JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: equal rights for all.

The Supreme Court rules employers can no longer discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Then: ongoing outrage.

Another officer-involved killing in the U.S. sparks protests and more questions about police use of force.

Plus: investing in community.

Minneapolis becomes a testing ground for a nationwide push to reallocate law enforcement budgets in the wake of George Floyd's death.

And challenge trials -- why thousands of young people around the world are volunteering to be deliberately infected with COVID-19, hoping to accelerate the development of a vaccine.

JOSH MORRISON, 1 Day Sooner: There is a real benefit to being able to take one step that's useful or potentially useful, and I think that helps with coping with this really terrible disease and terrible situation we're in right now.

JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."

(BREAK) JUDY WOODRUFF: We have three headline-making stories tonight.

Another killing by a police officer fuels the protests for justice and racial equality.

COVID-19 cases are back on the rise, as the United States works on opening up.

But, first, a historic ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court today outlawing job discrimination the basis of sexual orientation or transgender identity.

John Yang breaks down what the justices said and what it means.

JOHN YANG: The court's decision declaring that a six-decade-old civil rights law protects gay and transgendered workers from employment discrimination was stated clearly and simply: "An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex.

Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what the law forbids."

Justice Neil Gorsuch, a member of the court's conservative faction, wrote the opinion and was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the four liberal justices in the 6-3 majority.

The ruling is a milestone for gay rights and comes at a time when minorities across the country are speaking out for justice.

PROTESTERS What do we want?

PROTESTERS: Justice!

PROTESTER: When do we want it?

PROTESTERS: Now!

JOHN YANG: As in this joint Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ rights march yesterday in Los Angeles.

Before today's decision, it was legal in 28 states to fire someone or refuse them a promotion simply because they were gay or transgender.

Marcia Coyle is chief Washington correspondent for "The National Law Journal."

MARCIA COYLE, "The National Law Journal": I think it is fair to call it a landmark decision, one, because it took -- it has been a long time coming, long-fought by the LGBTQ community.

We don't know yet all the implications of the decision.

And some of the questions that were raised in the opinions, Justice Gorsuch said will be saved for another day.

But it clearly is going to make employers across the United States think about their employments policies towards their workers, as well as job applicants.

JOHN YANG: Gorsuch brushed aside the Trump administration's argument that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was not written with gay and transgender people in mind: "The limits of the drafters' imagination supply no reason to ignore the law's demands."

In dissent, Justice Samuel Alito, writing for himself and justice Clarence Thomas, was just as blunt: "There is only one word for what the court has done today: legislation."

It was the Supreme Court's first significant gay rights decision not written by retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, who stepped down in 2018.

Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, clerked for Kennedy, as did the third dissenting justice, Brett Kavanaugh, whom President Trump nominated to replace Kennedy.

Kavanaugh wrote that the court effectively amended the civil rights law, a power that "belongs to Congress and the president in the legislative process, not to this court."

Analysts said Gorsuch's opinion offered fresh insight into one of the court's newest justices.

MARCIA COYLE: He sort of telegraphed where he was going during the oral arguments back in October.

And, at that point, he talked about the text of Title VII, the words that employers shall not discriminate because of sex.

This is perhaps his most in-depth application of textualism and how he reads statutes.

JOHN YANG: The justices ruled in three cases, two involving men who sued after they said they were fired for being gay.

Skydiving instructor Don Zarda was fired in 2010 after telling a female client who was about to strapped to him for a jump that he was gay.

After Zarda died in a 2014 accident, his case was pressed by his partner, William Moore, and by Melissa Zarda, his younger sister.

MELISSA ZARDA, Sister of Don Zarda: It was a double standard.

If he would have casually mentioned his wife while he was on a skydive, nothing would have happened.

And he felt like he mentioned his husband and he got fired for it.

So, not only was it really painful for him, but that he never wanted anybody else to go through anything like this.

JOHN YANG: The other case involved Gerald Bostock, who was fired from a county job in Georgia after he joined a gay softball team.

GERALD BOSTOCK, Plaintiff: I did nothing wrong.

And now I have some validation in that, by the opinion that was given today.

JOHN YANG: The transgender rights case was brought by Aimee Stephens, who was dismissed from a Michigan funeral home after she told her boss she would begin living as a woman.

