[Carol Costello, Cnn Anchor:] It is Monday, October 3, an historic day for American justice. Assisted suicide, abortion, the death penalty the Supreme Court prepares to tackle some big issues with a brand new chief justice. An afternoon boat excursion turns into a nightmare in an upstate New York lake. And the investigation into a suicide bombing takes a grim turn in the international press.
[Announcer:] From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello and Chad Myers.
[Costello:] And good morning to you. We'll have more on the Bali suicide bombings in just a minute. Also ahead, crews are fighting three fires in southern California. We'll update you on their progress. And it's not exactly marriage, but gay couples in Connecticut have new legal rights. But first, now in the news, overnight a dream of a lifetime came true for American Gregory Olsen. He's now aboard the international space station, having arrived with two astronauts. The astronauts will replace the current two member crew. Olsen will return with them aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. This is the third day of Operation Iron Fist, a new U.S. military offensive in Anbar Province. About 1,000 Marines are trying to rout insurgents from an area near the Syrian border. After Katrina and Rita, something positive for New Orleans. The Army Corps of Engineers says it expects to declare the city dry by tomorrow or Wednesday. Levees that failed have been repaired and pumping continues. To the Forecast Center and Chad good morning.
[Chad Myers, Cnn Meteorologist:] Good morning, Carol.
[Costello:] Justice John Roberts his era begins today. The new chief justice will be front and center when the court convenes for its next session. His presence could affect how you choose to die and if your children can get an abortion without your consent. We want to touch on those issues this morning as the Supreme Court enters this term. Couple that with President Bush's decision on who should replace retiring justice, Sandra Day O'Connor and you have one interesting day in court. Former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey joins us live now good morning, Kendall.
[Kendall Coffey, Cnn Legal Analyst:] Hey, good morning, Carol.
[Costello:] Kendall, let's start with the cases coming before the court. Oregon's assisted suicide law. In escape, it allows doctors to help terminally ill patients die. The Bush administration is challenging that law. What can we expect?
[Coffey:] Well, dramatic in terms of all the moral issues. In the legal terms, it's essentially a states rights case. Five justices, over time, had suggested that if a state chooses to authorize its terminally ill patients under certain conditions to seek assisted suicide, they can do so. On the other hand, Carol, we all recall that four months ago, when California's medical malpractice law collided with the federal national war on drugs, the Feds won. A very interesting close case. And one of the things to look for is how will Chief Justice John Roberts consider the states rights issue, which was something that his mentor, the late William Rehnquist, believed in very strongly.
[Costello:] Interesting. OK, on to the next issue, this New Hampshire parental consent law. It requires that an abortion provider have to give a minor's parents 48 hours notice before their child gets an abortion. The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether that law is too restrictive. How do you expect that to play out?
[Coffey:] Well, some of it will depend on whether Sandra Day O'Connor continues to be on the court when the case is actually decided. It comes up in late November. And I think we can expect that Chief Justice John Roberts is not a fan of "Row v. Wade," but that rather than drive a bulldozer into precedent he doesn't like, he may use a sculptor's chisel, seeking to downsize things like abortion rights over time rather than vaporize "Row v. Wade" overnight.
[Costello:] Let's talk about Sandra Day O'Connor's role, because, I mean her vote may not matter in the end, right?
[Coffey:] Well, in certain cases it won't. The more difficult thing is going to be in cases that she hears for example, just this Wednesday is going to be the legal assisted suicide case in Oregon. And if she is not still on the court as of the time that the case is actually decided, it could create four to four ties, which they're going to have to find a way to resolve. So in addition to everything else and the fascinating question of who will replace her will be the impact of cases where she could be, as she's been so many times before, the fifth and deciding v.
[Costello:] OK, so let's talk about who President Bush might pick to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. That decision could come down today. Who do you think?
[Coffey:] Well, we heard the word diversity. We also know that the road map of the John Roberts confirmation, where you had someone who is reliably conservative, but reliably non-controversial, would sure make a whole lot of sense right now. So I think I would expect a woman or a minority who's got relatively little controversy. On the other hand, I could be completely wrong because there's a lot of indications that the attorney general, Gonzalez, who might be a little controversial, is still someone that the president would like to choose.
[Costello:] It's interesting because he's controversial because some conservatives don't like him.
[Coffey:] He's yes. There isn't a certainty as to where his position would be on things like affirmative action or abortion rights. On the other hand, there are some Democrats who would want to ask him a few questions about some of the positions he's taken as attorney general.
[Costello:] Kendall Coffey live in Miami this morning. Thank you. An investigation is underway after a tour of New York's Adirondacks Mountains ends tragically on Lake George. Authorities suspect a 40-foot excursion boat was swamped by the wake from a larger boat and it flipped over. At least 20 passengers, elderly Michigan residents on a tour of the lake, were killed when the boat suddenly flipped. Witnesses talked about what they saw.
[Joanne Rahal, Witness:] When we got there, the boat was upside down and there was people trapped underneath the boat. And, you know, the I think somebody they did try to lift up the boat. But then when they did that, the boat started to sink all the way. And it did all the way sink. And, you know, we were just we were trying to get any people that were under the boat, but there was people floating in the water and we did I mean I got them to my boat, but I mean we did CPR on them and, you know, I don't think that they made it. They were oh, they were just, I just, a bad experience.
[Andrea Sause, Witness:] We came down and we were help bringing blankets. And we were pulling the elderly out of the boat. There were like tons of them and they were all frantic. And a lot of them had like chest problems and stuff. And so we got most of them out of the boats. But I saw like 20 people that were laying on the grass that were covered and they were dead.
[Costello:] Twenty-eight other passengers managed to survive. We're going to have a live update for you from the accident scene, from Lake George, later this hour. Mandatory evacuation orders have been lifted in southern California and that is good news. That's thanks to the firefighters there getting an upper hand on several wildfires. The Topanga fire charred more than 24,000 acres north of Los Angeles. Seven firefighters were injured battling that fire. Another fire burning near Burbank, California also mostly contained. More than 1,000 acres were burned in that fire. And in San Bernardino County, people are returning to their homes. The fire there almost completely contained. So a bit of good news for you this morning. Still to come, the pictures are disturbing and now Bali investigators are launching a rather gruesome campaign to find out who's behind a string of suicide bombings. Also, it's called Operation Iron Fist. We'll take a look at the military's latest move to weed out insurgents in western Iraq. And later, we'll take a close look at Connecticut's new civil union law for gay couples. How do these legal unions differ from marriage? But first here's a look at what else is making news this Monday.