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Supreme Court Kicks Off New Term Today; Tom Cotton, President Trump and Daylight Saving Time; Caleb Flynn to be Sentenced Today. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired October 05, 2026 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:34:08]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, the Supreme Court will start a new term, jumping straight into a major case that will decide if state and local governments can sue oil companies for damage from climate change. Other cases this term deal with religious education, a Second Amendment challenge to ban some AR-15 rifles.

With us now is Gloria Browne-Marshall, constitutional law professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Professor, it's always great to speak with you.

The case today is kind of a big one. It deals with states and local governments who want to take on big oil. But there are a lot of separate questions the justices will consider along the way.

GLORIA BROWNE-MARSHALL, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Yes. It's basically, can a state really do this? Do they have the power to do it? And I think it's kind of creative litigation. They're trying to figure out, how do we tackle climate change, and why not go straight to the source. And this idea that the oil companies lied to Boulder and told them that there were no climate change consequences to their refining is very interesting.

[09:35:04]

BERMAN: One of the sort of ironic factors here is that one could make the case that it's up to the federal government to regulate emissions, right? But this administration has made clear they really don't want the federal government necessarily regulating these emissions. So, are there a lot of sort of rhetorical somersaults that could take place here?

BROWNE-MARSHALL: There is. Something has drastically changed. It used to be the federal government was more responsive to the people and the states were recalcitrant. And now we have the states that are going forward, and as you pointed out, the federal government that's dragging its feet.

And when you think about a federal government that's being led by people who are thinking more on the business side and the corporation side of these things, the states are left to fend for themselves. And this is what they've come up with.

BERMAN: There's also a case that deals with religious education involving catholic preschools, this is also in Colorado, and whether or not they have to admit children of LGBTQ families. How do you think the court will approach this?

BROWNE-MARSHALL: Well, it was very interesting because when it comes to religion, and we have a majority catholic, you know, Supreme Court, the issue has been religious freedom, Trump's all for the most part. And they, in the previous cases, have allowed the religious, especially the catholic church, to dictate when and where they should be able to expel or reduce the people and whether or not they should be protected when they're a part of these different programs.

But it's not just the LGBTQ parents, but also any children will not be allowed into this, you know, the catholic church program. And so the church is saying, we should be allowed to prohibit people that we want to prohibit, and that should not keep us from being part of this preschool program.

BERMAN: And then again, the third case, I think people at least as of now are watching most carefully is the idea of a ban, whether or not there can be local and state bans on AR-15s.

BROWNE-MARSHALL: Now, this is really interesting in Cook County, Illinois, as well as in Connecticut, that these homeowners are saying, we need this AK-15 semiautomatic weapon for personal protection, to protect their homes. And so, the idea from the government is, why would you need a semiautomatic weapon? So, the argument on behalf of the people who want the weapon is that, the Second Amendment does not prohibit it. So, we should be allowed to have it.

So, this is going to be interesting. It's not whether or not you need this type of weapon, but is the Second Amendment prohibiting us from having it?

BERMAN: Yes. And, of course, Justice Scalia had written about some of this. And I think you're going to hear a lot from both sides arguing about his metric of how you measure this.

Finally, I will say, we have an election coming up in a month and a day. It's not inconceivable. There are some cases following the election if it doesn't go the way that certain parties or certain White Houses want it to. What's the likelihood that you think the Supreme Court would have to get involved post-election, and what would cause that?

BROWNE-MARSHALL: I think, based on precedent, there are going to be involved in something, some issue post-election. But there's a very interesting Arizona case in which Arizona wants to have people have their passport or birth certificate just to register to vote. So, that's an interesting case before the court as well. And they want to do this within the 90-day, what was prohibited under the National Voter Registration Act, the 90-day period before the midterms. BERMAN: Professor Gloria Browne-Marshall, thanks so much for being

with us this morning. We appreciate you walking us through these cases.

BROWNE-MARSHALL: Thank you.

BERMAN: Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hours from now, a sentencing hearing will get underway for the former "American Idol" contestant, now a convicted killer, convicted of murdering his wife in her sleep.