The company said she failed to follow the dress code.

Stephens died of kidney failure last month after seeing her case argued before the justices in October.

Today, her wife, Donna, issued a two-word statement: "We won."

Transgender rights will likely remain an issue in federal courts for a little while.

On Friday, the Trump administration eliminated protections for transgender patients against discrimination by doctors, hospitals and insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act.

The lawsuits against that have already been announced -- Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: A lot to pore through, to dig through today.

John, so as the court comes toward the -- closer to the end of this term, they are already beginning to set the agenda for next term.

And what were you able to learn about that today?

JOHN YANG: Well, we learned three hot-button issues that they will not be taking up, which only means that there were four justices -- there were not at least four justices willing to take up those cases, those issues.

One is gun laws.

There were about a dozen gun laws being challenged, and gun rights advocates were hoping this conservative court would take them up.

The court turned them all down.

That -- draw a little bit of a rebuke from Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for himself and Justice Kavanaugh.

He said: "Surely, this court would take up restrictions on free speech or," he pointedly added, "restrictions on the right to an abortion, access to an abortion.

But today, faced with the petition challenging a restriction on citizens' Second Amendment rights," he wrote, "the court simply looked the other way."

Another issue that is getting a lot of attention now because of the police shootings and cases of excessive force by police is the doctrine of qualified immunity.

This is a decades-old idea that the Supreme Court has said that police officers and other government officials cannot be sued in civil court unless they clearly violate the law or violate some clear constitutional standard.

By coincidence, because all these cases were sent to the court before, there were about eight cases that were being asked -- the court was being asked to reconsider this doctrine.

They turned them all down.

And finally, state sanctuary laws.

The court today rejected a bid from the Trump administration to review a California sanctuary state law that forbids state law enforcement officials from providing certain information to federal immigration officials.

They said they are not going to review that, so that law stands.

Judy, the justices usually like to wrap up their business by the end of June.

But, because of time they lost because of the pandemic and the early days of the pandemic, they say they may be working into July this year.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, we will be looking out for that, John Yang, reporting not just on what the justices ruled on, but what they have declined to rule on.

A lot on your plate.

Thank you, John.

To look closer at what this historic decision means for LGBTQ rights, I'm joined by Alphonso David.

He is the president of the Human Rights Campaign.

That is the largest civil rights organization devoted to LGBT equality.

And Chase Strangio, the deputy director for trans justice with the American Civil Liberties Union's LGBT and HIV Project.

He was one of the lawyers working on the case decided today.

Welcome to both of you.

And let me start with you, Alphonso David.

Just put this in a larger context.

What does today's ruling mean?

ALPHONSO DAVID, President, Human Rights Campaign: Today's ruling means that LGBTQ people across this country can now go to bed knowing that the federal courts are protecting them from discriminations at work.

We have had case decisions for the past 20 years that said that LGBTQ people are protected under federal civil rights law.

That principle was challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court.

And, today, we have a ruling that says LGBTQ people are protected under federal civil rights employment discrimination statutes.

And that is the biggest takeaway from today.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Chase Strangio, what about for you?

How do you -- as somebody who has fought for the kinds of rights that were debated before the court and are now handed down in this opinion, what does it mean to you?

CHASE STRANGIO, American Civil Liberties Union: You know, this was an incredible day, coming on the heels of so many incredible and heartbreaking days of organizing and resistance.

And the work has been fought for decades for what is an incredibly basic proposition, that you shouldn't be fired from work just because of who you are.

It was a conservative legal principle.

It was a conservative test of statutory interpretation.

And it is incredible to have a 6-3 ruling from the United States Supreme Court that undermines efforts to sabotage protections for LGBTQ that we have seen from the federal government since President Trump was elected.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Alphonso David, so does this mean all the legal barriers just come tumbling down?

I mean, what does it mean from a practical standpoint?

ALPHONSO DAVID: From a practical standpoint, this decision means that, if you face discrimination at work, you have the ability to seek redress in court under federal civil rights laws.

But it does not provide comprehensive protections for LGBTQ people.

And that is what we are fighting currently in Congress.

There is a piece of legislation called the Equality Act.

And that piece of legislation would provide comprehensive legal protections for LGBTQ people in housing, in public accommodations, credit, education, retail establishments, transportation, and the like.

