Chief Justice Roberts: I, Donald John Trump,
do solemnly swear...
Donald Trump: I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear...
Roberts: That I will faithfully execute...
Trump: That I will faithfully execute...
Roberts: The office of president
of the United States...
Trump: The office of president of the United States...
Roberts: And will, to the best of my ability...
Trump: And will, to the best of my ability...
Roberts: Preserve, protect, and defend...
Trump: Preserve, protect, and defend...
Roberts: The Constitution of the United States.
Trump: The Constitution of the United States.
Crowd: (chanting) Immigrants in! Donald Trump out!
Immigrants in! Donald Trump out!
(chanting continues)
Always the most difficult decision of the case,
which tie to wear.
And yet they're both almost exactly the same.
News Anchor 1: Breaking right now, President Donald Trump's
executive order to ban immigration
appears to have taken effect already.
New Anchor 2: Homeland security officials started holding
immigrants this morning who were arriving
from these seven Muslim countries in the Middle East.
The president's order bans nearly a hundred...
Trump: I'm establishing new vetting measures
to keep radical Islamic terrorists
out of the United States of America.
We don't want 'em here.
News Anchor: All day, demonstrations have been
growing outside at JFK airport.
The crowds there chanting...
Crowd: (chanting) Let them out!
Lee Gelernt: I was at home. I'm slowly seeing
the news coverage at the airport.
News Anchor 1: More than 100 people detained
or denied entry into the United States
at airports across the country.
Michael George: We've seen volunteer lawyers,
and they're literally in the terminal,
sitting on the ground on laptops trying to write arguments,
write briefs to try and get these individuals released.
News Anchor 2: The Trump administration
holding firm that the president not only has the authority
to pursue the order, but a duty.
Gelernt: I said to my wife and kids,
"I'm going out to court," still not really grasping
the magnitude of what was happening.
Crowd: (chanting) A-C-L-U, we are here we stand with you!
A-C-L-U, we are here we stand with you!
News Anchor: The ACLU have gone to a federal courthouse
in Brooklyn to try to implement a stay for the Executive Order.
Gelernt: And the judge came in and said to the lawyers
for the government, "Can you tell me right now
that letting these people come into the country
will threaten our national security?"
The government said, "Well, the president believes so."
Someone from the audience came rushing up to me.
And he handed me a piece of paper and said,
"My client is about to be put on a plane in 20 minutes
back to the Middle East.
And she will be in serious danger."
News Anchor: We're going to take you straight
to the federal courthouse there in Brooklyn, New York.
Correspondent: We have not received any word,
they're not letting anyone else in, but the crowd here
is sort of anxiously awaiting word from inside
as they all sort of press their noses up to the glass
and look inside to see when the lawyers come back out.
Woman: Just leaving the courthouse...
The stay was granted!
The judge was amazing,
giving love to the ACLU! Thank you to the ACLU lawyers!
Crowd: (cheering)
Correspondent: The immigration lawyers are raising their fists
in the air! They're pumping their fists!
Crowd: (cheering)
Anthony Romero: This is Lee Gelernt,
deputy director of the Immigrants' Rights Project,
who argued in the federal court just now.
Lee, why don't you tell us what the judge granted
and what you asked for?
The judge, in a nutshell, saw through what the government
was doing and gave us what we wanted,
which was to block the Trump order.
Everyone now who came is safe.
The president could not override the courts.
(cheers and applause)
Crowd: (chanting) Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Thank you!
(dramatic music playing)
(crowd cheering)
(crowd continues cheering)
Man: Thank you all!
(singer humming)
(upbeat music playing)
News Anchor 1: The Supreme Court today ruled that states
may not forbid the teaching of evolution in public schools.
News Anchor 2: The Lovings were convicted under Virginia law,
which forbids any white person
and colored person marrying each other.
News Anchor 3: The Supreme Court today legalized abortion.
News Anchor 4: The ACLU urged that the government stop trying
to regulate pornography.
News Anchor 5: The American Civil Liberties Union
is maintaining the Nazis are being denied free speech.
The American Civil Liberties Union planning
to make same-sex marriage legal nationwide.
So help me God.
Roberts: Congratulations, Mr. President.
Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete
shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.
We've never seen anything like this
in our 96-year history.
Trump: I would absolutely bring back waterboarding
and if it's gonna be tougher than waterboarding,
I would bring that back.
Do you believe in punishment for abortion.
There has to be some form of punishment.
Chris Matthews: For the woman?
Yeah. There has to be some form.
I want surveillance of certain mosques, okay?
I will build a great, great wall.
(upbeat music playing)
(crickets chirping)
Jane Doe: (speaking Spanish)
Brigitte Amiri: Somewhere in this pile
is the anonymous letter that was sent to me.
This is it.
Uh, my name is handwritten in pencil, uh, misspelled.
So I can read parts of the letter but I can't read
all of it, because it has identifying information.
It says "Today is 12/17.
There is a girl at blank shelter in blank state.
She wants an abortion, but O.R.R. will not allow it."
(dramatic music playing)
Amiri: The government can't ban people
from accessing abortion.
I called the Department of Justice when I found out
this was happening, and I said,
"You can't be serious. You cannot be physically
obstructing someone from accessing
their constitutional right to an abortion."
And they said, "So sorry, that's our client's position."
And I said, "Well, then you will not be surprised
when I challenge it in court."
I wanna know, like, how he was appointed,
who contacted him, how he came to work for O.R.R.
-Things like that. -Yeah.
Amiri: And then it's like, who has he talked to
about abortion? VP? President?
Why can't I ask that? I can ask that, right?
You can ask that. Yeah.
Videographer: Will the court reporter
please swear in the witness?
Court Reporter: Do you swear to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth
-so help you God? -I do.
Amiri: This minor had been raped, correct?
Uh, well she claimed to have been raped, yes.
Amiri: Do you have any reason to disbelieve her?
No.
This minor had thoughts of self-harm?
She expressed something along those lines, yes.
Amiri: You also believe that abortion is a sin.
What does that have to do with anything?
Amiri: It has to do with a lot. I get to ask the questions.
-Sure. -Amiri: Mr. Tomlinson
can object. So my question is,
do you believe abortion is a sin?
-Yes -Tomlinson: I can object.
He's testified in the past that he does not let religion
guide his job.
Amiri: I'm trying to understand what the policy really is here
with respect to abortion requests.
Okay, then let's talk about the policy.
Amiri: Okay. I'm trying to understand
whether there is any abortion request
that you are ever going to approve.
And the answer is which I've answered
is, "I don't know."
Trump: Now for the first time since Roe v. Wade,
America has a pro-life president,
a pro-life vice president,
a pro-life House of Representatives,
and 25 pro-life Republican state capitals.
That is pretty good.
Wow!