And the wild video. A bear attacks a woman's car and she is trapped inside.

We'll be right back.

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[09:43:10]

BERMAN: So, President Trump apparently shared Republican Senator Tom Cotton's cell phone number to pressure him into backing legislation to make daylight saving time permanent. Senator Cotton responded, hey, look, you know, we tried this before and people didn't like it.

Let's get right to CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

So, how right is Tom Cotton about that?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes, he is 100 percent right. In the battle between President Trump and the Republican senator from Arkansas, Tom Cotton, the facts and the polling data are with the senator from Arkansas.

You could see it right here. We tried it back in 1974, right? We tried year-round daylight saving time. And I want you to look here. The trend here is so obvious. The net support for year-round daylight saving time, pre and post trying it in 1974. Before they tried it, look at that, net support was in the positive. People wanted year round daylight saving time at plus 14 points. That is support outran opposition by 14 points.

But look what happened after we had a year-round daylight saving time. The support, it absolutely plummeted, down to minus 12 points on the net support. So, that's a 26-point switcheroo. Because once people tried it, it turns out that daylight saving time in the abstract is far more popular than daylight saving time year round in the reality.

BERMAN: And one of the things that Senator Cotton talks about, and it's something that was talked about in the northeast, where I grew up, was about whether it's light out when kids are waiting for the bus or going to school.

ENTEN: Yes. OK. So, you see this trend line from plus 14 to minus 12, a 26-point shift away. Well, why is that? Well, just take a look at here. OK, the national average sunrises by 7:30 a.m., which is roughly when kids go to school, right? Look at this. Under an all daylight saving time system, it's just 60 percent of the year. It's just 60 percent of the year. Under the current system, look at that, it's 83 percent of the year. That's 23 points higher. And, in fact, if you went to all standard time, that is you fell back and never jumped again forward, it would be 90 percent of the year.

[09:45:08]

So, the bottom line is, this is the worst system, all daylight saving time, if you want kids to not go to school in the dark.

BERMAN: President Trump says he wants to protect golfers so they can golf later in the afternoon.

ENTEN: Golfers versus schoolchildren. I wonder who the people will vote for.

BERMAN: He literally said that.

What is the current polling on this?

ENTEN: Yes, what is the current polling? It'd be another thing, you know, if it was really popular to go to all daylight saving time.

Look, the current system gets only 26 percent support. People don't like the current system. But what are we going to change to, right? Is it standard time only that is falling back and never jumping forward, 32 percent. All daylight saving time, yes, is the nominal leader at 38 percent, but that's still well south of a majority.

It turns out that people just like to complain. That is something I like to do as a noisy New Yorker. I like to complain. But we just don't even know what the heck we want. I think we complain no matter what.

BERMAN: I think that's part of it. I think people do just like to complain. They think they're angry about something and they don't like changing their clocks. But when they stop and really think about it --

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: It may be a little bit of a different story.

What are the prediction markets currently saying about whether or not this will change?

ENTEN: Yes, OK. So, what are the prediction markets saying? You know, if you go back two months ago, look at this, the Kalshi prediction market said, yes, 54 percent chance that we would, in fact, enact permanent daylight saving time. But look at it now. It's down. Down through the floor. Now it's down to 37 percent. Still a chance that it happens. But we're talking about a 17-point shift in just two months' time. And the reason for that is folks like Senator Tom Cotton saying, you know what, hold your horses, President Trump, I actually don't want to go to permanent daylight saving time. Let's just keep it, perhaps, the way it is.

BERMAN: We tried it and people didn't like it.

ENTEN: They -- we tried it. We did it, folks. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result. And apparently Tom Cotton does not want to be insane.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much for this.

ENTEN: Thank you, my friend.

BERMAN: A lot of news this morning. We'll be right back.

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[09:51:17]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Today, the former "American Idol" contestant, who was just convicted of murdering his wife, will learn his fate at sentencing. A jury convicted Caleb Flynn in the shooting death of his wife, Ashley, and he could now face life in prison.

Let's go to CNN's Jean Casarez, who's been following this case, as she does so well.

