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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Supreme Court Rulings on Immigration and Affirmative Action Examined; House Democrats Sit-In over Gun Control; Terror Attack in Germany; Another Not Guilty Verdict in Freddie Gray Death. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired June 23, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:33:10] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. We're following fall out from two big ticket rulings or at least indecisions from the Supreme Court, one of the major setback for President Obama and his go it alone attempts on immigration reform. That executive action back was much valley back in 2014.

The other a victory for the off litigated concept of affirmative action as it pertains to college admissions. And as you just saw live here on CNN, the ink was barely dry on that immigration ruling or indecision we should say, before the president stepped into the briefing room to say it takes us farther away from the country that we want to be. Those are his words. Have a listen to more of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES PRESIDENT: Today's decision is frustrating to those who seek to grow our economy and bring a rationality to our immigration system and to allow people to come out of the shadows and let this perpetual cloud on them

I think it is heartbreaking for immigrants who made their lives here and raised families here and we hoped for the opportunity to work, pay taxes, serve in military and more fully contribute to this country we all love in an open way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: I want to bring in our Michelle Kosinski, who is live at the White House right now, and joining once again here in New York, CNN Political Director David Chalian and CNN Politics Executive Editor Mark Preston.

First to you, Michelle, you were in the briefing room so you can feel the mood. I was looking for any tell tale signs of the crushing loss that this is for the president, that he is pretty stoic.

But take me in there and walk me through ...

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean the White House was not going to admit an all-out defeat on this. They want to put the best face on this as possible. And, you know, when the president was asked, I mean do see this as a sweeping rebuke of your taking executive action. He said no, look, this is a dead lock on one issue. There was no decision that was made. Take a look at the circuit board. I mean you could see that coming, we know where that stands. But he said it would be a stretch to call this something more politically.

[12:35:15] He had to admit that this is a disappointment, though. You could sense that in his demeanor and his voice. And some of the words he chose, you know, trying to paint this in the broader picture of America and what America is about.

What they really wanted to look toward, though, of course, is November. They want to put this in the most optimistic light as possible first saying substantially for those immigrants who could have been affected by expanded executive action nothing really changes in terms of enforcement priorities. And then looking forward to what could happen in November, the importance of that election.

So for all of those who are watching and disappointed the president wanted to assure them that it's the election that counts. You know, they want to put this in a forward looking slant, not looking back at what happened here. But I think it really highlights what a difficult issue immigration has been for this president.

I mean he likes to say that because of inaction in Congress he was forced to take executive action. Then they suffered blows in the lower courts, in the appeals courts. They keep expressing confidence that on the basis of their arguments they will prevail in the end. And then they get a dead lock because the president can't get his nominee even taken up for a hearing in Congress.

I mean the inaction here is what they want to focus on, as well. But at the same time, you know, as much as the president has taken this action, causing him to gain all this criticism on the right for overstepping his bounds, he's also at the same time been called the deporter-in-chief by his critics on the left.

And you heard him say, I think it was stark reminder when he said, when you look at those enforcement priorities, you know, these people aren't really at substantial risk right now for deportation. By the way they've been in limbo ever since that circuit court decision put block on his program. But it's going to focus on felons, on criminals and on recent arrivals.

So people who've arrived here very recently from countries where they faced violence and crime, I mean he's been criticized heavily for deporting those people, as well, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: I'm trying to listen for the chattering echoes of the speech writers on their hamster wheels right now as the campaign moves forward.

Standby Michelle, if you will for a moment. I want to bring in Mark Preston with that notion that this is going to be in the headlines for the next several days. But there is sort of critical issue to look at and that is how this will fare for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump and also to all those members of the house he was in.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Right, who are up for elections. So let me do this. Let me take different strings that seem to be so far apart from each other and tie them together into a knot that would be the November election.

The first one is the language that we heard President Obama say today, talking about immigrants. He said that they shaped our character, they have made us stronger, very powerful political rhetoric from the president.

And look to note that he made these comments literally on the fly from the briefing room says something, says something about where he stands on the issue and what he will do politically on this.

He also discussed who this is going to affect, it's going to affect the workers who pick our fruit and make our beds.

And, again, very powerful political language when you think about the Democratic constituency, when you specifically look at Hispanic voters, those are coming from Central America and Mexico on the way up Hispanic voters. Will we see a higher percentage of Hispanics voting for Democrats because of what has happened now? Probably not, it's still going to be extremely high. But can we see aggregate number increase in states such as Florida where there is high percentage of Hispanics there. That is very big because when you are looking to win this general election, yes, you need the percentage but you need as many voters as you can. You will see Hillary Clinton and you will congressional Democrats rally around this.

