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The Situation Room
Renewed Focus on Gaza Deal; Catastrophic Rainfall in Texas; Supreme Court to Decide Case on Transgender Student Athletes. Aired 11:30a-12p ET
Aired July 04, 2025 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: The U.S. Supreme Court will decide if states can ban transgender student athletes from playing on teams that align with their gender identity.
Starting in October, justices will review challenges to those bans in Idaho and West Virginia. At the heart of the case is 13-year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson, a transgender girl who was initially blocked from running on her middle school track team. A preliminary court injunction has allowed her to compete while the case makes its way up to the highest court.
Joining us now is Joshua Block. He's a senior staff attorney with the ACLU.
Josh, thanks so much for joining us.
Walk us through the significance, as you see it, of the Supreme Court's decision to hear these cases.
JOSHUA BLOCK, SENIOR STAFF ATTORNEY, LGBTQ & HIV PROJECTS: Sure. Thank you for having me here.
I think it's no secret that trans folks are in a scary position right now. I think they're under attack from a lot of quarters, and I think the Supreme Court recently just held that states can ban them from having medically necessary health care that's really important to their development.
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So I think -- I wouldn't -- I would be lying if I said it wasn't a scary time. But I'm also confident we will be able to get up there and we will be able to have the Supreme Court see this is really just about kids, kids trying to be themselves and have fun in middle school. And, hopefully, that will prevail.
BLITZER: Yesterday, my co-anchor, Pamela Brown, spoke with the West Virginia attorney general, John McCuskey. I want to get your reaction to something that he had to say. Listen to this.
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J.B. MCCUSKEY (R), WEST VIRGINIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: I have two girls that play a very competitive sport. And I have seen just from my own personal experience that even as early ages as 8 and 9 that the boys have a very distinct athletic advantage over the girls.
And what (AUDIO GAP) saying here is, is that there is a biology-based distinction. And biology-based distinction does not change over time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: So, Josh, what's your response to people who say this is just about biology?
BLOCK: Well, my first response is that our client, Becky, she's been on puberty blockers and hasn't had an instant of so-called male puberty. So, from a biological perspective, of all the things that are supposed to give men on average an advantage over women on average, that doesn't apply to her.
Her physiological characteristics would be just like other girls her age. So it's not really about biology here. What you have here is a categorical ban that bans transgender girls from all competitions from kindergarten on up at all levels. Doesn't matter if it's varsity or club.
And so, when you have that sort of categorical law that fences people out entirely, something more than biology is what's behind it. And I think it's just a fear of the unknown. And I think there are a lot of stereotypes at work, which is true for a lot of discrimination.
BLITZER: As you know, the U.S. Supreme Court has previously ruled that, under Title VII, transgender status is a protected class in the workplace. Could that have any bearing on these upcoming cases?
BLOCK: Absolutely, Wolf.
I think that Title IX, which is the law that prohibited sex discrimination in schools has been interpreted consistently with Title VII from the beginning. And I think that, just as it would be sex discrimination to fire someone for being transgender, it would obviously also be sex discrimination to kick someone out of school just because they're transgender.
When that comes to sports...
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BLOCK: Sorry. Go on, Wolf.
BLITZER: No, no, I wanted you to finish your thought.
BLOCK: Yes, yes, I wanted to say, when it comes to sports, obviously, that's a context in which we allow sex-separated teams, but we can't do that in a way that takes a vulnerable minority and it just excludes them from it entirely. This is part of school. It's part of the educational process.
BLITZER: As you mentioned earlier -- and I'm wondering what you think -- just last month, the Supreme Court upheld a ban on some health care for transgender youth.
How much does this ruling raise serious questions about how these challenges to transgender sports bans might play out?
BLOCK: Well, Wolf, I think that was a narrow decision. It was focused specifically on medical treatments and how you define sex in the context of treatments that are specific to sex. I don't think that necessarily is going to apply in other areas, such as this one.
But I think some of the justices have been on record saying that they don't think that discrimination against trans people should be receiving close judicial scrutiny. And so we have an uphill battle there, but I think trans folks have had an uphill battle in lots of aspects of life recently. And I think that hopefully we will have the court see this for what it is, which is just kids trying to be kids, just trying to be themselves.
BLITZER: All right, Joshua Block of the ACLU, thanks so much for joining us.
BLOCK: Thanks for having me.
BLITZER: And just ahead: President Trump says Hamas' answer on a new cease-fire proposal could come very, very soon. But every day without a deal is another day of agony for the hostages' families.
Just ahead, we will talk with one man who's never given up the fight to get his two brothers back.
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BLITZER: This morning, the last American hostage released from Gaza has a new warning for President Trump.
Edan Alexander visited the White House on Thursday. He reportedly expressed his worries that continued fighting in Gaza will put the remaining hostages in danger. There are still 53 hostages in Gaza. At least 20 are believed to still be alive, including the twin brothers of Liran Berman, who've been held for 636 days.
CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson spoke with Liran about what he wants to see from President Trump and from Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's been more than 630 days trying to get your twin brothers freed. Why is this the moment when it could happen?
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LIRAN BERMAN, BROTHER OF HOSTAGES: We just ended a 12-days war with a lot of accomplishment for Israel.
ROBERTSON: Is it a victory for Israel, do you think?
BERMAN: The victory -- a victory is when the hostages will come back.
ROBERTSON: How does having a good result against Iran help get your brothers out?
