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reversed 7-2. and this is what he did. he said the state violated the baker's religious freedom by showing hostility to his religion. justice kennedy pointed to one specific hearing held by colorado civil rights commission where he said one commissioner said, look, phillip's beliefs amounted to discrimination. and justice kennedy said that those comments showed that the commission wasn't applying this with the religious neuity it needed to. sot is a win for phillips and it's a win for religious liberty but not necessarily that big religious liberty case some people focussed on. kennedy was straddling two sides of his juris prudence. he wrote the decision that cleared the way for same sex marriage nationwide but today he gave a nod to religious freedom. religious concerns. he said that commissioners hostility was inconsistent with the first amendment's guarantee that our laws be applied in a
recommendations that they legislated are now going to push for these reforms to be implemented. >> it's the most important thing that i can do to my wife's memory is to make sure that she didn't die in vain. >> we close, most importantly, by thanking the families who lost loved ones on 9/11. you demanded the creation of this commission, you have encouraged us every step of the way as partners and as witnesses from your grief you have drawn strength.
bombing, bin laden's 9/11 plot was well under way. hijackers were settling down in america and learning to fly airplanes. >> they lived in rooming houses. they lived in motel 6s. >> mindy, who lost her husband in the world trade center, presented evidence to the commission that revealed serious immigration violations. >> i am holding in the hand some of the applications of the terrorists who killed my husband. all of these forms are incomplete and incorrect. had the ins or the state department followed the law, at least 15 of the hijackers would have been denied visas and would
not have been in the united states on september 11th, 2001. >> while the hijackers made their preparations for the 9/11 attacks, the white house changed hands. once in office president bush decided not to immediately respond to the "cole" bombing. instead, the commission learned he'd ordered the development of a long-range plan to eliminate bin laden. >> thank you very much. secretary powell. >> mr. chairman, president bush, and all of us on his team knew that terrorism would be a major concern for us. he wanted a thorough strategy to go after al qaeda. >> he made clear to us that he did not want to respond to al qaeda one attack at a time. he told me he was tired of swatting flies. the president says, i have no hesitancy about going after him, but i didn't feel that sense of
>> osama bin laden was visiting a camp in the southern part of afghanistan in kandahar province. a desert camp where there were princes from the united arab emirates, and it was an excellent chance. we knew when he was going to be there. it was a very isolated area. there would be no collateral damage to civilians. >> but the commission learned that foreign policy concerns complicated matters. >> according to cia officials, policymakers were concerned about the danger that a strike might kill an emirati prince or other senior officials who might be with bin laden or close by. >> what i did was to call the director of central intelligence and say that i had finally been presented with satellite photography of the facility, and it was very clear to me that this looked like something other than a terrorist camp. it looked like a luxury hunting
into tower one of the world trade center 45 minutes earlier. >> yes. there's definitely another aircraft that hit the tower. that's the latest report we have. i can try to confirm and i.d. for you, but i would assume he's somewhere over either new jersey or somewhere further south. >> okay. so american 11 isn't the hijack at all then, right? >> no, he is a hijack. >> american 11 is a hijack? >> yes. this could be a third aircraft. >> tape after tape played for the commission showed that communication between the faa, its air-traffic control centers, and the military was a mess. >> the technician who took this call from the faa immediately passed the word to the mission crew commander. he in turn reported to the battle commander. >> okay, american airlines is still airborne, 11, first guy. he's headed towards washington. okay. i think we need to scramble
>> today we present this report and these recommendation to the president of the united states, to the united states congress, and the american people. >> the commission made a number of recommendations, including tightening u.s. borders, increasing preparedness before the next attack, sharing information among agencies, appointing a national intelligence director and creating a national counterterrorism center. >> we need to ensure that the key countries -- >> anyone who said that the commission wasn't going to come up with anything new under the sun, which is one of the things that the white house told us, was wrong. because clearly we didn't have a director of national intelligence and we would not have had a director of national intelligence had it not been for the commission. >> on that september day, we were prepared.
and nothing happened. >> the faa did not want us to tell congress. they did everything they could. they tried to have the report classified. >> the whole system of security was so flawed, it's a matter how the terrorists wanted to do it. >> the main reason security was so bad? many told the commission it was money. >> the nature of what was happening in the civil aviation industry in the united states at that time did not put terrorism high on the list of priorities. >> every time the government proposed an actual add-on or separate tax item for security, the airlines opposed it. they said that security doesn't sell tickets. >> there were strong, very strong counterpressures to control security costs because
investigation? why would there be a delay in this? it was something that we just could not understand. >> senators john mccain and joe lieberman supported the families in their effort. >> joe and i decided to introduce a resolution that called for the appointment of a commission. >> mccain and i, the families are pushing it and finally the administration said, okay, we'll start a commission. >> then there was a phone call from apparently vice president cheney to someone, i think, on the house side, that the conditions were not agreeable with the white house. >> why do we not have one? why do we have all talk and no action? >> after making headlines, the families made a surprise appearance at a meeting to discuss the commission. they faced down white house advisor, nick caleo. >> we stood up and held hands and stared them down. >> we stood up and said, how can you look us in the eyes and tell us there's not going to be a commission?
there was silence. >> and we were, you know, basically put on the spot. >> there was a moment when, you know, truth and pain spoke to power, not just truth. >> the families had taken on the administration and won. on november 27th, 2002, president bush signed a legislation mandating a 9/11 commission. >> thanks to the activities of the families, not me and joe lieberman, thanks to the families, we were able to bring it about. >> my capacity as the chairman of the commission on terrorist attacks in the united states, i'm honored and humbled to convene this first public hearing.