenagers, were these grown-ups, like what do they know about the people who were there at the time that little boy died?

FLORES: Investigators are not going into those details. What they do tell us, is that there was a group of people in this alley, some sort of altercation happened while this little boy was crossing, pretty much cutting through this neighborhood to get to the either his grandmother's house or his mother's house which is down the alley that you're taking to look at.

And from what we understand he was going to try to play baseball. But those are the details that investigators are trying to get from people in this neighborhood.

Did they see something? Did they know some of the people who were standing around in this alley when all of this broke out?

Now, in a lot of these homes, you can see that there are small porches in the front, and a lot of times people just sit out and about and their chat with the neighbors. So authorities going to the individuals in this community asking them questions to see if they saw anything, to see if they heard anything that could be a clue in solving this just awful crime. Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Nine-years-old. I mean I can't believe we have a banner saying a 9-year-old may have been actually targeted.

Rosa Flores, thank for that live reporting in Chicago.

BANFIELD: Coming up next, Ohio is voting to legalize or not marijuana today. So here's something strange. Why are all the long-time pot supporters actually fighting against the ballot initiative?

[12:40:13] You heard me right. They support pot, they don't support the ballot initiative. You won't believe why not.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: So this is an important day across the country, it's Election Day. Yes, it's Election Day.

Voters are heading to the polls, and there is one measure that's getting some national attention. It is a major marijuana vote that's happening in Ohio.

It's the first time that voters are actually going to decide whether to approve recreational marijuana and medical marijuana at the same time.

[12:45:05] And If it's approved, Ohio is going to become the fifth state to legalize recreational marijuana.

The debate in and of itself is a sticky one, but this is where it gets really sticky. Cultivating and selling the pot would be limited to just ten predetermined farms and oddly enough. Well, maybe not oddly at all, the owners of the farms including a group of celebrity investors including Nick Lachey who is the guy from that 90 boy band 98 Degrees, and some former NFL and NBA players, and the great-great grandnephews of former U.S. President William Howard Taft who may or may not be rolling over in his very big grave right now.

So if the measure is passed those folks could stand to make a lot of money. Because don't forget it's kind of like a legalize monopoly, right? Just those 10m, they're the only ones who get to grow and sell.

Joining me now HLN and Legal Analyst Joey Jackson and CNN Legal Analyst Paul Callan. I don't understand how you can do that, because we don't like monopolies in this country, we have anti-trust laws for this sort of thing, and yet, it actually set up to be this way, why is that?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, this is a fascinating clash between cannabis and capitalism, I think, because here you have these 10 investors, they put about $25 million into funding and pushing this initiative, because if marijuana gets legalized in Ohio, it has to be cultivated on the ten farms that they own. So it's creating a monopoly on the production.

So now you have the marijuana supporters in a horrible position if they vote to legalize, they are voting to legalize a monopoly, which is something they are against, and ironically the libertarian party which traditionally sort of sides with the Republican view on a lot of issues especially with respect to free market economies and the green party are in the same position here saying, don't vote for the legalization.

BANFIELD: Don't vote for me, but these the weed supporters saying, no, no not this way.

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Don't (inaudible). Right.

BANFIELD: We love it, but not just there.

JACKSON: There is another way to view it, and that would be not to view it as a monopoly, notwithstanding how it appears. And so the people who are the backers and the ones who with the investors are saying, Oh, wait one minute in the event that we want to and production is such that the demand is growing, we could always expand it and open it up. That's not a monopoly. And we could also subtract from it in the event that it doesn't kind, you know, the regulations are not being met, et cetera, so it depends upon what you call it, in terms of whether it's an monopoly or not.

BANFIELD: So they set up the ballot in a really weird way, normally I would not sort of dig into the ballot issues of a state when it's like, you know, validation number 1, 2, 3, but issue 3 asks the voters to legalize the weed, OK.

JACKSON: And limited to those 10 specific facilities in doing it.

