And two four, six eight gwen the Supreme Court tackles gauge marriage. This definition has been with us from my lina and its very difficult for the court to say oh, well, we know better. Gwen plus, on the 2015 campaign trail, the subject turns to inequality. We also have to be honest about the gaps that exist across our country the inequality that stalks or streets. Gwen as Hillary Clinton gets another democratic challenger. How does it happen that the top 1 owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 . Gwen covering the week, michael fletcher, National Economics reporter for the washington post. Alexis simendinger white house correspond for realclearpolitics. Joan biskupic, Legal Affairs editor for reuters and janet hook Political Correspondent for the wall street journal. Awardwinning reporting and analysis. Covering history as it happens. Live from our Nations Capital this is Washington Week with gwen ifill. Corporate funding for Washington Week is provided by how much money do you have in your pocket right now . I have 40. 21. Could something that small make an impact on something as big as your retirement . I dont think so. No. If you start putting that money towards your retirement each week and letting it grow over time for 20, 30 years that. Retirement challenge might not seem so big after all. Additional Corporate Funding for Washington Week is provided by boeing. Additional funding is provided by newmans own foundation. Donating all profits from newmans own Food Products to charity and nourishing the common good. The annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Once again, live from washington, moderator gwen ifill. Gwen good evening. Its beginning to seem like weve seen it all before. Questionable connaughton con on the stationings resulting in the deaths of young men at the hands of police. Charges were quickly brought in the Six Police Officers involved in the death of freddie gray. Our independent investigation coupled with the medical examiners determination that mr. Grays death was a homicide has led us to believe we have probable cause to file criminal charges. Gwen that promptly changed to street celebration but the debate has spread to congress and the Justice Department, the white house and to the 2016 campaign trail. Hillary what we have seen in battle should, indeed, i think, does tear at our soul. President obama i think their Police Department is going to have to do some soul searching. I think there are some communities that have to do some soul searching but i think we as a country have to do some soul searching this is not new. Its been going on for decades. Gwen and republicans like south carolinas tim scott are joining the department of justice in calling for politician body cameras. Part of preparation is understanding how do you avoid circumstances that were seeing unfold . Thats why the body cameras are important from my perspective. It prepares us in advance of a crisis. Gwen it is a broad debate encompassing specific questions about justice and opportunity in one city and across the country. But lets start with that one city baltimore, and its underlying problems. Mike fletcher has been writing about that. Michael, tell us about your experience. Michael in baltimore i think its the classic case of two cities in one. There are two baltimores. One thats relatively prosperous where people are getting along fine but broad swaths of the city are disconnected from the life of the other baltimore and in that baltimore, sandtown winchester, where freddie gray is from is one of the poorest neighborhood really in the country. Every socioeconomic indicator there is down. Gwen youve lived there for 30 years. You and i used to cover baltimore together. What you wrote in your piece this week was this was something thats that was going to happen. Michael because you had these two worlds that bumped up against each other onle on occasion. You had fights at the harbor. The drug scene in the ports community. And the polices role was to come in, clear everybody out. Arrest people, not sort of be part of the community so you always had this tension and there was a lot of Police Interaction so you could just feel this coming. Michael was this different from what we saw in ferguson or North Charleston . Is there something unique about this situation . Michael it was similar but different in the racial dynamic. Baltimore has a police force thats half black and a lot of people who have sort of had this antipathy toward the police d. C. Its not white officers necessarily, its black and white. And you have the black Political Leadership in baltimore, which has tried to be responsive to that country. Gwen lets talk about the dynamic of the white house. We started the week with the president saying this is a local incident over there. Even though hes spoken in each of the cases weve seen this year and last year. But then he spoke a lot more. What changed . Earlier in the week, of course after the funeral and the violence erupted the white house was going to some pains to talk about this as a baltimore issue but we reporters that cover the white house knew the president was going to be ready and was going to be asked about baltimore and he was at a joint News Conference with the Prime