Under current law, there are no federal protections for LGBTQ people in public accommodations, in some public accommodations, no protections in credit.

And so we're looking to make sure that those protections are enshrined in law, and that will be the Equality Act.

It has passed the House of Representatives.

It is currently stalled in the U.S. Senate.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Chase Strangio, in terms of rights for trans individuals, an area that you have a special interest in, is this going to make a difference at a practical level?

CHASE STRANGIO: Yes, I would say two things.

First, it is going to absolutely make a difference.

This, as Alphonso said, is going to ensure that there are employment protections for transgender people across the country and clarify that the federal prohibition on sex discrimination includes transgender people.

That will likely extend to all of the federal statutes that prohibit sex discrimination.

It also undermines the efforts by the Trump administration to encourage discrimination against trans individuals and all LGBTQ people in health care, which is absolutely integral to our survival.

And, at the same time, a formal legal ruling isn't the end of the story.

We have a ton of work to do to protect our black trans siblings from the violence that they are experiencing at the hands of the state, at the hands of individuals.

And we have to keep organizing; 15,000 people showed up in Brooklyn on Sunday, yesterday, for trans lives.

And so that is part of what ensures that the material impact of today's decision is felt, that we don't lose momentum.

But, absolutely, today is a huge moment for trans people.

It's a huge moment for the whole LGBTQ and the whole civil rights community.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Alphonso David, I want you to pick up on that, because it was just on Friday that the Trump administration moved to remove protections for trans individuals under the Affordable Care Act.

Is this in any way going to change the argument with regard to that?

Is that still standing?

ALPHONSO DAVID: That is still standing, unfortunately.

As you said, the Trump administration finalized regulations on Friday that would effectively discrimination against transgender members of our community and gender-nonconforming members of our community, as well as women.

We believe the Trump administration has exceeded its authority.

They do not have the authority to rewrite the law.

And that is effectively what they are trying to do.

We believe this decision should have an impact on executive administrative actions.

But if the Trump administration continues to advance these regulations, and they refuse to rescind the regulations, we will be advancing legal action.

We did announce on Friday that we are commencing legal action against the Trump administration.

I'm hopeful that today's decision allows them to reflect and rescind those regulations, but, if they refuse to, we will be suing them.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And let's continue with that, Chase Strangio, because it's not just this move that was on -- took place on Friday.

It was steps by the Trump administration to say transgender individuals can't legally serve in the armed forces and a number of other steps they have taken.

So, what do you see as the task that lies ahead of you and others who are fighting for transgender rights?

CHASE STRANGIO: The Trump administration is not the final word on the meaning of discrimination because of sex.

The Supreme Court is.

And, today, the Supreme Court made unequivocally clear that discrimination because of an individual's sex includes discrimination against LGBTQ people.

So, I agree.

I think that the HHS regulation is void.

I think that efforts to discriminate against transgender students are no longer consistent with the statute, as has been made clear by the Supreme Court.

But all of these issues will be percolating and are already being litigated in the lower courts, in terms of the extent of protections in the context of education, in the context of housing and shelter, as well as under the Affordable Care Act in the context of health care.

When it comes to the ban on military -- open military service by transgender people, this will apply to civilian contractors.

Title VII does apply.

Title VII does not apply to active service members.

So the fight over the transgender military ban continues.

It continues in the lower courts.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court allowed the ban to go into effect.

But, ultimately, a new president could take away that ban almost immediately.

So, there are so many fights ahead.

And some of them will be litigated in the lower courts.

Some of them can be fixed by executive action.

But, ultimately, we're going to keep fighting in every possible way to ensure that our full LGBT community, particularly the black and brown people, who have been leading the fight and who have been taking the brunt of the discrimination, are leading the fight and centered.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Alphonso David with the Human Rights Campaign, Chase Strangio with the ACLU, we thank you both.

CHASE STRANGIO: Thanks.

ALPHONSO DAVID: Thank you.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Another death at the hands of police, new outcries across the country.

The city of Atlanta is the newest focus tonight of the burgeoning campaign for racial justice.

William Brangham begins our coverage.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Hundreds of protesters turned out in downtown Atlanta this morning, marching against police brutality and demanding change.

The flash point was the fatal shooting three days ago of Rayshard Brooks, a 27-year-old black man, by a white police officer.