BERMAN: Because it isolates Hamas even more.
ROBERTSON: President Trump said he thought a deal could be done within a week. Are you as confident as him?
BERMAN: We are hearing a lot of optimism from the administration in the U.S.
Right now, it's not happened yet. I wish I could be as optimistic as President Trump. I'm taking his optimism, because I need it. I need it for my brothers. I need for myself to keep going, but until the deal is signed, I'm still realistic.
ROBERTSON: What is it that President Trump needs to say to Prime Minister Netanyahu or do to convince him to make this comprehensive, all the hostages, end the war, deal?
BERMAN: The only thing that we didn't try is to end the war, to get hostages, not to end the war just to end the war. We need the hostages. And to get all of 50 now is to end the war. This is what Hamas has said. And we didn't try this by now.
We have a cease-fire with Lebanon. We have a cease-fire now with Iran. Why is Gaza still a problem?
ROBERTSON: Why?
BERMAN: I don't know. I don't know. I really don't know. I just want my two little brothers back.
ROBERTSON: You had proof of life earlier this year.
BERMAN: We have eyewitness saw them by February.
ROBERTSON: And now you're saying that they're separated in the tunnels.
BERMAN: This is the longest they've been separated. They have a bond. We do believe that they can sense each other and send each other strength inside the tunnels. I wish they were together, but I know them. I know that they are strong.
ROBERTSON: What's that missing link that hasn't been there that President Trump can help your prime minister achieve?
BERMAN: I think it's a promise that, if something will happen inside Gaza, then Israel will have permission to go back if Hamas will hold two more hostages, if Hamas will start building itself again. This is what we have in Lebanon, and this is what we have in Iran.
The hostages need to get out by any means necessary right now, 20 of them presumed to be alive, including my two little brothers. They have limited time, limited time.
ROBERTSON: And if the deal, the one that's been on the table for just releasing 10 living hostages, if that happens, and your brothers are not among those 10?
BERMAN: It's a terrible situation. It is a terrible situation. It's not an ideal deal, by any means, and everyone knows it.
ROBERTSON: Do you want it taken off the table?
BERMAN: No, because this is what we have right now.
ROBERTSON: And what's the pressure that President Trump can put on Hamas to get them to make a final compromise?
BERMAN: I wish...
ROBERTSON: He's already -- Edan Alexander.
BERMAN: Yes.
ROBERTSON: When he wanted to, he got the last American hostage freed.
BERMAN: That there was -- the last alive American hostage.
ROBERTSON: So, he can do that, the U.S. president.
BERMAN: I don't know. I wish it was a magic wand, who can, like, wave it and Hamas would say, take them. It needs to happen through the Qataris and the Egyptians. Both of them, the mediators, need to pressure the leadership in Doha.
ROBERTSON: If you could speak to your brothers now. What's your message to your brothers, Gali and Ziv?
BERMAN: Gali and Ziv, stay strong. Everyone is safe at home, and everyone is fighting for your release, and we are doing whatever we can to bring you back. And you will be here, and you will hug our father, and my mother will hug you, and you will have a future, and you will have kids, and I will be an uncle for their kids.
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BLITZER: Our special thanks to CNN's Nic Robertson for that interview.
And coming up, there's more breaking news we're following, this time out of Texas. Crews are rescuing people from floodwaters right now after a month's worth of rain pounded parts of the state in just a few hours.
We will have the latest right after this.
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BLITZER: Happening now, crews are rescuing people from floodwaters in Central Texas. This is video from Kerrville just outside San Antonio. That city has declared a disaster, as rain falls and a river rises, officials there confirming there have been fatalities.
All this comes after months' worth of torrential rain fell in the span of just a few hours.
CNN's Derek Van Dam is joining us right now.
Derek, what more can we expect?
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, what we know, Wolf, is that this flash flood took place under the darkness of night in the middle of the night on the eve of the Fourth of July festivities.
And I want you to see some of this new video coming to us from an affiliate, KSAT, out of San Antonio. This is Kerrville, Texas. And what you're looking at here is where a home used to stand along the Guadalupe River. We're focusing in on this location. Look at the destructive nature of this flash flooding that took place, completely wiping out the trees and the landscape right along the banks of this river, including what used to be a home.
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There is the front porch of that particular house that no longer exists. So this just gives you a drop in the bucket of what we're now starting to realize took place overnight with this flash flooding. And guess what? It's not done. An area known as Comfort, which is a river gauge in a town located along the Guadalupe River, just south of Kerrville, actually had this rapid rise in the water of over 28 feet -- or over 25 feet in 45 minutes.
So that is flash flooding. And that is why we are so concerned as this water continues to crest downstream. There are flash flood emergencies in and around Kerrville and the Guadalupe River. There are many residents and campgrounds located across this region, the entire picture still being told here this morning -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Derek Van Dam reporting for us.
Derek, thanks very, very much.
And, to our viewers, make sure to tune in to CNN tonight for "The Fourth in America" celebration. There will be musical performances from big names like Sting and Nelly, and, of course, plenty of fireworks. Our coverage kicks off at 7:00 p.m. Eastern later tonight.
And, to our viewers also, thanks very much for joining us this morning. Enjoy this Fourth of July holiday weekend. We will see you back here Monday and every weekday morning at 10:00 a.m. Eastern.
"INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" is coming up next right after a short break.