Minister of japan, as it happened. The president was incredibly prepared. The white house wanted him to get the question. He spoke for Something Like 14 minutes and had a sixpoint without text, any kind of prepared remarks discussion of what he thought was important to think about. What was interesting is that while the white house was pointed toward baltimore the president opened the aperture up very wildly and by the time he got to the end of the 60s points we were talking about fundamental problems in the United States of america. What was interesting is what he homed his agenda was fostering was a newfound appreciation, examination. He talked about the agenda items that he feels passionately about that would be helpful. It was a little bit of a slap at congress because he said he didnt think congress would support initiatives to help urban environments as much as he hoped they thought but he was talking very much about all the dynamics we all think about. Education, families, poverty, the idea of leadership and the trust between the community and the police. Thats where he started out. And it did seen seem it was obama stepping out, not just more aggressively as compared to earlier in the week but previous episodes like ferguson he was very cautious and this seems to have opened him up. Loretta lynch was just confirmed. Gwen just sworn in on monday. And her first meeting with the president was about baltimore so where does obama take it from here . Does he just do his thing and go on . The president has some things in mind about what the federal role is and that is the key question for him. Hes trying to be very pre caution in describing what is the role of the baltimore prosecution and what is the role of the federal government . Early next week hes going to be in the bronx and he has an event planned for my brothers keeper for an program he established to help young africanamerican boys and men to succeed to get them to prosper in all sorts of ways and he wants to build that another an alliance, a nonprofit so it will live outside of the polarization. Gwen what is the administration. Gwen what is the proper role for government at any level in this when you write about the two baltimores. When you talk about the difficult situation for young black men not all young black men. There are two different kind of outcomes here. Michael i think this is a really difficult thing for government. In winchester, for example, 20 years ago, the Enterprise Foundation got together with the thenmayor. Got together 100,000. They renovated 1,000 new housing units. They had social workers going door to door Offering Health screenings. When students were true ant they would go dock trunalt they would knock on doors and try to fix that. The social service part lasted four or five years and the social indicators barely moved. Thats why its hard to be that optimistic. Relations with the police have changed but it is such a different thing. It feels like a moment in a different country, much like katrina where people talked about poverty then couldnt move the ball. In michaels piece he talked about its only a matter of time. If you could look back at the President Task force on 21st century policing, who is quoted at length in there . The Baltimore Police commissioner who describes the work theyve done in baltimore, trying to understand, he claims, during the testimony for this task force. If you look back at the baltimore sun, a terrific number. What kind of report did they do thats september . It was an expose of all of these cases. There are many more freddie grays who whose families receive payouts from the city. Very expensive payouts. When you talk about the intractable problems, when the president talks about it and we write it about it, it really is a con numb conundrum. Do you think thats why he saw a response to quickly in the states attorney . She clearly had done her research. Michael that was part of it and a lot of it was the unrest. A lot about no transparency in the investigation. And when we get into next week, who knows what will esflument plus, shes newly elected and wanted to move quickly. Do you think it will have that effect . Do you think the disturbances are over . Michael this is just the beginning of the legal process. Who knows. We have charges, who knows how theyll play . What kind of testimony will we hear in a trial. Im afraid if there are acquittals what will happen. Michael exactly. Gwen we heard Hillary Clinton talk about it, you heard tim scott talk about. The president S Justice Department talked about out. The body cameras. There seem to be some areas of agreement about things, theyre addressing underlying problems of the economic issues, addressing the Police Behavior problems. This is one thing everybody agreings on. Weve seen the Justice Department do the first pilot program. Theyve backed what communities have experimented with. There are statistics that show the behavior of both the public and police is improved with the body cameras. We saw democratic candidate Hillary Clinton embrace them all. She said all. Thats a matter of resources. Thats an enormous cost and embrace this idea that would be improved and weve seen other candidates on the trail talking in some effective and some not so effective