(dramatic music playing)
(helicopter rotor whirring)
(keypad clacking)
Brock Stone: The first thing I knew about the tweet was
I'd had a friend that texted me that morning, and she was like,
"Well whatever you do, don't look at Twitter
and don't look at the news." And I was like,
"That's a weird thing to tell me."
And what am I gonna do?
The first thing I'm gonna do is look at the news.
News Anchor 1: The latest presidential tweetstorm
seemed to blindside his own Pentagon,
which promptly referred all inquiries
back to the White House.
News Anchor 2: The Pentagon estimates there are roughly
2,500 transgender service members on active duty.
Stone: It was kind of shocking. It was kind of just, like,
a disconnect. Like, it didn't feel real at first.
News Anchor: Look, transgenderism
is not an actual thing.
It's a mental dysfunction. We have two genders right now...
Stone: I think I just kept rolling over in my head,
you know, "What can I do? What am I going to do?"
(dramatic music playing)
One sec. Ab-so-lut...
How do you spell "absolutely?"
Ah!
Absolutely give him my number.
Because-- Well, I'm trying to--
I'm trying to sign up this one person for our lawsuit,
but they need-- Someone asked if we could give him my number,
and I said "Yes, absolutely, give him my number."
You can go over there. And then, cause I'm about to get
on my call and part of the key is that you entertain yourself
for a very short while.
-Okay -Okay.
Hey, this is Chase from the ACLU.
Hey Taylor, this is Chase from the ACLU.
Is this Lynneth?
Hey, is now still a good time to chat?
Man: I was actually sitting here waiting for the phone to ring.
Oh, perfect! We're in the process
of trying to, to add people to our lawsuits.
If you're open to it, it would be helpful
if I could ask you a bunch of questions--
Simran, you're literally pulling my computer
off the desk. Sorry.
Yes, yes we are working the weekends.
We've been actually working up a challenge
to the military policy. We really want to include
lots of different people who are harmed...
-Did you break a hanger? -Oops.
We are trying to move quickly and get a lot of information
to challenge every aspect of this.
This is like my best suit.
And we wanna make sure
that nobody is being blocked from enlisting.
-Wee, Uno! -Sim...
-Ah! -Alright talk to you soon.
Okay. All right. Bye.
(Simran laughing)
Josh Block: This is the president's declaration
-of open season on trans people. -Man: (over phone) Yeah.
Block: We need the court to act and enjoin the government
from doing anything to enforce this directive.
I really just wanted a very simple thing.
(laughs)
Double-check her, 'cause...
-Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. -Block: This one?
-Nine-and-a-half years. -Block: Yeah!
-Chase Strangio: Staff sergeant. -Block: Yeah.
So that's, like, straight army.
-Okay, so this person. -That is awesome.
Strangio: He's an active duty. Lots of commendations.
-Yeah. -Strangio: Obviously, someone
the military has invested a lot of resources in.
There's a risk that they'll be retaliated against
in the military.
I just don't want people getting involved without
fully understanding what that would look like
in the scope of their lives.
ACLU, good morning.
Is he in prison?
Okay, so you're calling for help for your friend who's in prison.
(indistinct chatter)
No. But people are cross-trained to do our work...
Strangio: Ever since Trump got elected,
we basically slowly started taking over the building.
We have a lot of lawyers. I would say...
like a hundred, but I'm making that up.
You can also sort of gauge the hierarchy
based on the niceness of the offices.
So here's the legal director's office.
There'll be a very distinct contrast with my office.
This is the famous Brigitte Amiri's office.
You can see how hard she works by the stacks of papers.
Human Rights is right here.
The Brooklyn Bridge Conference Room,
which has the best view.
Lee is not here.
He's probably in court.
This is-- I am not the best ACLU tour guide.
Copy machines, which I don't know how to work.
Very artistic.
This says, "the Womb Room".
I don't really know what goes on here.
There's Jason.
One of the few people I can talk about sports with here.
Strangio: And now we've reached the LGBT Project.
-Hey look! -Block: Hey!
I'm giving a tour.
-Block: Yeah? -Strangio: Yeah!
Wow
This is Dale's. He has a very, like, oaky feeling.
It's very Elk Moose Lodge.
There are probably more tattoos and piercings here
at the ACLU than there are at DOJ.
The legal department is divided into different projects.
So, Women's Rights, which was started
by Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
And then Speech Privacy and Technology
in that corner over there.
I think they're the ones who organize
the Whisky Wednesdays, which I'm too old for now.
This is the intern den.
Very intense and ambitious. Very scary to walk in here.
(laughter)
Block: Chase is right here.
I usually like, I always go to see what's happening.
He's definitely on the phone.
Strangio: This is an empty window office.
Like, maybe I should get to work in this office.
I will say, it is pretty amazing to come to work every day
and be like, "Wow, like, my colleagues
are really, like, doing it!"
They're such badasses.
(distant siren wailing)
You'll hear testimony from four of the plaintiffs
in this case.
All of them are United States citizens.
All of them are qualified to vote in the state of Kansas.
This law is like using...
Enforcing this law is like using a bazooka to kill a fly.
Thousands of Kansas voters have been the collateral damage.
Election-related litigation tends to go a little bit faster,
because we're usually trying to get a court ruling
before the next election.
I like that. I like stuff that's fast-paced.
(upbeat music playing)
Dale Ho: This case is all about protecting the right to vote
and disproving the lie that there are hoards
of non-citizens infiltrating American elections.
I've been doing this particular job for four years.
We're gonna be fighting state-to-state,
county-to-county against these voter suppression measures.
Michael Cloud: Mr. Ho, do you think that illegal aliens
should be allowed to vote?
Ho: No. And I'm not aware of any state that does so.
It's been pretty time-consuming.
I spend a decent amount of time on the road.
Hey, sweetheart. Sorry that I'm not gonna be home tonight.
(grunts)
Kids! Goodnight! I love you both.
Yeah. Yeah.
Boy: Daddy!
Daddy! Will you juggle, juggle, juggle?
I want you to juggle! Juggle, juggle!
Juggle!
Juggling balls.
Hey! That's not how you juggle.
Girl: Three balls. You need three balls to juggle.
Yeah. Juggling...
Ho: Before the election, I mean, I was thinking,
"We'll get through the election and maybe see--
Just poke around out there and see if there may be
things that will allow me
to spend a little more time with my family."
But...
the results of this election made that idea just,
I just tossed that idea out the window.
I mean, if I'm not gonna be
a civil rights lawyer right now, in this moment...
when, right?
So...
Trump: They spend billions of dollars on the census
and you're not allowed to ask?
You go knock on doors of houses.
Check houses.
You go through all this detail, and you're not allowed to ask
whether or not somebody is a citizen?
(dramatic music playing)
News Anchor 1: The U.S. Department of Commerce
announced Monday that it plans to add
a question on citizenship status
to the 2020 Census.