BANFIELD: Yeah. The issued number two right before issue number three asks you not to approve issue three.

CALLAN: Yeah and in that form.

BANFIELD: What happens if they both pass?

CALLAN: Yeah, so that's a fascinating question, let say you have contradictory constitutional amendments within a state, which one prevails. I don't know what the courts would do in Ohio. I know for instance in Nevada or Nevada, I should say properly.

They have a rule there that whoever had the most votes would be the one that presumptively would staying in place. I don't know how the Ohio court would view this if two and three are both -- voted in by you.

BANFIELD: Kind of crazy.

JACKSON: Well, you know, would makes sense in terms of the one that's most popular in that you want to exercise the will of the people, and ultimately a ballot of measure an initiative is to decide what the public wants, and so it's a fascinating question because you would have...

(CROSSTALK)

CALLAN: But maybe would thrown out Joey. You know maybe the court would say, you know, we can't of either one of them.

JACKSON: What would Justice Callan do?

CALLAN: I'd say we need to do-over.

BANFIELD: Yeah, do over.

CALLAN: I'd be probably have to do over.

BANFIELD: Well, they're going to have to, if they do do over they'll be joining several other state, you know, I think next year, voters in Nevada, Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts and California and possibly Michigan are expected to vote on legalization. So almost like the gay marriage thing, the states are just...

JACKSON: Yeah. BANFIELD: ... it seems like there's a real ground swell.

JACKSON: No, I doubt Ashleigh, that it would be set up in this way in terms of the monopoly that we talked about limiting it to.

BANFIELD: No, this is a lot.

JACKSON: Yeah, this it's a state.

BANFIELD: It just talks worthy.

JACKSON: 100 percent.

BANFIELD: Thank you, Ohio. Joey, Paul stick around. Got a couple of others is just want to get to with you as well.

Coming up next after a very long fight, a transgendered high school athlete has won her battle to be treated just like the other girls on her team. After the school had denied her the right to use the girls locker room in the same way that the other girls used it.

[12:49:37] And her case -- well, you might think it's just hers, it could really change the way school across the country treat transgender students and the things they want to be more like the other kids in the school.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Checking some top stories. Well, we've been covering the Russian plane crash in Egypt, another plane, this one in Pakistan slid off of the runway. 122 passengers were on board. They were all forced to evacuate off of the emergency exit ramps in the grassy field. The plane made a hard landing, that is what they call it. The landing gear actually collapsed beneath it, but happy to report no injuries so that have coming out of this story.

Panel of judges in South Africa heard an appeal today that Olympian Oscar Pistorius should be convicted of murder. Last year Pistorius was convicted of a culpable homicide that's a lesser charge. The prosecutors say that the judge at trial made an error of law. The panel now has one month to decide if the verdict will be changed. A murder verdict could send Pistorius back behind bars. He was released from prison last month, and he's now serving the rest of his five years sentence under house arrest.

[12:55:01 And really worth checking out this dash came video from Bangkok, this green light streaking across the sky apparently a meteor, not a UFO, but you just can imagine what the folks were thinking when they saw it.

Yes, I love dash cam videos like this. No injuries in this one either also, nice to know.

Federal government said the Chicago school district is discriminating against a transgendered student by banning her from full use of the girl's locker room. Here is the deal, the student participating on the girl's sport team, but she's not allowed that full access to the locker room.

In fact the unidentified transgender girl has been force to change and shower separately behind a curtain from her teammates and her classmates. But the federal government says, that's not right, change or risk punishment.

CNN Legal Analyst Paul Callan, the HLN Legal Analyst Joey Jackson back with me now. Change or risk punishment and that's not coming from a small group, that's coming from the Department of Education, they hold the purse strings under Title IX. This is a big development. We've heard stories like this before, why is this different Paul?