ways about this. Gwen maybe they agree on this because Everything Else is so complicated and this is a reasonably straightforward something the government can do. Thank you both very much. One of the most consequential arguments of the year played out this week at the Supreme Court where justifications were asked to decide once and perhaps for all whether states can be allowed to ban same sex marriage. The issue has been percolating up to the high court for some time. By the time it got to the court all eyes were on one man Justice Anthony kennedy, which seems to often but the case, but in this case joan, he was really central. Joan its so true and he is our decider in the Supreme Court in so many issues but this is an area hes owned for almost two deblingd, tracing to 199 when he wrote his first opinion backing gay rights. Theres been a progression of decision where hes not only been the key vote but the author of the opinion. You step back and think of anthony kennedy, a Ronald Reagan appointee, took office in february of february of 1988. He has become the progressive in this area so when we all went into the courtroom on tuesday morning, we wanted to hear what he was going to say. His most recent opinion in 2013 he was the author of the windsor decision that struck down a portion of federal law that defined marriage as only between a man and a woman for purposes of federal benefits and thats the decision that so many Lower Court Judges had run with to strike down other state laws to say that you cannot ban samesex marriage. So here we were at the Supreme Court. As again said maybe once and for all, will the justices legalize it nationwide . He gave us a couple of different signals. We played the clip about him saying the definition of marriage for the millinnia has been a certain way but i think all told Justice Kennedy will continue on the path hes been on and likely vote with the four liberal members of the court to strike down samesex marriage bans nationwide and create this new right. Gwen it sounded almost like he was setting up a straw man to knock down when he talked about i know youre going to say that gay marriage has always been this way and then theres a but. Theres the thing. The way it works at the Supreme Court is there are going to be challenges to both sides and a lot of his more challenging questions came to the woman who was defending the couples who were saying we want this right to gauge marriage. So its sort of natural that he would take that tact with them but then tack with them. But then he talked so much about the dignity of gay couples, usinging some of the language of prior decisions and he also talked about children. That has been a big children for him, the idea of whether restrictions of gay couples whether in the defense of marriage act or now in state bans on gay marriage if they stick my ties children. And at one point the lawyer for the states defending these bans said something about the bonds that heterosexual couples would have with anywhere children and Justice Kennedy jumped in and said are you suggesting that same sex couples wouldnt have similar bond with the children theyre raise something did you hear from either Justice Kennedy or the other justices any hints this will be a compromise or lit be a straight up or down supporting gay marriage . Im wondering in particular about chief justice roberts. He occasionally surprises us. Right. I actually thought in this that he would stick with the conservatives. As we all know, he surprise us on president obamas Health Care Law in 2012. This week he voted on upholding Campaign Finance regulations. That was sort of a enterprise. But virtually everything he said about traditional marriage and changing the definition of traditional marriage, his words would lead me to suggest that hell stay where he was in 2013 with the conservatives. Now, a lot could go on behind the scenes. On friday morning they voted in their private conference. That was a preliminary vote and now theyre going to see what fridays both sides. I think well not see too much compromise. What impact will there be if gay marriage bans are struck down . Many states obviously allow it now. Is this something that will really be a bigger impact . I think it will be huge in terms of civil rights and Constitutional Rights for the Supreme Court to say that once and for all same sex couples have the ability to marry opposite sex couples. But youre right. We have 37 states where it is legal. Alabama is on the border lionel but essentially 37 states its legal so it would just mean a difference in 13 state but it would also mean that not just those states would have to allow it but now everyone could move all over and be recognized state to state. Gwen Hillary Clinton got some company on the 2016 campaign trail this week as vermont senator Bernie Sanders announced hes in the race, running as hard as he can to her left. Bernie we cant continue having a nation in which we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of any major nation on earth so thats the major issue. How do we create an economy that works for all of our people rather than a small number of billionaires . Gwen but mrs. Clinton is by no means creeding the inequality argument to sanders. Hillary theres something