Chassidy Evans is Brooks' niece.

CHASSIDY EVANS, Niece of Rayshard Brooks: Not only are we hurt.

We are angry.

When does this stop?

We are not only pleading for justice.

We are pleading for change.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: On Friday night, police answered a call that Brooks was asleep in his car in a Wendy's drive-through lane.

What began as a calm encounter escalated when police tried to arrest Brooks for drunk driving.

Brooks struggled and fought with the officers, then ran away with what appeared to be one of the officer's Taser guns.

One of the officers shot him twice in the back.

Atlanta's police chief, Erika Shields, resigned the day after the shooting.

The officer who shot Brooks, Garrett Rolfe, has been fired.

And the other officer at the scene, Devin Brosnan, has been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of the investigation.

Atlanta's district attorney said he will decide this week whether to file any criminal charges.

Today, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said it's abundantly clear there is a need to review the rules and the training for how police use deadly force.

KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS (D), Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia: We do not have another day, another minute, another hour to waste.

It's very clear that our police officers are to be guardians and not warriors within our communities.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Brooks' killing fueled new fury throughout the weekend, with thousands of people protesting in Atlanta and elsewhere.

PROTESTER: People are done waiting for a change.

And everybody is standing together.

Everybody is walking.

Everybody is making noise.

We just want to be heard.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The Wendy's where Brooks was killed was torched on Friday night.

But his widow, Tomika Miller, appealed today for an end to any violence.

TOMIKA MILLER, Widow of Rayshard Brooks: And I just ask that, if you could just keep it as a peaceful protest, that would be wonderful, because we want to keep his name positive and great.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Meanwhile, in Minneapolis, the pressure is still building to dismantle the city's police department in the wake of George Floyd's killing three weeks ago, when a white officer pressed a knee to Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes.

Yesterday, Democratic Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar insisted the Minneapolis Police Department needs a complete overhaul.

REP. ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): You can't really reform a department that is rotten to the root.

What you can do is rebuild.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Elsewhere, protesters in Seattle are still occupying a small part of the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood, after police abandoned their precinct there a week ago in an effort to ease tensions.

Storefronts are boarded up and covered in graffiti, and barricades mark the borders of the roughly six-block so-called Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.

President Trump said today, if local officials won't retake the area, he will deploy the National Guard to do so.

And in Southern California, the families of two young black men are demanding investigations after the two were found hanging from trees 50 miles apart in recent days.

Both their deaths were initially ruled suicides, but relatives say they fear the men were lynched.

Alex Villanueva is Los Angeles County sheriff.

ALEX VILLANUEVA, Los Angeles County, California, Sheriff: We will answer all the questions and we will get full closure to what happened here.

I reached out to Attorney General Xavier Becerra, and they are now going to provide a monitor and review all of our investigation to make sure we didn't leave any rock unturned.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All this comes as the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva has announced plans to debate systemic racism and police brutality in the U.S. and elsewhere on Wednesday.

Concerns about that brutality triggered solidarity protests around the world over the weekend, from New Zealand... WOMAN: This has been happening for years, and to finally be able to speak up about it and feel like I'm doing something to help, you know, it means a lot.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And to Brazil.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William Brangham.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In the day's other news: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration withdrew emergency approval for hospitals to use hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19.

The FDA said that the malaria drug is unlikely to be effective against the coronavirus.

President Trump has touted the medicine and defended it again today.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I can't complain about it.

I took it for two weeks, and I'm here.

Here we are.

I took it and I felt good about taking it.

I don't know if it had an impact, but it certainly didn't hurt me.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Meanwhile, COVID infections continue to increase across much of the United States.

Arizona, Texas, and Florida have reported surging case numbers.

And Alabama's weekly case average is up 92 percent.

At least 18 more states and Puerto Rico also report rising infections.

Overseas, Chinese officials shut down Beijing's largest outdoor food market and ordered new testing after an outbreak of dozens of cases.

In Russia, a Moscow court sentenced American Paul Whelan today to 16 years in prison on spying charges.

The former U.S. Marine was arrested in December 2018 and has denied that he spied.

U.S. officials called it a mockery of justice.

We will explore the case later in the program.

The top two officials at the U.S. government-funded Voice of America have resigned amid clashes with President Trump.