News Anchor 2: A seemingly simple question,
"Are you a U.S. Citizen?"
Ho: This is one of the few things
that's written in our Constitution
that the federal government has to do.
It's not just in the Constitution,
it's the sixth fucking sentence!
The census is supposed to count
every single person in this country.
Not just citizens. Every person.
Ho: How many seats a state gets in
the House of Representatives.
How many votes it gets in the electoral college.
It's all based on the census.
News Anchor: Challengers say the question could lead
to millions of people not responding to the census
and that could affect how federal money is allocated
and how many representatives each state gets in Congress.
-Sarah: This is Sarah. -Hey Sarah.
You've got all of New York here.
-Sarah: Okay. -Ho: We anticipate
they're gonna file something in the Supreme Court
and we're gonna have to oppose that.
And I like the idea of doing a response here,
obviously for the substantive reasons,
but also to jam them up a little bit.
The more we hit them with right now,
the harder it is for them to respond and stay on course.
Sarah: If we can get a brief...
Ho: The government's own estimate is that
six-and-a-half million won't respond to the census
if you add this question.
Six states would be at risk of losing a seat in Congress.
It's kind of difficult to imagine higher stakes.
Today, we're here to send a message to the world
that we are not going to let the country be overwhelmed.
People are not going to caravan
or otherwise stampede our border.
If you cross the border unlawfully
then we will prosecute you.
If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you,
and that child may be separated from you.
These actions are necessary
and they are made even more necessary
by this massive increase in illegal crossings...
(dramatic music playing)
Gelernt: I just drove down to the San Diego/Mexico border
to meet with this mother who the government
has separated her from her child who's seven-and-a-half.
She escaped her country where she was gonna be killed,
and now is seeking asylum here.
The government took her child and sent her to Chicago.
The child is, of course, scared out of her mind, crying.
The little girl knows no one
and she's just sitting there by herself.
I've come to talk to this woman about whether
she would like us to bring a suit.
Ms. L: (speaking foreign language)
Gelernt: That was a really rough meeting.
The mother would like us to do...
what we can to get her daughter back to her.
So...
She's...
She's distraught, you know?
I don't know.
Reporter: You'd mentioned that there might be some
pending legal action coming?
I just wanted to see
if there's anything you can talk about.
Yeah, let's talk-- Off the record?
Reporter: Yeah.
So we are confidentially filing a national class action
in the next few hours.
We think there's hundreds of people all over the country
who this is happening to.
Mike? It's Lee Gelernt.
Hey, Heidi, it's Lee. Spencer, it's Lee.
We gotta get going on this stuff.
You saw we got another plaintiff, right?
-(phone ringing) -We're gonna do our reply
-in three hours. -(phone ringing)
Can I send you the complaint and you start playing with that?
(phone ringing)
You gotta make it clear to the court what's happening.
There is a habeas position, but the motion
to dismiss is almost fully briefed,
and now all of a sudden they're telling us
they may remove the person while the stay motion
is pending, which is another 48 hours.
(phone ringing)
Yeah, sure.
(phone continues ringing)
Hold on one second, okay?
(cellphone ringing)
(other phone continues ringing)
My charger doesn't work. Do you have an extra charger?
-Can you-- You do? -Yeah.
-Can I borrow it? -Yeah, but you have to plug it
into your computer. I don't have the wall...
Can you show-- How do I do that?
It's just, you plug it into a USB outlet
in your tower, your computer tower...
But...
You plug in that side to the USB part
-and you plug in... -Down below?
-Yeah. -Yes.
Um...
(phone ringing)
Producer: So, how many of these separation cases
do you think are out there?
People on the ground in the detention centers
are saying hundreds.
Hundreds of parents have just lost their kids
to being separated.
Reporter: Why is the government doing this?
Sarah Sanders: Because it's the law,
and that's what the law states.
-And the law... -There is no law that requires
families to be separated at the border.
This was the administration's choice to move
from civil matters on immigration onto criminal
and therefore to separate families.
Brian: Don't you have any empathy
for what these people are going through?
-Jill... -Brian: They have less
-than you do! -Brian! Guys! Settle down.
-Sarah, seriously. -Sanders: I'm trying to be
serious, but I'm not gonna have you yell out of turn.
-Jill, please go on. -You're telling us it's a law,
and you throw children in cages. You're a parent.
You're a parent of young children!
Don't you have any empathy for what they go through?
Jill, go ahead.
Jill: Two questions for you.
Firstly, does the president really believe...
(TV theme music playing)
Amiri: So this is a Christian television station.
We begin tonight with an exclusive interview
with the Trump official who tried to stop
a detained immigrant from getting an abortion.
I know you personally have written about
your pro-life views and are a Catholic father of six.
Yeah.
Amiri: You are robbing young women of their ability
to make decisions about their pregnancies
and forcing them to carry their pregnancies
to term against their will because you think
you know what's best for them.
There isn't anything more scary or more patriarchal.
We need to do everything that we can to protect
the dignity of life of human life
from conception to natural death.
(dramatic music playing)
Amiri: If the court doesn't intervene quickly,
she will be forced to carry her pregnancy
to term against her will.
Time is a big factor. We're racing against the clock.
(dramatic music playing)
Alright this sentence doesn't sound right to me.
"Although the government has asserted that on... (mumbles)
Start all over again.
"That it believed."
-Amiri: That it believed. -Yeah.
Yep. Okay. Now I'm too tired.
It really feels like a canary in the coalmine moment.
If we lose this case, I don't know
what Roe vs. Wade means.
(dramatic music playing)
Brett Kavanaugh: The government has argued
we want to favor life over abortion.
What is your response to their suggestion
that they don't have to be complicit in the abortion?
Amiri: Your Honor, I would say that
they have admitted in the context of ICE detention
that they will and do facilitate abortion.
Kavanaugh: Suppose she had been detained at the border,
but not in the United States.
She would have been sent back, presumably, to her home country
and the government's theory of this is that
that's the same position she would be in now.
Amiri: But that's not the position she's in now.
Your Honor, deportation proceedings
have not begun against her.
Due process clause of the Fifth Amendment applies
to all persons in the United States.
There is no reason why her immigration status
should diminish her constitutional right
to access abortion.
The government may not ban abortion for anyone.
(dramatic music playing)
(indistinct chatter)
(phone ringing)
(chuckles)
It's good, it's good. All good stuff.
Thanks, everybody!
Yep, you guys are amazing. Thank you. Bye.
I'm not sure that there's much I can say on the train.
But, um, things are gonna work out.
She will be able to get the care she needs tomorrow.
Look at that headline.
And how happy does that make you?
Ah! So happy.
I have to edit it, but this is the headline. Right?
Meagan Burrows: Good headline.
Amiri: (laughing)
-Guess what I'm getting? -Burrows: Wine!
Amiri: Train wine! Who wants some train wine?
Oh, yeah.
