voting rights act and same-sex marriage. the court will take up the case of the president s recess appointments to the national labor relations board. a federal court struck down appointments as unconstitutional, finding the senate was not in recess at the time they were made. senate minority leader republican mitch mcconnell applauded the court s decision to hear the dispute, citing the president s unprecedented power grab. the white house, however, predicts victory. we are confident the president s authority to make recess appointments will be upheld by the courts. reporter: that case will be heard sometime in the fall, along with another affirmative action case stemming from a voter approved measure in michigan which bans use of race and gender in hiring policies at the state s universities. shannon, thank you. big week at the court. today is opening statements in the george zimmerman, trayvon martin murder trial, featured profanity from the prosecution and a knock knock jok
courtroom. that s where george zimmerman has been watching as day one of his highly charged murder trial has been playing out. taking you inside now with live zimmerm zimmerman. you know he admits that he shot and killed trayvon martin last year. but his entire defense is it was self-defense. this morning right out of the gate the prosecution opened with a string of curse words they say were right out of zimmerman s own mouth just minutes before the shooting. and the defense believe it or not decided to lead its opening statements with a knock-knock joke. [ bleep ] punks. these [ bleep ] always get away. those were the words in that man s chest when he got out of his car, armed with a fully loaded semiautomatic pistol and two flashlights to follow on
by second degree wants to make him out to be. i have to have say, i was absolutely baffled by that ridiculous joke that the defense attorney told at the outset of his statement. i don t get it, tamron. if i were a juror, i d be sitting there thinking, he s telling me i m a knuckle head because i m on this jury and i must have gotten here by not having a sufficient level of knowledge of george zimmerman. how else can you interpret that? also, i think, michael, the thing is first impressions are lasting. your attorney really is, in some cases, at least in this beginning stage, an extension of you. we are talking about a murder trial. so visually, you have the parents of trayvon martin there openly weeping in court. i imagine the zimmermans also showing stress. this attorney choosing to tell a knock-knock joke. he s apologized for it, which is, i think, recognition that it was stupid. but nevertheless, that is how he chose to start. before i would make an opening statement, i would wa
zimmerman in an obscenity laced call to police shortly before the shooting of martin, who was unarmed. zimmerman contends it was self defense. his lawyers countered with a knock knock joke about the jury selection process. a court in milan, italy sentenced the prrlusconi to sev prison for having sex with a minor and abusing his power. berlusconi was also barred from holding public office. in april, i spoke with berlusconi at the opening of the george w. bush presidential center and library in texas about, among other things, what have come to be known, his bunga-bunga parties. that was constructed about my by 130 people that talked about it. in italy, they know it, otherwise i wouldn t get these votes. berlusconi has two more levels of appeal before the sentence becomes final. the lawyer of a famous actor gets a big surprise as she gets ready for her wedding day, we
why george zimmerman s wife and parents were not seated behind him. lawyers were wrangling over that this morning, over some courtroom rules that dictate who can and cannot be inside the courtroom. the judge is still trying to figure out exactly who s going to be allowed. after that, he told a knock-knock joke, and spent the better part of 90 minutes going over detailed diagrams of the condo complex where that shooting happened, february of last year, that rainy sunday night. we did learn this morning this was the first time we ve heard her name in open court rachel jentel. she is probably going to be the blockbuster witness, if you will, for the state. she s the 19-year-old who was on the phone with trayvon martin at the time all of this transpired last february. we ve heard a number of references made to her. we also heard that phone call that zimmerman made. we heard it not once, but twice. zimmerman s attorney played it