Amanda Bennett and her deputy director stepped down today.

That came after the president charged VOA's coronavirus coverage was too easy on China.

Just last week, the Senate confirmed Mr. Trump's choice of conservative filmmaker Michael Pack to oversee VOA's parent organization.

On Wall Street today, stocks slumped, and then rallied after the Federal Reserve said that it will buy more corporate bonds.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 157 points to close at 25763.

It had been down 760 at one point.

The Nasdaq rose 137 points, and the S&P 500 added 25.

And next year's Academy Awards will be pushed back two months to April 25, 2021, due to the pandemic.

Today's announcement also extends the deadline for movies to be eligible through next February.

Coronavirus.

shutdowns have slowed production and closed theaters nationwide.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": Minneapolis becomes a testing ground for a nationwide push to reallocate police funding; why thousands are volunteering to be infected with COVID-19 in the search for a vaccine; two Americans are imprisoned overseas by autocratic governments; and much more.

Now to Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed by police.

Since his death, a movement to -- quote -- "dismantle" the police department as we know it has grown stronger.

And it has the support of a majority of City Council members.

Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro takes a look at what this might mean.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: As fire and rage overwhelmed long stretches of the Lake Street Business District late last month, Minneapolis City Councillor Alondra Cano says residents of her ward took matters into their own hands, trying to salvage what little they could.

She livestreamed their effort on Facebook.

ALONDRA CANO, Minneapolis City Councillor: And we started with, you know, small, small buckets of water and throwing them at the building.

And then finally the neighbors from the other block had access to an old fire hose and were able to open the fire hydrant there.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) FRED DE SAM LAZARO: When they finally heard from law enforcement, Cano says, it was with flashbangs and tear gas, imposing the strict no exceptions curfew.

She says such experiences have given swift rise to a movement and the slogan defund the police.

The sentiment is plastered across the city and a veto-proof majority of the City Council committed itself to -- quote - - "ending the Minneapolis Police Department."

SAM GOULD, Community Organizer: Hey, everyone.

We need to organize our own.

And no one else is coming to our aid.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Using social media, community organizers like Sam Gould brought huge crowds to the Powderhorn neighborhood park the first morning after protests began.

SAM GOULD: It's now up to the people to inform themselves and set the agenda of what a police-free future is.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Schoolteacher Jessica Mueller.

JESSICA MUELLER, Minneapolis Teacher: If anything is going to happen to keep us safe and to keep us as a solid community, it's going to have to come up from within the community.

So the last people that we feel safe with right now are the MPD, who we pay.

PHILLIPE CUNNINGHAM, Minneapolis City Councillor: I like to more specifically think about it as reimagining public safety.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Phillipe Cunningham serves the city's Fourth Ward.

PHILLIPE CUNNINGHAM: At the end of the day, we want to make sure that, when anyone calls 911, that they have the most appropriate response to their emergency crisis, and that they are being kept safe.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: He says that response could be from a social worker, mental health professional or armed cops, when that is deemed appropriate, say, a shooting or armed robbery.

The Council plans to initiate a long process, including likely a referendum to change the city's charter.

That would allow it to shift some of the $193 million annual police department budget to community-based programs.

Councillors say they want to address underlying problems, like homelessness and other symptoms of poverty that drive crime and violence.

Critics of the Council's move say they are alarmed by the lack of details or time frame.

Steve Cramer with a downtown business association says it sends the wrong message to the economically vital companies and sports venues who want to reassure customers, employees and fans that the downtown is safe.

STEVE CRAMER, Minneapolis Downtown Council: There's no plan.

There's no plan to make a plan.

Yet there's this very provocative headline out there, kind of a talking point, that's created a huge vacuum that people are filling with their -- either their best aspirations or their worst fears.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Others worry about morale in the Minneapolis Police Department, troubled for years by officer-involved shootings and allegations of misconduct.

Thirteen officers have either quit or are in the process of resigning since George Floyd's killing.

Another group published its own open letter condemning the actions of their former colleague Derek Chauvin.

RICH STANEK, Former Hennepin County Sheriff: Ninety-nine percent of those police officers go to work every day with the right attitude and the right mind-set.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Rich Stanek is a former Minneapolis cop, Republican state legislator and former sheriff of Hennepin County, which includes the city.