Cheers! Woohoo!
Train wine.
Jane Doe: (speaking Spanish)
Amiri: We know there are other young women out there.
We know the policy is still in place.
We're asking to proceed as a class action
so we don't have to go running into court
for each young woman once we find them.
(dramatic music playing)
Strangio: I actually started, um, cross-stitching.
Block: Yeah, no I...
Like, you know, "home sweet home"
-on a pillow. -Block: Right.
It's "CrossFit", is what people are saying.
Wait, did you get, like, confused?
-(laughs) I wish I was doing-- -Cause it doesn't, like,
-keep you in shape. -Yeah, no I'm not--
I wish I was doing CrossFit,
but instead, I'm doing needlepoint.
(chuckles)
Strangio: Hi, I'm Chase.
Stone: Nice to meet you in person.
-Good to meet you. -Block: I'm Josh.
great to meet you in person too.
Stone: I joined May 23rd, 2006.
So it'll be over 12 years now.
That was a flag that
when I was in Afghanistan, I flew.
Yeah, the one below, it's like my farewell plaque
from when I was in Korea.
These three are my dad.
That I think was just his basic training photo.
He was a Morse code operator.
Block: How would you express your feelings
about your interaction with other service members
and whether there's ever been any problem or discomfort?
I have not had one person be anything but supportive.
Like, if there's anybody here that has an issue
with me being trans, I'm not aware of it.
The military is very much a family for me.
That's kind of being taken away from me.
You know, I have people tell me all the time,
"Military service is a privilege.
It's not a right."
I would argue that by virtue of my performance,
by virtue of my ability, and by virtue of the fact
that I am qualified to be in the military
and have been for 11 years, that I should stay.
(train chugging)
(dramatic music playing)
Block: The people that have been pushing for this ban
object to the existence of trans people.
They wanna kick them out of jobs and out of schools.
Basically, they wanna erase trans people from public life.
Strangio: If your whole body and identity
is sort of the contested site of the conversation,
it's really hard to then put it out there.
It's easier for me to, like, watch Josh
do an argument and do a great job
because Josh knows how to do it.
And if we get a good ruling, like, then...
I will have been brilliant.
And if, like, we get a bad ruling...
Strangio: The fate of the trans community is all your fault.
Yeah.
Producer: And it's just gonna be you?
Block: Uh, we're not sure yet. Um...
Probably.
I guess we'll see.
It is complicated, as a cis person,
to be, like, doing the argument.
Like, there's so much responsibility you have
to the people whose stories you're telling.
You're the only trans person on the team
except for our clients, um...
and that's complicated.
What do you feel about doing the argument yourself?
Strangio: Well I mean, I just...
I'm not the right person to do this argument, you know?
I think it's tricky, cause you have to build up--
Like, this is a huge case.
Like, I don't have enough experience.
I mean, when I became a lawyer, there weren't that many
trans lawyers, and so, then I had to be doing
a lot of different types of things, and it didn't include
just honing my litigation skills on random shit.
'Cause there was just no time for that.
It was like, "Go do this legislative advocacy,"
"Go learn how to be on TV," "Go do this," "Go do that."
"Go...
train the ACLU on what it means to be trans."
(upbeat music playing)
Amiri: "We all know what birth control means
to the ACLU.
It is the bashing of the heads of the innocent
and the spilling of their brains on the sidewalk."
"A liberal immigrant dumbass like you
can't understand that voting in the U.S.
is done only by U.S. citizens."
"Illegal immigrants do not have rights, jackass."
He could probably do without eight exclamation marks.
Probably five would have been sufficient.
Strangio: "Hey, faggot. You're a disgusting,
subhuman dickhead."
"Your hanging out with a lesbian crowd
has obliterate all shards of decency in your own life."
"Go home, immigrant pig."
Man: Hey, Lee, "A" stands for "American".
Americans come first. We don't appreciate your work.
Woman: (over phone)
"You murdering ass." "You lesbo-loving..."
Poop emoji.
Man 1: (over phone)
Man 2: I mean, obviously, you're a little gay faggot.
I can see that by your photograph and your voice.
You're a fucking piece of shit.
Yeah. If you don't look at the negative stuff,
then you're just sort of in your own bubble.
Ho: You know, I don't wanna run from this.
"Are you a citizen of the United States of America?"
"Oh, gee!
I'm sorry, I just can't answer that question."
We must have a reliable count of how many citizens,
noncitizens, and illegal aliens are in our country.
Reporter: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross testified
on the 2020 Census at a House hearing today.
Committee members questioned him about the decision
to add a citizenship question to the form.
Elijah Cummings: Secretary Ross...
in fall of 2017,
your staff hand-delivered a secret memo
about the citizenship question to the Department of Justice.
Did the secret memo describe the real reason you wanted
to add the citizenship question?
I don't believe there's anything in evidence
that my staff delivered a message of that sort.
DOJ sought census citizenship data for use
in Voting Rights Act enforcement.
We intend to count as many people as possible...
(upbeat music playing)
How you doin'?
When the secretary says, "I want accurate
citizenship information," and they already have it...
but he's ignoring that accurate information
and instead putting a question on the census,
well, it begs the question,
why are you doing it?
If you really want accurate citizenship information,
you'd go to the social security administration.
The fact that you're not doing that
suggests that it's a pretext.
That you're not out to get the most accurate
citizenship information,
that you have some other goal in mind.
Now, we think we know what that goal is.
It's to scare immigrant communities,
reduce the participation of noncitizens
and people who have noncitizens in their families
from participating in the census,
and then ultimately use that information
to cut those people out of the political process entirely.
"Equal Justice Under Law."
William Clay: Mr. Secretary, you lied to Congress,
you mislead the American people, and you are complicit
in the Trump administration's intent to suppress
the growing political power of the nonwhite population.
You have already done great harm to Census 2020
and you should, in my opinion, resign.
Is there a question in that, sir?
I still don't see what it is that the...
people need to be afraid of.
You're being asked "Are you a citizen?
Are you not a citizen?"
Seems like a reasonable thing for the government to ask.
(indistinct police radio chatter)
Commentator 1: For Latinos now
who are in mixed-status families
there is a real fear that if they respond in any way,
the government might come back and use this information
against them.
There are at least two instances
in history where they did
Commentator 2: During World War II,
the federal government used census data
to identify Japanese-American families...
to send them to internment.
(dramatic music playing)
Ho: There is a little bit of reluctance sometimes
for...
civil rights advocates to argue to conservatives that...
the person we're suing had a discriminatory game plan
in mind. Had a discriminatory intent.
Conservative judges are generally a little reluctant
to say that someone intended to discriminate.
So the advice we're getting is, "Don't bother trying
to prove the real reason.
Don't bother trying to win the pretext argument
on the merits. It's important for the case,
for the framing of the case. But you don't need it to win.