And also I do think that this is important too. What we saw last night on the House of Representatives over gun legislation, a rallying point for the Democratic base that many ways Democrats didn't think was going to be explosive and turned out to be a -- and became very momental last night.

You are now talking about immigration, OK. Perhaps, and I'm not saying this could happen or is going to happen but very well could happen. You could perhaps see Democrats come back and do the same thing, shut down the House of Representatives and demand action on immigration.

And I guarantee you what we saw last night over the inaction on gun votes will be 10 times that, maybe 50 times that if it comes down to immigration in the House of Democrats, got to employ the same tactics.

BANFIELD: I want to play a quick reaction from the speaker of the house, Paul Ryan, who did not have a speech writer presumably for this but came up quickly after the Supreme Court decision that upheld effectively or that rather that knocked down the executive action from the president on immigration.

[12:40:13] Have a listen to the speaker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL RYAN, (R) HOUSE SPEAKER: This is a win for the constitution. It's a win for Congress and it's a win in our fight to restore the separation of powers. Presidents don't write laws, Congress writes laws.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: David Chalian, the significance of this for Republicans and Democrats can't be understated, honestly, heavy overstated in fact.

What Mark was suggesting is that this would be effectively a rallying cry for a lot of Hispanic voters across America. But specifically the interest would be in those states that are swing states that have heavy Hispanic populations like Florida, why I was talking to the senator about this ...

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Colorado and Nevada, yes.

BANFIELD: ... Colorado, Nevada. And that's why I'm wondering if this will go to the top of the heat for everybody who is campaigning for Hillary Clinton as specifically a get out the vote machine.

CHALIAN: Well, it will, there's no doubt about that. It's been on her list. I mean this is something, but I mean this is something that she has put front and center throughout the course of her Democratic primary campaign because was one issue where she was trying to work to get to President Obama's left. She was saying, "I'm going to go further than President Obama has done with executive action." Anything was in the bounds of law.

We'll the bounds of law though weren't ruled on today by the Supreme Court, but clearly started presenting themselves because of the split decision that came down.

Ashleigh, two things -- there are two issues in American politics that touch all the buttons inside passionate activist participants from both sides. One is immigration. One is the Supreme Court overall and the battle of truth (ph). Both went front and center today in this campaign because not only do you have this issue of immigration itself but it's now going to be a rallying cry for Donald Trump and for Hillary Clinton to get their bases galvanized.

But the whole notion of what is going on with the 4-4 court. And how the world of 4-4 court makes the stakes, raises the stakes in the presidential election. We've always heard presidential candidates say you've got to remember to get on vote because of the Supreme Court. But when you see the 4-4 split and ...

BANFIELD: ... yeah.

CHALIAN: ... that becomes real for voters in a way that sometimes in past presidential elections it's just been sort of academic. And now, it seems real. So they have both issues that are real passionate drivers for the bases.

BANFIELD: And I'm going to one step further on that with the (inaudible) that is, that it's not just one Supreme Court justice that you're probably looking at. It could be two. PRESTON: Yeah, I mean we're looking at multiple.

BANFIELD: Which is massive.

PRESTON: Absolutely.

BANFIELD: Thank you to all of you. I really appreciate it. David Chalian, Mark Preston, I do appreciate it and our Michelle Kosinski, working hard at the White House as well.

Coming up next also breaking news, a very busy morning, this other news coming to us out of Baltimore, a verdict, a long-awaited one in fact in the murder trial of the police officer who drove that van, that police van in which Freddie Gray was fatally injured.

How is the city responding and what about that verdict? Next.

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[12:47:38] BANFIELD: Additional breaking news to bring your way. It has been an extraordinary morning especially in Washington, D.C. What you have been probably watching for about 25.5 hours is, you know, online video of what's been going on in the House of Representatives from the well of the house, a sit in Democrats protesting to get a vote on gun control measures. This sit in has been ongoing all through the night despite the fact that Republicans try to push to other votes throughout the night and shut off the cameras shut off the lights and go on break.

Now, we're getting word that this may be about to come to an end. I want to get right to our CNN senior political reporter Manu Raju who is on Capitol Hill. I don't know if you have slept a wink but what's happening?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Hey Ashleigh, right behind me is where House of Democrats just had a meeting to talk about their strategy and their way forward about what to do next after that we had a extraordinary day in which they shouted down the house speaker chanted saying on the house court -- tying to interrupt the house business and essentially force the house to have a series of votes into the night into the early morning.

But what we are hearing out of this meeting right now is that this is about to come to an end today. The House of Democrats believe that they have made their point. They want to take this to their districts because we know the house actually went into recess is about, you know, is done legislating until after the July 4th recess.