RICH STANEK: They are being attacked from every angle, by the elected officials, the residents themselves, others across the country whom they have never met.

It's going to be hard to overcome a rebuild.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: However, police officers enjoy significant protection from laws that allow wide latitude in the use of force and powerful unions, which have lobbied successfully for state laws against residency requirements; 93 percent of Minneapolis police officers live outside the city.

And only a tiny fraction of the city's police officers who are brought up on misconduct charges face any discipline, and their disciplinary records are kept from public view.

JOSHUA PAGE, University of Minnesota: So it's been very difficult to hold officers accountable, for the chief to fire officers that he or she finds problematic because of their behavior.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: University of Minnesota sociologist Joshua Page says that behavior also reflects what he calls an entrenched warrior culture in American policing.

But Page says the George Floyd case, vividly on video, has moved to white American attitudes like none before it.

JOSHUA PAGE: A look of impunity.

It generated a lot of rage.

I think white people, including myself, are being forced to see the things that people in certain communities have known.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: That might bode well for reform in public safety approaches, he says.

Still, the process will take time and won't be easy, even among the Powderhorn neighbors looking to rely more on each other, and less on 911.

HUDA, Minneapolis: Most of the people, that 1,000 that came, were white.

And this neighborhood is not a white neighborhood.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Huda, who wanted only her first name used, said it is racially diverse and divided by class and different priorities.

HUDA: To be honest, the very first things that people were talking about were property.

And I was like, great, my apartment might burn down.

But I'm also concerned for my own safety and for the safety of people who look like me.

And I haven't heard a single one of you mention that.

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: These neighbors agree that rooting out ingrained biases will be a challenge.

So too might be sustaining an entire community's interest in police reform, amid historic events like a pandemic and a presidential election.

For the "PBS NewsHour," this is Fred de Sam Lazaro in Minneapolis.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Fred's reporting is a partnership with the Under-Told Stories Project at University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.

President Trump is expected to sign an executive order tomorrow on policing that will focus on issues of training and information-sharing.

But administration officials said that it is not expected to address systemic racism in law enforcement.

As the world anxiously awaits the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, new and controversial measures are being considered for the first time.

Amna Nawaz reports on a growing group of young volunteers eager to be subjects in tests that might help the world move forward, despite the personal risks.

AMNA NAWAZ: Sean Doyle is a 31 year-old medical student at Emory University.

He's also one of the first Americans to test a potential vaccine for COVID-19.

SEAN DOYLE, COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Subject: If my participation in this vaccine trial can help in any way and eventually ensure that it's not infecting people in the U.S. anymore and other places, then it would be a great thing to participate in.

AMNA NAWAZ: He knows the risks are still unknown, but he's had to weigh them before.

A few years ago, he took part in another vaccine trial, that one for Ebola.

SEAN DOYLE: It made me a lot more confident that this was a good choice and the potential benefits were probably going to far outweigh the risks.

AMNA NAWAZ: Doyle is taking part in a traditional clinical trial, a process that usually unfolds in three phases.

First, small groups receive the test vaccine to test for its basic safety.

The study is then expanded to include target groups for the vaccine, before it's then given to thousands more, who then go back to their daily lives, to see how well it protects them from the disease.

That process relies on people getting accidentally exposed to the virus and can often take months or years, leading health experts to warn that the best-case scenario for a COVID-19 vaccine could be a long way off.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID Director: Although this is the fastest we have gone from a sequence of a virus to a trial, it still would not be applicable to the epidemic unless we really wait about a year to a year-and-a-half.

AMNA NAWAZ: The urgency to find a vaccine has led to concerns that those traditional clinical trials that are already under way aren't moving quickly enough.

And there's now growing calls to begin another more controversial kind of trial.

They are called human challenge trials.

And, if they move forward, it would mean a smaller group of volunteers would be given a vaccine, and then deliberately infected with COVID-19 to quickly test if the vaccine works.

SEEMA SHAH, Northwestern University: Challenge studies fill a really critical gap there.

AMNA NAWAZ: Seema Shah, a bioethicist at Northwestern University, says the real value of human challenge trials is their speed.

SEEMA SHAH: So, you can take two groups of people, randomize one to receive a vaccine, the other to receive placebo, and then expose them to the virus.