wrong when werer more than one out of every three young black men in baltimore cannot find a job. We all share a responsibility to help restill the fabric of our neighborhoods and communities. We also have to be honest about the gaps that exist across our country, the inequality that stalks our streets. Gwen after that, the bubbling debate on capitol hill about a new trade deal and its turning out to be a key issue in this race. Is senator sanders seeing himself as the engine of that debate . I think so. He may not be able to beat Hillary Clinton in the primary but i think he does think he can shake the debate and bring up issues that Hillary Clinton will have to address on the way to the nomination. Unlike many politicians he states his agenda clearly. Its income inequality, corporate greed, the role of big money in politics. All issues that are very dear to the liberal the progressive populist wing of the Democratic Party. Gwen he raised a maland a half overnight so its hitting somewhere. And these are the people who are not so enthusiastic about Hillary Clinton or just waltzing to the nomination. These are et are the people who wanted Elizabeth Warren to run but shes not running. Elizabeth warren has a natural standing and a reach that is quite impressive but Bernie Sanders has one thing going for him. He had the guts to step up and hell be walking onto the debate stage with Hillary Clinton. Can i ask you something about the 73yearold ho who has always said as a social independent that he would not want to be seen or thought of as a democrat. Is this something we should Pay Attention to, that he wants to be a part of the Democratic Party . That the ideas are catching up with the party . This is a sign that he really does want his ideas out there. If they were an independent, he wouldnt be in a debate and its a lot more complicated to get on state ballots. This is Bernie Sanders the pragmatist. In terms of that could it effectively also help Hillary Clinton in terms of getting some of those ideas out there that she could work up to them more than before . On the one hand he could also be a good foil for her that shes speaking to the centrist democratic voters and saying i may be liberal but im not socialist or it gives her a sparring partner. Some worry that without any kind of primary opposition she wont be able to hone her detective skills. And i do think that all politicians thrive on being able to engage in a debate. She may not like all that hes pushing her on and thats the risk for her. Michael is there any risk that she could get pulled too far to the left in a way that could hurt her in a general Election Campaign . That is the risk. I dont think Bernie Sanders has the power to do that. I do think that Elizabeth Warren nipping at her heels you can hear those Elizabeth Warren tunes in some of her speeches. Gwen when you hear Hillary Clinton talking about inequality and the difficulty of the economy, shes actually repudiating the 1990s, when her husband was president. Does that make a difficult tread for her to walk . Her relationship with bill clinton is almost as complicated as her relationship with barack obama. Gwen or with us actually. Both of the parties right now are engaging in nomination fights that are defining their party and among republicans you see lots of different versions of what kind of party we want to be. Among democrats we just have Hillary Clinton. Shes trying to figure out what kind of a democrat shes going to be. She has this tendency to embrace the parts to have clinton era that everybody likes and likes to remember, like peace and prosperity but you know, i think that on nastya gwen we dont have time for it, though. That is one issue from Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton differ, on trade policy. Gwen we can talk about that in the podcast because we have to go. But well get to it online. Youll find our Washington Week webcast. Well preview next weeks show and talk a little about trade. Keep up with developments with me and Judy Woodruff at the pbs news hour and well see you here next week on Washington Week. Good night. Corporate funding for Washington Week is provided by 1 were exit committed to strong. Were committed to sure. Were committed to smart and light, secure and bold. In a world of enduring needs, the men and women of boeing are proud to build and deliver critical capabilities for those who serve to protect our nation and its allies and thats an enduring commitment. Additional Corporate Funding for Washington Week is provided by prudential. Additional funding is provide by newmans own foundation, donating all profits from newmans own Food Products to charity and nourishing the common good. The annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Next on kqed newsroom, the politics of water conservation. Its a political headache. Building safer homes in the worlds poorest country, and meet the American Children left behind in china. Why they spend years separated from their parents. Good evening, welcome to kqed newsroom, lets talk about the drought. You already are conserving water, but soon, you may have to reduce water use even more. Next week the state Water Resources control board voting on a plan requiring water districts to cut usage by 36