All you need to win is, there's more accurate
citizenship data somewhere else.
The secretary ignored that advice from the Census Bureau,
and that was unlawful."
Crowd: (cheering)
Trump: ICE is throwing them out of our country by the thousands.
"I am afraid for my life!
I am afraid to go back to my country!
I want to be an American!"
We don't want them in our country,
and they're not getting into our country.
And when they have in the past, a lot of them have come in,
we're throwing them the hell out. They're out.
-We're getting them out. -(applause)
Rachel Maddow: The AP has just broken some new news.
This has just come out from the Associated Press.
This is incredible.
Trump Administration officials have been sending babies
and other young children.
Oh, hold on...
to at least three...
(breathing shakily) Can we put up the graphic of this?
Three tender-age shelters in south Texas.
(dramatic music playing)
-Woman: Families! -Crowd: United!
(crowd chanting)
Crowd: Free our children now!
(indistinct chatter)
(crowd chanting)
News Anchor: Nearly 2,000 children have been separated
from their families between April and May.
Immigrants, Latinos and all of us,
are targets.
Gelernt: The people who are being separated
from their kids pass the government's
own asylum-screening interviews.
They're bonafide asylum seekers.
They're still having their children ripped away.
Like it or not, these aren't our kids.
It's not like he's doing this to the people of Idaho
or, uh, Texas.
These are people from another country.
News Anchor: (speaking Spanish)
Gelernt: The medical evidence is overwhelming
that we may be doing permanent trauma to these kids.
(dramatic music playing)
Gelernt: In your hometown, in Guatemala
were there other families that had their children
taken away?
Raul: (speaking Spanish)
(dramatic music playing)
Raul: (speaking Spanish)
Gelernt: The government has a fair amount
of technical arguments.
My job is gonna be to make sure the horror
of what's going on really stays front and center.
For me, you know, just thinking about my own kids,
it's just... It's inconceivable...
that this could be happening,
and that I don't-- You know, I'd be going out of my mind.
(dramatic music playing)
David Cole: There's a kind of cyclical nature to the work
of a civil liberties organization.
It's always one step forward,
two steps back.
You're not gonna win every fight.
Romero: Our first same-sex marriage case,
two guys walked into a local office in Minnesota
and said "We wanna get married.
For 44 years, we stayed on that.
We defend civil liberties for all.
And not everybody at the ACLU agrees.
Not everybody in the United States agrees.
The promise of a right is that anyone can,
uh, exercise the right.
It's not a right for the people you agree with,
it's a right for everybody.
(indistinct chatter)
Man: You're gonna get your spacing once
when you get up there.
Get your torches lit and get in your columns.
Uh, white nationalists are getting ready to march
in Charlottesville, Virginia
Crowd: Jews! Will not! Replace us!
Jews! Will not! Replace us!
-Jews! Will not! Replace us! -Man: Get in the oven!
Crowd: Jews! Will not! Replace us!
Jews! Will not! Replace us!
If the ACLU was not successful today
and the Charlottesville City Government was allowed
to deny us our constitutional First Amendment rights,
we might be in a different situation than we are today.
Journalist: It's a melding of white nationalists, Klan,
fascists all mixing together and uniting.
Uh-oh. It looks like a small group
of counter-demonstrators has surrounded
the Robert E. Lee Memorial.
Crowd: No Nazis! No KKK! No fascist USA!
Man: Move, bitch!
Crowd: White lives matter!
White lives matter!
Man: Hail Trump!
Duke: We are determined to take our country back.
We're gonna fulfill the promises of Donald Trump
(indistinct yelling)
Man: Oh, my God! Oh, my God.
Oh my God. Holy...
Go, go, go.
Woman: Holy shit!
Holy shit! Holy...
I think there were all kinds of discussions,
both formal and informal that went on
within the organization after this happened.
There were people that were badly, badly hurt,
and there was somebody who was killed.
And our name was attached to the event.
The ACLU was not responsible for Heather Heyer's death.
But we were not a random organization
just out there watching what happened.
We have a policy of defending those
who, with whom we disagree, including white supremacists,
including the alt-right, and we will continue to do so.
(dramatic music playing)
Jeffery Robinson: The calculus isn't just as simple as,
"Oh this is a First Amendment issue."
This ain't Skokie, Illinois.
This isn't a handful of neo-Nazis
who don't have weapons...
and who don't have a president
in the White House spewing openly racist stuff.
Trump: You had people, very fine people, on both sides.
You had a lot of people in that group
that were there to innocently protest
and very legally protest--
because, I don't know if you know,
they had a permit.
The other group didn't have a permit.
Well I would say, you know,
the fact that President Trump is in office
and that we have someone who is a racist in power
only underscores why you would not want to give
government officials the power to silence those whose views
they disagree with.
President Trump is not gonna silence
the white supremacists.
Who's he gonna silence if you give him that power?
I disagree with the decision.
That doesn't mean I don't respect the decision.
I just disagree with it.
News Anchor: A horrific scene in Charlottesville, Virginia.
A white nationalist rally that descended into deadly
violence and chaos.
The images just coming in.
A car plowing into a crowd of demonstrators protesting
against those white nationalists.
A 32-year-old woman killed. A number of severe injuries,
many life-threatening.
A driver has been taken into custody.
On the streets of Charlottesville today,
the hate boiling over.
White supremacists and counter-protestors
fighting with fists and clubs.
Confederate flags on...
(dramatic music playing)
Amiri: People say "Why don't you go work at a law firm
and don't have this level of stress riding
on your shoulders?"
It takes its toll on your personal relationships
and on your family.
(laughs)
Did you wear your cape all day?
News Anchor: We begin with a decision that will impact
the nation for decades.
Justice Anthony Kennedy announced Wednesday
he will retire after three decades
on the Supreme Court.
The 81 year old...
Amiri: I got a New York Times alert on my phone.
And my daughter heard me gasp.
And said "Mommy! What's wrong? What's wrong?"
And I said, "Justice Kennedy announced his retirement."
And she said, "Well, what does that mean?"
And I said, "Mommy's job just got a lot harder."
His decision to retire from the court is game-changing
on critical cases involving civil liberties,
LGBT rights, the death penalty, affirmative action.
Man: Do you think that Kennedy's retirement
puts Roe v. Wade in question?
It absolutely calls it into question.
You have four justices on the Court
who are very hostile to abortion rights.
Any of the debate around the nominee
has everything to do with whom is nominated.
And Judge Kavanaugh is on the shortlist for
Trump's appointments.
I argued in front of him on the emergency appeal
for Jane Doe.
He punted and said, "I'll allow the government
more time with the case."
Richard Blumenthal: Under Texas law,
she was eligible for an abortion.
The pregnancy was four weeks further when you upheld...
the Trump administration in blocking her efforts
to terminate her pregnancy.
The decision of that panel was overruled.