So what the Democrats want to do is take these protests as they're saying back home. Stop holding up house floor and there are some discussion that maybe there'll be some members that would actually be here so-called skeleton crew to have some sort of presence to give speeches and you maybe you see some of that. But for the most part you're going to see these members really get out of town.

They believe they've made their point, they believe they've been effective and they want to take this to their home districts. So expect some announcements on the house floor today that this protest this scene that we've seen over the last day is over.

Now, one other big development on the senate side, there is a compromised measure that Susan Collins of Maine is pushing that would actually prevent some folks on the terror watch list -- from no fly list I should say from obtaining a gun and giving a right to appeal to folks who maybe denied purchase of fire arm.

[12:49:59] There is going to be a procedural vote this afternoon in the senate on this measure. But we are not expecting them to get probably the sufficient amount of votes in order for it to pass the senate eventually one reason Susan Colliins actually just criticized that senate House of Democrats for making the issue more partisan.

So as we've seen here Ashleigh, actually this has become -- we are grid locked on Capitol Hill and Democrats may believe they've won, the messaging arguments side clearly not winning the policy quite here on Capitol Hill, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: To that last part about what you just said that's the part that has me confused the Democrats believed they have won. I've got a statement that was released by Paul Ryan's office earlier on saying the Democrats can continue to talk. But the reality is they have no end game strategy. And now I'm seeing that this might be part of the end game strategy.

But what happened to no bill, no break. I listened to it until 3:00 in the morning last night no bill, no break shame, shame, shame we shall overcome. What did they overcome exactly?

RAJU: Well that's the part of the issue. I mean they all are going to have to take a break eventually. If you're seeing members sort of run out of steam, but, you know, they're saying that, you know, I had a chance to talk to a lot of these Democrats coming out of this meeting just now. They're saying they are not going to stop this protest. They are going to go back home they will make the case back home and they may replicate some of these tactics again when the house returns from recess after the July 4th break.

Now, House Speaker Paul Ryan is furious about that. You mentioned that he actually thinks it's a threatening, this institution that's threatening democracy by the way that they have held up the floor and undermined what anything that they're trying to do legislatively. But you're right the criticism will be that no bill, no break. But they are in fact taking a break. Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Yeah, I guess they are. And let's see if they come back on gun control or they come back and do a sit in on immigration. Manu, you get no beak. Thank you, sir. Appreciate you staying up late to keep us up to date on that action. And we'll continue to see your reporting as they end it.

I've got other breaking news. I want to take you to overseas now. Straight to Germany where a man with a gun at a movie theater -- heard that before? He was taken down by those S.W.A.T. members, down by the police. And we are told that the man was killed. All of this happening in broad day light in Germany about 3:00 in the afternoon local time.

The German police responding when they heard the reports that shots had been fired inside a movie theater, a movie complex. This is still an active police scene.

Here's where we're looking at this point. A small town in Southwestern Germany not far from Frankfurt it's called Viernheim, a very close in fact to a concentration of U.S. and NATO military bases.

Right now American military officials have been doing official head counts just to make sure that everybody assigned to those bases can be accounted for amidst this unfolding situation.

And watching this from Germany is our own Atika Shubert. She's live, she's in Berlin.

So walk me through how this breaking story has developed. There were numbers as high as 25 being injured no one knew if anybody had died. Someone had mentioned that there maybe a gas had that been, you know, thrown about in that theater. What's the real story?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, there's a lot of conflicting information coming out previously because it was a very fluid situation. Just to let you know the latest, we have spoken to police. The police operation there is over and the attacker is dead.

Now, I'll walk you through what happened. Basically at around 2:45 p.m. an emergency call was received by local police that four shots had been fired inside the cinema and that a masked attacker had entered with a weapon. That is when the special task force was deployed. They surrounded the cinema complex and went in.

Now, police have told us that the attacker appeared to have a weapon and was taking -- appeared to be taking hostages. That's why they shot him and killed him. They don't know exactly or they have not told us what kind of a weapon he had.

When they cleared the cinema there was no other person associated with him in the attack and it is being handed over to the prosecutor. And most important, police have told us there are no indications that this was a terrorist attack. But we're still waiting for details exactly on who the man is and why he carried out this attack.

BANFIELD: Eye on that for us. Thank you for that from Viernheim Germany.

I want to bring you back now if I can. There is just copious breaking news today, folks. This latest news coming to us out of Baltimore, a Baltimore police officer, who you have heard off facing the most serious charges in the death of Freddie Gray, officially now acquitted of all of the charges that he was facing.

Caesar Goodson was the officer who drove the prisoner van in which Freddie Gray was riding and ultimately in which he was injured. And today a judge, a judge, not a jury, was a bench trial. That judge found him not guilty. That charge it was so critical second-degree depraved heart murder.