And if you see a difference between those two groups, you know very quickly what -- whether that vaccine worked.

AMNA NAWAZ: Now, up until this point, human challenge trials have only ever been used with diseases like malaria or typhoid fever, curable if the vaccine fails.

With COVID-19, there is no cure.

SEEMA SHAH: Challenge trials have a lot of promise and potential.

But we have to be sure that they're going to realize that potential and that we can manage the risks appropriately.

AMNA NAWAZ: A recent study published in "The Journal of Infectious Diseases" also says that human challenge trials could have the potential to accelerate a coronavirus vaccine.

And a group of over 30 members of Congress has urged the federal government to consider using human challenge trials, likening the fight against the pandemic to war, in which - - quote -- "There is a long tradition of volunteers risking their health and lives to help save the lives of others."

That chance to help save lives is what led 34-year-old New Yorker Josh Morrison to look into the trials.

JOSH MORRISON, 1 Day Sooner: You know, firstly, I thought it seemed like a good idea to explore.

It's something that could make a significant difference.

AMNA NAWAZ: After becoming a kidney donor in 2011, Morrison left his corporate law job and launched a nonprofit to make donation easier.

Last month, he launched a new nonprofit, called 1 Day Sooner, signing up volunteers for a possible human challenge trial for COVID-19.

JOSH MORRISON: There is a real benefit to feeling like -- to being able to take one step that's, you know, useful or potentially useful.

And I think that helps with kind of coping with this really terrible disease and terrible situation we're in right now.

AMNA NAWAZ: Over the last few months, his list has steadily grown.

Today, more than 28,000 volunteers, mostly in their 20s and 30s, have signed up from more than 100 countries.

To be deliberately infected with a deadly virus?

JOSH MORRISON: Yes, yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: Did that surprise you?

JOSH MORRISON: I always felt like, if challenge trials do go forward, I always did feel like there would be more than enough people who would be eligible to do it who would want to do it.

AMNA NAWAZ: Thirty-one-year-old Lehua Gray of Austin, Texas, is one of those volunteers who thinks the risks are worth it.

She signed up with her parents in mind.

LEHUA GRAY, Vaccine Volunteer: My mom works for the VA and my dad works for the TSA, so they're basically, like, on the front lines every single day.

And they're both essential.

So, for me, if I could take some of the risk off of them and put it onto myself, since I'm young and healthy, and, you know, they're much more high-risk, like, that's a no-brainer.

AMNA NAWAZ: Twenty-Three-year-old Lena Jewler also signed up.

She's a master's student at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.

LENA JEWLER, Vaccine Volunteer: Finding a vaccine faster, and a safe vaccine faster, an effective vaccine faster, has so many benefits attributed to it, not just lives saved, but being able to socially interact in ways that we haven't been able to in the past month-and-a-half, and perhaps won't be able to again until there's a vaccine.

AMNA NAWAZ: But Dr. Mike Levine, who has worked on vaccine development since the late 1960s, including more than 100 challenge trials for diseases like cholera and dysentery, is skeptical.

If someone in your family came to you right now and said, I think I want to volunteer for this trial, what would you say?

DR. MIKE LEVINE, University of Maryland School of Medicine: I would say, right now, I would recommend not.

AMNA NAWAZ: Levine argues, the time it would take to safely set up the first human challenge trials for coronavirus might not actually be faster than the clinical trials already under way.

And if the human challenge trials only include young, healthy people, there's no guarantee a vaccine would help the most vulnerable.

DR. MIKE LEVINE: This would be very complicated.

This is not a walk in the park.

If we had a vaccine that worked only in young adults, that would be helpful.

If it didn't work -- and it's possible -- if it didn't work in protecting the elderly, they may have to spend the rest of their lives until COVID transmission diminishes in a degree of seclusion.

AMNA NAWAZ: Still, Seema Shah has been working with the World Health Organization to develop the ethical criteria that need to be met if experts decide to move forward on a COVID-19 human challenge trial.

SEEMA SHAH: Researchers have to know this is worth doing and they have to make a solid case about that.

And given everything that's happening, right now, that's a difficult case to make, but it's not out of the question.

I just think that if we're going to do something like this and expose people to risk in a way that we haven't really done in challenge studies in the past, it's really important to do it in a way that we know will move the needle.