What are you expecting from the judge this morning?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, today will be the sentencing. And I'm going to talk about that. But I want to talk about Ashley Flynn first.

SIDNER: Yes.

CASAREZ: Because this is really her day, right, Sara, in a sense, because justice for Ashley Flynn. You know, she was 37 years old. The testimony showed she loved her two daughters. She was raising them and she just was a wonderful mother. She was a substitute teacher. She was a volleyball coach for seventh grade. She was very involved in her church. She was raising her daughters in the church. And she would teach Bible camp every year since she was a teacher.

During the trial, her mother testified and she spoke about the relationship that they had. Take a listen.

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JILL S MITH, ASHLEY FLYNN'S MOTHER: We were best friends. We talked every day, encouraged each other every day. And it -- her whole life, we just had a wonderful relationship. She was an excellent daughter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: And the sentencing will be so emotional because of the victim impact statements. We expect her whole family. Because victim rights laws in Ohio are critically important. They are -- they are codified in the state. And, of course, the two children, well, they have written notes.

Now, as far as Caleb Flynn, this is aggravated murder. It is considered capital murder in Ohio. It is the highest charge of murder. Now, there were other murder convictions that the jury rendered. But, of course, they cannot sentence on all of them or that would be double jeopardy. So, aggravated murder is the top count right there. The others normally are merged together. But life in prison or life with the possibility of parole. You know what the prosecution's going to argue for.

Two shots to the back of the head as she was sleeping. She was ambushed while she slept. She couldn't defend herself. Defense will say there were no prior criminal history accounts at all, and he should be afforded, at some time in the future, 30 years is one option, to go before a parole board. We'll see. 3:00 this afternoon.

SIDNER: 3:00 this afternoon. That's when the sentencing starts. Because you will hear from victims, that could take some time, where they describe what this has done to their lives.

CASAREZ: Yes.

SIDNER: Which are really impactful in cases like this.

Jean Casarez, it is so good to have you. Thank you so much for detailing all that for us.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, could paying high school students $50 a week keep them in the classroom? D.C. school officials are going to test the theory starting next year with a new pilot program. And researchers are going to examine whether the kind of stipends improve attendance, as well as academics, financial understanding and general well-being. During the '24-'25 school year, nearly 58 percent of D.C. high school students were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least 10 percent of the school year for any reason.

And a memorial bench in Florida that was swept away in a hurricane has now been found, two years later and more than a thousand miles away on the coast of Bermuda. So, the bench, it honors Mike Sadiku, who died in 2012. His family had placed the memorial bench on a causeway near clearwater on the gulf coast. It was presumed lost after washing away during Hurricane Helene in 2024. Meteorologists say a rare mix of ocean currents and storms likely carried it across the Atlantic.

And then there's this. Some wild new dash cam video coming out of Japan. It shows a bear -- I'll show you -- attacking -- or me -- attacking a car -- I'll act it out -- on a dark road while the driver is trapped inside.

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[09:55:14]

BOLDUAN: A little bit looks like the bear is trying to give it a hug. The driver was on her way home from work. She noticed the bear and her cub ahead. And then, without warning, you see what happened. The bear just suddenly lunges at the car. She says that she locked the doors and prayed that it would not smash the glass. Thank goodness it did not. She was eventually able to drive to a police station and report the attack after the bear and her cub ran off. But the attack did leave some pretty big damage and scratches to the vehicle.

SIDNER: The bears are sick of our stuff. They're just sick of us.

BOLDUAN: Well, it's a huge -- it's become a huge problem in Japan.

SIDNER: It's a huge problem in Japan. There have been some people bitten.

BOLDUAN: It's a huge problem.

SIDNER: I mean, but they've kind of had it with humans, I think.

BERMAN: I don't -- I don't have to be faster than the bear, I just have to be faster than you.

SIDNER: Yes.

BERMAN: As we like to say.

SIDNER: Thank you for that, John.

BOLDUAN: Famous last words of all things.

SIDNER: Just leave us in the dust.

BERMAN: Thank you all for joining us. This has been CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM" is up next.

SIDNER: No hiking with John.

BOLDUAN: A little --

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