disappointment saying colleges are stronger when they re racially diverse. we can t go backwards. you know, i know today s court decision is a severe disappointment to so many people including me. we cannot let the decision be a permanent setback for the country. with me right now, politico s white house bureau chief jon jonathan lemire at the white house, and democratic strategist and former executive director of the new york state democratic party, basil, so jonathan, first to you, every time there s a supreme court decision we hear how consequential elections are. what s the fallout you re following here? you just heard from president biden express real dismay at the decision. he urged colleges to consider candidates backgrounds, races, ethnicities when it comes to institutions of higher learning. he was asked as he was leaving the room there after making his statement, he was asked by a reporter if this was a rogue court, meaning the supreme court, and he paused and
our top story this hour, the two major new rulings by the u.s. supreme court and what they mean for the nation. our justice correspondent jessica snider, she s here with mere in the situation room. jessica, walk us through these very, very significant decisions. yeah, two major decisions on the last day of the court s term, wolf, from what has become a very divided supreme court. so the conservative majority striking down the president s student loan debt forgiveness program while also issuing a ruling in favor of a website designer that leaves the door open for businesses across the country to discriminate. the supreme court ending the term with a dramatic finish and showing just how ideologically divided the justices are. first, all six conservative justices ruling in favor of a christian web designer from colorado who refused to create wedding websites from same-sex couples citing religious grounds. she objected to a colorado law that prohibits discrimination saying it v
Rachel Maddow takes a look at the days top political news stories. Charge of grand larceny, a big stack of charges involving a large amount of money and potentially a large amount of jail time. The story they uncovered at the courthouse that day, for some reason, friedman had gotten this huge Criminal Liability he was facing winnowed down to almost nothing. All the prison time and felonies evaporated. Instead of being tried for evading 5 million in taxes, prosecutors let him plead guilty to one count of evaluating 50,000 worth of taxes. Not 5 million, 50,000. Instead of decades in potential prison time the deal he cut with prosecutors got him zero prison time. People do plea deals all the time they offer their testimony for prosecutors letting them off the hook and going easier on
them. This was like the mother of all plea deals. The amount he offered must have been very very valuable to the government given how sweet the deal was he got from them in return. That happened in late may.
numbers of people screened by the tsa. did it meet the busy expectations? reporter: met the busy expectation, exceeded. the tas anticipated 2.82 million people. instead we saw 2.88 million people. that s not a high of the pandemic era. it is an all-time record. the highest number we have seen since december 1st, 2019, the sunday after thanksgiving. so these are huge numbers. the good news right now is that things are starting off relatively smooth but never say never. the day is still relatively young. i just checked flight aware, so far we have seen about 80 cancellations in the u.s. pails in comparison to what we saw yesterday. in fact, the numbers really ramped up as the day went on. and bad weather hit the east coast. we saw about 600 cancellations in the u.s. yesterday. although, last week was a lot worse. so we are on the track to getting a little bit better.
reporter: the good news, says transportation secretary pete buttigieg, is that cancelations are down compared to last year. there need to be more resources for air traffic control, but it is important for airlines to create enough cushion and resilience in the system. reporter: despite delays, friday stands to set a new post-pandemic record for air travel. the transportation security administration says it will screen 2.82 million passengers nationwide, rivaling an all-time record set in 2019. it s going to be big this year. reporter: though the majority of travel there holiday will be by car, aaa says in total 50 million people will travel 50 miles or more. the highest in 18 years. a gallon of gas costs less than $1.30 a year ago. one silver lining on the roads after struggles in the skies. be prepared. expect delays. expect cancelations.