Sullivan: Has Kavanaugh never ruled
-on any other abortion? -Only Jane Doe.
Sullivan: Only Jane Doe, that was the only one ever?
Only abortion case. He said something like,
"Roe v. Wade is precedent
and I would be bound by precedent."
Doesn't apply when he's in the Supreme Court.
Once he gets to the high court--
Then he can create new precedent.
Amiri: Exactly! He gets to make the precedent.
I wanna talk about a list.
Uh, it's the list that Donald Trump circulated
of his potential Supreme Court nominees.
His litmus test for that list...
was that a justice that he'd nominate
would have to automatically overturn Roe v. Wade, correct?
(clears throat) I'm not gonna comment
on what he said. Whatever he had said publicly--
-Well he said it -Yeah.
(dramatic music playing)
Amiri: Earlier this week, we got multiple anonymous tips
that there were two more Jane Does.
-Wow. -Woman: It just-- It never ends.
No. It doesn't.
It's shocking that the federal government
continues to do this despite the fact
that we had a clear victory for Jane Doe.
All right, so you have the Word version and the PDF version.
-Yeah. -Amiri: Do you wanna open it
and we'll scroll through it.
Late last night, we filed our motion to proceed
as a class action on behalf of anyone
who is pregnant in O.R.R. custody.
We are scrambling as quickly as we can.
I've always believed that the Trump administration
would try to do to everyone what they did to Jane Doe.
Noah Strangio: Were those actual screen grabs of tweets?
Yeah we're putting the screen grabs--
This is the new way to litigate.
So do you fix the typos or just leave them as-is?
No-- Yeah, we just leave the typos.
You're dialed-in right now.
No, I'm not. I'm just--
I just have to send one thing. Um...
Because the court has to assign it to a division in the morning
-and... -I also feel like me perusing...
-Yeah. -...what you're working on
and acting like I understand it.
And also, you shouldn't look at it.
-Okay. -Even though Dad
already tried to.
I actually had a moment where I was like,
"Is dad gonna try to take these and do something?
-Like, send them to Brietbart?" -Noah: ACLU strikes again!
(laughter)
When I served, my units were super diverse.
We had people who were not American citizens
who specifically joined to be a part of the country.
-Do you want water? -Noah: Yeah, I'll take it.
It does represent what I believe much of what's best of America.
Chase and I don't always agree politically,
and all of that aside, a broad-brush ban
on a certain segment of the population
not being allowed to serve their country,
which to me is so antithetical to everything the military
is supposed to represent.
(indistinct chatter)
Open Word.
Open Word!
Start listening.
President Trump has issued a formal memorandum
with three binding directives that explicitly overturn
pre-existing military policy. Period.
In all three cases, the president didn't wait
for some further study to be completed.
He changed the policy first and then ordered
additional study after the fact. Period.
New paragraph.
No.
Stop listening.
(indistinct chatter)
Producer: Can you explain what a moot is?
Ho: A moot is a practice oral argument session.
Colleagues and sometimes friends from outside the organization,
co-counsel, play the role of judges, and just pepper
that person with questions.
Man: There's no moot pump-up music?
No, not for moots.
For the actual argument itself, I think.
Although I have been playing it on repeat in my head, um,
Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down".
Shall we?
(upbeat music playing)
Amiri: Kendall was supposed to find a podium.
We put the brief in three days ago,
so, just... (chuckles) Uh...
I'll do my best.
Woman: Okay, counselor, what relief
are you asking for?
Your Honor, we are asking that the children
who have been separated already be reunited with their parents.
Ho: The courts have held that an agency must fully
and accurately set forth the methods
by which it has chosen to act.
The president said we need to ban this
because of the tremendous cost.
The amount of money the military pays
to treat erectile dysfunction dwarfs the amount of money
it pays to treat gender dysphoria.
The government has taken the position that
only sponsorship or voluntary departure
are the mechanisms for accessing abortion.
But those, uh, mechanisms are completely outside
of the minors' control.
One thing I think that bears,
uh, mentioning, that's not in, um, our, uh...
co-plaintiff's brief...
That's not how I wanna put this. Um, wha...
I'm having some issues today.
Man: The government says that all
of its detention choices are discretionary
and that therefore, I can't review it.
Right, Your Honor, but that's wrong, Your Honor.
Due process always constrains discretion.
Ho: Six states face a substantial risk of losing
a seat in Congress. California, New York, Texas,
Florida, Arizona, and Illinois.
Woman: We've got somebody who identifies as male
and has female genitalia.
Why does the military have to deal with all that?
Gelernt: We have to make him feel like he cannot sign off
on these little kids sitting all by themselves.
He has to have a mental picture of these kids.
Man: Do you think that you have a way
to making a pretext argument that's about discrimination?
(upbeat music playing)
The United States Supreme Court has made a decision
that they will hear President Trump's
-travel ban case. -News Anchor 1: Tonight,
the President's original travel ban's long and legal limbo
is catching a break because of the new version
just unveiled.
News Anchor 2: The Trump administration
is replacing its controversial travel ban with, quote,
"tailored travel restrictions".
News Anchor 3: The latest version removes Sudan
and adds Chad, Venezuela, and North Korea.
Remember this, I wasn't thrilled.
But the lawyers all said, "Oh, let's tailor it."
This is a watered-down version of the first one.
This is a watered-down version.
And let me tell you something, I think we ought to go back
to the first one and go all the way,
which is what I wanted to do in the first place.
Crowd: (cheering)
(dramatic music playing)
Gelernt: Just one thing after another.
I mean, right tomorrow, we have a big hearing
on family separation.
We have two briefs due... (sniffs) Monday at 3:00 pm
in the Supreme Court in the Muslim ban litigation.
The government has asked the Supreme Court
to let it go into effect immediately.
It's another Saturday here at the ACLU.
Producer: It's your son's birthday too, right?
Gelernt: It is my son's birthday.
(dramatic music playing)
Gelernt: Just looking at the city...
through sort of blurry eyes, late at night.
I just-- I never get tired of it.
We could hear literally any time from, I think, tomorrow night
to the end of June of whether the Supreme Court
is gonna allow the ban to go into effect.
Producer: Anything goin' down?
No decision.
Woman: Here you are.
Technician: If you could talk to us through the mic.
We'll cue you through this earpiece...
and you'll be able to hear the show.
So Lee, you can go ahead and have a seat. Um...
Gelernt: Am I on?
No, we're waiting for the travel ban.
Producer: You're gonna be standing by.
-Gelernt: This one? -Producer: Yeah. This one.
Could my chair be closer?
Tell me when.
Good. Thanks.
This fell out also.
-You don't hear anything? -Nope.
Producer: Do you hear it now?
Reporter: The Attorney General saying...
Gelernt: Yeah, now.
Producer: Is it a good level or...?
-I need it a little louder. -Yeah, sure.