[12:55:00] The other charges second degree assault, misconduct in office, involuntary manslaughter, manslaughter by vehicle, gross negligence, manslaughter by vehicle, criminal negligence, and reckless endangerment a long list to be sure, everyone of them resulting in an acquittal from the bench.

I want to get straight to Miguel Marquez, joining me now from outside of the Court House in Baltimore, and along with me here in New York CNN Legal Analyst and Defense Attorney Joey Jackson.

First to you Miguel, so many questions, I mean I need to get an idea of what things are like in the courtroom when that happened and the judge passed that judgment and then of course, the reaction from the gallery and those including Caesar Goodson, how they reacted to this?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORREPSONDENT: Interestingly enough. I will start there because we knew today it was going different when a guard walked out just before the judge took the stand and said unlike normally where they give long recitation and lots of rules and you can't do this and you can't do this, he just said no moaning, no groaning when the verdict is read, walk, don't run out of this courtroom let's get through this day.

The judge came out and for the next half hour basically went through the evidence saying, "Look, there may have been mistakes made out there. But none of it amounted to criminal action on the behalf of 16 year veteran Caesar Goodson in driving that van.

There was a shock in that courtroom on one side. Nobody from the Gray family was there but many friends, lawyers and other who support them were there. And I think there was great shock that not one of those charges amounted to criminal activity. From Caesar Goodson's side he sat stone cold silent staring at the judge as he read not guilty, not guilty, not guilty all the way along, took about a half hour to get through all of that.

Goodson's family was crying in the courtroom as those verdicts were being read out. When the final one was read Goodson hugged his -- the council that got him through this.

Edward Nero, another police officer who was earlier acquitted of charges stood up and just said, yes.

Marilyn Mosby was there, this is the state's attorney who brought these charges, she just sort of sat in the front row, put her head down for much of it and just back and forth, you know, sort of frustrated by what she heard the judge ruling in this case, basically saying that on the question of seat belting and whether or not Mr. Gray needed medical care, both those things may have been true. But for it to be criminal, Goodson would have to have acted in a much different way than he did. Ashleigh. BANFIELD: All right standby if you will Miguel, I just want to remind folks that when you saw that graphic of all of those six police officers and saw two already adjudicated and acquitted, there have been three trials. But if you'll notice just after the left center, Officer William Porter is a mistrial, so that retrial is going to happen sometime in September I think about September 6th. So, we will get another four trials, one of them being a retrial.

Joey Jackson, I want to ask you specifically about the reason for this because so many had said if there's going to be any kind of conviction it the state it would likely be ...

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Be him.

BANFIELD: This is the one.

JACKSON: Right.

BANFIELD: And as the driver of the van. That said, there were some pieces of evidence that came out in this trial that might have been surprising to some. That is that one of the officers testified right away after the fact that Freddie Gray was banging, yelling, screaming and violently shaking the van. The medical examiner one of the medical examiners working on this case early in the case had actually called this death a freakish accident. But then later came out and said it was no accident at trial.

And I'm just going to add to the list that's on the screen. Dante Allen was that arrestee who was in the other partitioned area of the van who also corroborated Nero's testimony saying ...

JACKSON: Said it was a smooth ride.

BANFIELD: No, originally he said there was banging and yelling and trashing about.

JACKSON: But that's when he said that he was under the influence of a controlled substance and then of course, at trial he said it was a smooth ride.

Look, what happened here is that any trial you're going to have conflicting evidence. The judge has to evaluate three basic things. This was the person, the ring leader, the kingpin and the theory of the prosecution was that, A that this was a rough ride, that this was done with such depravity of heart that you knew what you were doing and as a result of that he is dead.

What was the second element? The second thing they were saying was they put a seatbelt to him. If not but for the seatbelt put on him he could have still been alive today.

And the third thing, of course, not having to do with the seat belting was then the medical attention. And the judge rejected that all together saying it wasn't -- you didn't establish that there was a rough ride here at all as a result of that insufficient evidence I can't find him guilty, seat belting, there were multiple parties responsible for a seat belting not just Goodson and in fact since the arrestee that is Mr. Gray represented a danger he couldn't that is go out and help him.

And then on medical attention they didn't know that he was in such distress as to need medical attention. So the judge didn't buy it.

[12:59:00] BANFIELD: We're going to have to watch what happens in Baltimore as a result of this and of course, still four more trials, Joey Jackson, thank you. Miguel Marquez, thank you to you. And thank you everyone for sticking with us on this wild ride. It's been a lot of breaking news.

Wolf is going to take over right now.

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