CALLAN: Well, you know, it's different because this the transgender rights movement is moving very, very quickly and a lot of people I think are uncomfortable with it, and don't understand it. And it's a cultural change and it's hard for people to accept. If the federal government mandates it, the school districts are going

to have to go along, and you know, just to make it a little bit understandable. I mean, you have here an individual who was born as a boy, who because of transgender orientation feels and maybe is actually a girl, but still has all the boy equipment.

So in the locker room, the school district is saying, OK, you can play on the girls' teams, you can be with the girls, but people might feel uncomfortable if you change in view of the other girls.

BANFIELD: Or they change in front of her.

CALLAN: Yeah, so.

JACKSON: Yeah.

CALLAN: I don't...

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: I'm not..

CALLAN: You know, go ahead Joey, I don't mean to cut you off.

BANFIELD: But we should say the school made a commendations prior to the Department of Education coming down with this Title IX "Hammer", the school made accommodation, and said OK. Into the locker room, but behind the curtain.

CALLAN: Yes.

BANFIELD: And the student said, you're still discriminating, you still making me separate and different and unusual and not normal.

JACKSON: Right. And that's a problem and, you know, first of all what happen was is because of the student's identity and what she recognized as, it happened early on in her life. And the parents contacted the high school to make accommodations, which they did in every other respect, but allowing the student to use the male or female locker room rather. And in light of that with the law says which is very clear on this is that, it's protected. Gender is protected, transgender is protected and the accommodations the school made were not acceptable to the government. And those accommodations were allowing the student to use a separate facility, and allowing the student to use a facility within the female bathroom that was behind some type of curtains, and it was felt that the stigma that was associated with that, and the isolation that was associated with that was a form of discrimination.

So in light of that the government office of Civil Rights said, you know, what, she should be allowed to use the facilities.

BANFIELD: In the same way every one up.

JACKSON: In the same way as every other girls would use.

BANFIELD: What so interesting. And again, you pointed to this, that this child for a long time as identified as a female as supposed to the born gender as a male. The passport has been changed.

JACKSON: Right.

BANFIELD: The female uses the female pronoun. The female name is use by the high school. The accommodations has been made along the line.

JACKSON: The hormonal therapy is taken place.

BANFIELD: And she's undergoing hormonal therapy, and at this point. At what stage, because it's just so -- it is such a tender topic for all of these kids, at what stage does the Department of Education owe something as well to the other girls in the locker room who may feel like now they have to be segregated if they want to maintain their privacy, do they owe them anything?

CALLAN: Yeah, I think they do. And I think they pushed too fast here. This is a major cultural change, and the school district is trying to accommodate and they're really only saying one thing, hey, she can play on the girl's team, she can be with the girls, but in the locker room, change behind the curtain because...

BANFIELD: But that's discrimination.

CALLAN: ... the kids. No, no...

BANFIELD: I mean, you're different to go behind the curtain, young lady.

CALLAN: No, no I think, that the mistake that's made is the law says that the law has to treat people equally, but we are all different in some respect, and this is a very unusual difference since she looks like a boy at least until she finishes the hormonal therapy, yet.

BANFIELD: And interesting she...

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: ... would choose, given her own choice she would choose she would probably choose to go behind the curtain.

CALLAN: Yeah. Negative (inaudible) responsible.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Because just don't want to be demanded and told and mandated and ruled.

JACKSON: It stigmatizes the...

CALLAN: So let be...

JACKSON: ... a dramatic stent.

CALLAN: Let's be sensible about how we handle it though. I mean, is that too much ask?

BANFIELD: Depends on how you were.

JACKSON: She identified as boy or, you know...

BANFIELD: Are you hurt with the other girl.

JACKSON: Or identified as a girl and they accommodated her in that regard.

BANFIELD: It's a tough one. But there's no easy answer here. I hope it comes to some kind of agreement. They got 30 days to apply or, you know, to confirm with what, you know, Title IX requirements may ask of them.

[13:00:09] Joey, Paul thank you. Thank you everyone for watching. My colleague, Wolf, start right now.