Reporter: The bottom line, you still have
more than 2,000 kids who haven't been reunited
-with their families... -Technician: Lee,
you're on in five minutes.
...top of the show, which is our first look,
now, inside one of these
detention facilities holding unaccompanied kids.
-This one is in New York. -(clears throat)
News Anchor: Apparently a worker inside one of these facilities
in New York handed over some of this video...
Technician: Four minutes, Lee.
We have breaking news now.
The Supreme Court has now come down
on its ruling today regarding one of the most
anticipated cases of the term.
We're talking about Trump v. Hawaii,
also known as the president's travel ban case.
What happened, Maya? It came down.
Maya: It did?
The decision says that President Trump wins.
The Supreme Court has upheld the president's travel ban.
This is the third version of the attempt to restrict
travel from mostly Muslim countries
after the first two were struck down.
Technician: Three minutes.
I can't go on right away. I need to look at the opinion.
Can you give me five more minutes?
Hey, I need Omar really quickly.
What's his cell phone number? What's his cell phone number?
Pen!
I'm about to go on live on MSNBC
'cause I was here for family separation.
It's basically just a straight-out loss, right?
(dramatic music playing)
Reporter: ...justice prior announced his dissent
in that case, too. So, he is dissenting...
Though the government remains...
Technician: Sixty seconds.
Hey, Omar, I gotta go on in like two minutes.
I'm just gonna denounce it, but I just wanna say
we're gonna evaluate the opinion to see...
Woman: Lee, we're ready for you now.
I'll be 30 seconds. Okay, cool.
Thanks, Omar. Ready now.
I wanna bring in, I believe we have Lee Gelernt
with the ACLU. Lee, if you're with us,
what is your reaction?
It's obviously very bad. We're very disappointed.
We believe that it was no question
that this was a Muslim ban, and so we really regret
that this came out this way. (clears throat)
News Anchor: I wanna let you know
we are hearing now for the first time
from President Trump and, yes, it is coming
from his Twitter account in all-caps, writing,
"Supreme Court upholds Trump travel ban. Wow!"
Exclamation point. The president obviously
very pleased with the ruling now coming in.
(dramatic music playing)
(applause)
Mr. President...
thank you for the great honor of appointing me
to serve as a justice of the Supreme Court.
I've seen, first-hand, your deep appreciation
for the vital role of the American judiciary.
Mr. President, thank you for everything.
(applause)
(exhales)
Hopefully, I don't fuck up my first sentence.
Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court,
the secretary's decision rested on a single assertion
that it was-- Fuck. (laughs)
Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court,
the secretary's decision rested on a single assertion,
that-- Fuck! (laughs)
Don't do this tomorrow. (sighs)
Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court...
Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court,
the secretary's decision rested on a single assertion,
that it would provide more accurate citizenship data
to the Department of Justice.
But the administrative record revealed precisely the opposite,
that it would result in less accurate data
for the Department of Justice.
And the secretary's explanation
for his decision ran counter to the evidence,
and was thus arbitrary and capricious...
...arbitrary and capricious...
...arbitrary and capricious in three respects.
I'm gonna try to work my way through my points
and periodically interrupt myself
with a random question.
I'm gonna try to give my answer and then pivot back
to my main points.
It'll be worse for Voting Rights Act
enforcement purposes.
No, that's not the case.
Yes, that's right, but imputation
would be more accurate.
Well the standard is the ordinary arbitrary
and capricious standard under, um, Section 706.
Producer: Have you argued in front
-of the Supreme Court before? -No.
Woman: Did you expect to be doing it?
No.
Producer: Do you think you're gonna win?
I don't know.
All right. (sighs)
It's gotta be muscle memory now.
I'm gonna do one more.
(dramatic music playing)
I actually went swimming this morning.
I figured I might as well try and relax.
Producer: Did it work?
Um...
Not really. (laughs)
I haven't been this nervous in a while for a case.
I just feel like I-- One of those--
these cases I just cannot lose.
I-- I mean, I could lose it, I'm just saying I...
I really feel a lot of pressure to win.
I just-- It's so horrendous, what's happening.
Just reading these stories over again this morning
and last night.
These little kids are just being terrorized.
Block: Here today because President Trump
has issued a formal memo,
three directives explicitly overturning
current military policy...
which...
Is it "which" or "that"?
Current military policy, which allows...
(chuckles)
(dramatic music playing)
Woman: Okay again.
Protesters: (chanting indistinctly)
(dramatic music playing)
Ho: Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court,
the secretary's decision rested primarily on one assertion,
that it would improve the accuracy of citizenship data
provided to the Department of Justice.
But the administration record revealed
precisely the opposite.
The secretary's explanation for his decision
misstated the evidence in the record
in three critical respects.
Amiri: This is a blanket ban on abortion for anyone
while they're in government custody.
The class must protect the ability of all pregnant minors
to make their own decisions free from government
obstruction and interference.
Block: If there's a transgender person whose gender dysphoria
is actually limiting their ability to serve,
they can be kicked out just like any other person
whose medical condition is limiting their ability.
What the president has done is just irrational
under any standard.
Gelernt: They tell the parents
"We're just taking your child for a bath."
Then the parent never sees the child again.
And I realize that I am almost pleading, Your Honor,
but at this point, we believe that it is necessary for you
to issue an injunction as early as tonight.
Neil Gorsuch: There could be multiple reasons
why individuals don't complete the form.
Roberts: Do you own your house? Do you own a radio?
I mean, the questions go quite beyond
how many people there are.
Samuel Alito: If the secretary is told,
"Trust us, it's gonna be better,"
is it arbitrary and capricious?
Ho: Justice Alito, respectfully, I think the Census Bureau said
a little bit more than, "Trust us."
What the Census Bureau said was, "We can develop a highly
accurate model for this that's going to be better
than getting the question wrong
one third of the time."
Kavanaugh: The question is,
it's more important to get accurate citizenship
information even at the expense,
potentially, of a slight
decrease in response rates.
(dramatic music playing)
(indistinct radio chatter)
(train door dings)
Gelernt: We're gonna have to wait till my phone charges
for ten minutes and then go somewhere else.
Producer: Yeah.
(indistinct chatter)
Gelernt: Do you have outlets in here?
I can't believe I'm going 20 minutes without having a phone.
I can't even hear. Is it...?
Is it still not charging? It should be charging!
How do I do this?
-Stacy? -Man: Guys would you help me,
85 cents? I'm homeless.
Gelernt: My phone has run out. You've gotta give Inga
this alternative number, okay? Tell her to call me
at 347...
'Cause now I can't even make calls.
The judge just issued a major ruling in the...
family separation case, but it came very late
and now everyone's scrambling to read it. I had to read it
really quickly. And it looks great.
All the hard parts. He rejected the government's
main position that these families have no
constitutional right, and he did it
in the strongest possible language,
calling the family separation policy "brutal".
I just-- Now, I just need my phone to work.
I've just re-read it, and it is really
an enormous ruling, because the big issue
between the parties was, "Do these families
have a constitutional right to remain together?"
And what he said is, "They do," and this is the first
federal judge now to look at it and say, "It's brutal
and clearly violates the Constitution."
(dramatic music playing)
(crying, speaking Spanish)
(crying)
(indistinct chatter)
(emotional music playing)
(indistinct chatter)
Amiri: We just got a decision in the Jane Doe case.
Class certification is granted.
Preliminary injunction as to the class.
The decision is amazing. The court says that while O.R.R.
and Scott Lloyd may prefer that the minors
in federal custody carry their pregnancies to term,
they may not impose that belief on minors and strip them
of their right to their reproductive decisions.
Man: Congratulations! Congratulations!
Woman: (cheering)
(indistinct chatter)
(dramatic music playing)
Block: We saw, with the Muslim ban, that Trump does something
shocking, and then they go back and try it again to make it
a little less shocking, and then again to make it
a little less shocking.
And then they go up to the Supreme Court,
where they have a more sympathetic audience.
Strangio: So, we could a denial this morning,
which would be great, or the Supreme Court could stay
the injunctions, which would be, like, terrible.
-Block: It's 9:30. -Strangio: Alright. So...
-Block: God damn it! -Strangio: What? They stayed it?
Block: They stayed it.
Strangio: Oh, fuck! There it is right there,
-it's the first thing. -Block: Yeah. Yeah.
Fuck! So this essentially means the ban is in effect.
Block: Yep.
(dramatic music playing)
Stone: Everybody was saying, "Oh, you know, you're safe,
you're safe." But, um, I guess the main thing
was I felt pretty disappointed that, you know,
all the people that were kind of in line to enlist
were gonna get screwed.
It's hard to go to work and focus on your job
and do a good job when you know that maybe
you're still gonna get kicked out.
Maybe the guy sitting next to you thinks
that you should be kicked out, you know?
(dramatic music playing)
Ho: When I think about...
what we expect, um, today, you know,
in, like, an adverse decision, um...
and I think about, like,
"Okay, well, next week I'm on vacation. It's, like,
finally my time to relax..."
Hey kiddo.
Bye.
-Thanks. -Mm-hmm.
-All right. -Good luck.
Thanks.
You know, it's gonna suck if we lose, but...
I mean, it's awful for us. It's awful for all of us.
It's awful for our democracy.
I never really thought I'd get an argument
in the Supreme Court.
And I sort of thought that if I did,
it would be a pretty minor case. Not something that's like...
the big bombshell of the day.
(sighs)
Got the decision.
Yeah.
Yeah, we lost.
(exhales)
Wait a minute, what?
Did I?
Did I read that too fast?
What the f... I can't understand what's happening.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
We...
won on...
on establishing that it was pretextual.
(telephone rings)
-Inga: Hey. -Hey, hey, hey. So, um...
-Inga: What's up? -Uh, uh, uh... It's confusing.
They're agreeing with us that the agency
wasn't truthful about why they added the citizenship question.
-Inga: Okay. -Ho: The pretext point.
They can't print the forms on Monday
with the question on it.
Inga: Okay. So...
-I mean, is it a... -It's a...
-Inga: ...voting rights victory? -It's like a win!
Inga: Do you want me to send the win version?
-Lawyer: Hey! -We're still winning right now.
-We're winning right now. -Ho: Yeah.
I gotta get the opinion.
And I saw, like, a dissent from the four liberals, and I--
I just assumed that meant it's over, and the--
Every first part of the opinion was...
"It's not substantively invalid."
I just feel like an idiot right now.
I forgot to send it to the printer.
Inga: To who?
Oh, Inga! Hey sorry, you're there.
I forgot to send the opinion to the printer. I have to-- I--
I actually have to read the damn thing.
Holy shit!
-Holy shit! -Lawyer: We won!
(laughing)
Look, it's not over! I mean, they're gonna come back
-and try again. -Pretext!
Yeah, you're right! You're right!
-Yes! -Ho: You're right!
Lawyer: Congress has to have hearings.
Like, everything in sight
to make sure this question does not get on.
-Uh... -Lawyer: You won!
-(phone ringing) -Hello?
Cole: Hey Dale. Congratulations!
-We won! -Cole: Can you believe this?
I mean, I was reading the thing. I thought we lost.
I know! I did the same thing! I was reading the syllabus
-and I was like... -Cole: Exactly!
We won on pretext!
But that's unbelievable,
-so unbelievable. -Holy shit!
Oh my God!
-(laughs) Oh my God! -Cole: Oh my God.
At first I was like, "Oh shit, this is just temporary."
But the more I think about it, the more I think
that they can't do it.
We have a ruling from the Court that we can rely on discovery.
I mean, forget it.
We will fuck them up if they try to do this.
We will go back into court. We will depose
-all of these m------------. -Cole: (laughing)
Congrats! Maybe you should go on the other side
Okay, I've never done that before. Oh, God.
Crowd: (cheering)
Hey!
-Romero: Hey! (laughs) -(cheers and applause)
(telephone beeps)
(telephone ringing)
-Caroline: Hello? -We won.
Caroline: I know, I'm crying! I'm, like, shaking and crying.
That's so amazing! (sobs)
Oh, my God, it's so amazing!
We won.
Caroline: (chuckles) I'm so--
I'm so incredibly proud
and happy. That's so great. It's so great.
(dramatic music playing)
Amiri: All I've ever known how to do is fight,
and so we just keep fighting. And even though we're tired
and even though it's exhausting and it's maddening,
it's what we do.
In Section One-- Is it Section One?
There's a significant risk of the courts coming up
with some constitutional right to discriminate
against LGBT people.
To not only, um, you know, stop protecting
them under the Constitution, but striking down laws
designed to protect them.
We don't know what the full fallout will be.
Strangio: There is a fight going on and we don't exist
on the terms of government definitions.
We exist because we are here right now.
(crowd cheering)
(indistinct chanting)
Ho: A lot of people have been running up to us
saying things like, you know, "You're our hope
against the forces that have put Trump in power,"
and, "You're gonna be what's gonna stop this thing."
And I think that's wrong.
Like, we're not gonna be able to stop this thing ourselves.
I mean, we're, like, two-and-a-half floors
of a building in New York, right?
I mean we're not,
against the power of the federal government
and this massive political movement.
We're not gonna solve it.
I think if anyone expects us to, they need to take a look
in the mirror and ask themselves
what are they gonna do.
It's not gonna be lawyers in courts.
It's gonna be people who, um, turn the ship around.
(dramatic music playing)
Woman: She's here.
Oh my goodness.
-Hello! -Hi.
-Hello, Hello! Welcome! -Hi.
(woman laughs)
(Ms. L crying)
(sobbing)
(dramatic music playing)