AMNA NAWAZ: And maybe move one step closer to ending the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Amna Nawaz.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Two Americans overseas were convicted in controversial court cases watched closely here and around the world.

Nick Schifrin now looks at former Marine Paul Whelan in Russia, sentenced to 16 years in prison, and the renowned journalist Maria Ressa in the Philippines.

PAUL WHELAN, Defendant: So, it is what it is.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Today, a defeated Paul Whelan listened from a glass cage to what his lawyer called a sentence without evidence and a judgment without translation.

MAN: Nothing's translated, Your Honor.

I don't know what you said.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Outside the courthouse, U.S.

Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan called Whelan's trial a sham.

JOHN SULLIVAN, U.S.

Ambassador to Russia: It's a mockery of justice.

If they can do it to Paul, they can do this to anyone.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Whelan is a former police officer and Marine who loved to travel.

He was arrested in Moscow in December 2018, and accused of spying, a charge he has consistently denied.

He turned 50 and spent more than 500 days in prison, and he's made his case through bars and jostling journalists.

PAUL WHELAN: Although Russia says it caught James Bond on a spy mission, in reality, they abducted Mr. Bean on holiday.

I'm the victim of an assault by a prison agent, and that's something that you need to cover.

NICK SCHIFRIN: David Whelan is Paul's twin brother.

Do you believe your brother has gotten a fair trial?

DAVID WHELAN, Brother of Paul Whelan: Paul has been given a terrible deal with the Russian system, both from being entrapped at the very beginning, not being able to have translated evidence, not being able to have witnesses appear.

The whole thing was a railroad.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Moscow says it's interested in a prisoner swap for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a former military pilot convicted by a U.S. court of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine, or the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, convicted of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and officials.

Last November, senior U.S. State Department official Julie Fisher rejected the swap.

JULIE FISHER, U.S. State Department Official: There is no need to discuss a swap, particularly for someone who was a convicted criminal.

DAVID WHELAN: I don't think it's ever been a question that that was what he was being held for.

I would be very conflicted about Paul, being a tourist, even though the Russians called him a spy, being exchanged for a Russian arms dealer, a Russian drug dealer.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Five thousand miles away, Maria Ressa walked out of a trial today she also called a sham.

The Filipina-American journalist is a former CNN correspondent and started the independent news outlet Rappler.

MARIA RESSA, CEO, Rappler: We're at the precipice.

If we fall over, we're no longer a democracy.

Are we a democracy or not?

Let us do our jobs.

RODRIGO DUTERTE, Philippine President: There will be no let up in this campaign.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Since 2016, Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte has carried out a war on drugs that the U.N. calls an extrajudicial murderous crackdown that killed 12,000.

He's also waged war on the press and dissent, shutting down the country's largest broadcaster just last month.

Rappler repeatedly criticized Duterte and linked a prominent businessman to illegal drugs.

Even though Ressa didn't edit that article, and even though it was published eight years ago, she could face six years in prison.

MARIA RESSA: Are we going to lose freedom of the press?

Will it be death by 1,000 cuts?

Or are we going to hold the line, so that we protect the rights that are enshrined in our constitution?

STEVEN BUTLER, Committee to Protect Journalists: It looks like a targeted attack on a single journalist who has been -- written a lot -- or done a lot of highly critical coverage of the Duterte administration.

That is a threat to every journalist in the country.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Steven Butler is the Asia coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

He says the threat to journalism in Asia goes well beyond the Philippines.

STEVEN BUTLER: Many governments have activated anti-terror laws or libel laws, fake news laws.

So, this is part of a broad trend that has forced press freedoms further into retreat from what we have seen in recent years.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Whether through jailing journalists or hostage diplomacy, two Americans have become the targets of governments pursuing their agendas by manipulating justice.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.

JUDY WOODRUFF: As President Trump gears up for his first campaign rally since the pandemic hit, we take a look at the political pressures on him to act on police reform.

Our Politics Monday team is here to analyze that and more, Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report and host of public radio's "Politics With Amy Walter."

And Tamara Keith of NPR, she also co-hosts the "NPR Politics Podcast."

Hello to both of you.

It is Monday.

A lot to talk about.

We have just learned, Amy, that, in this executive order President Trump will be signing tomorrow, the White House putting out word that it will say something about training, something about transparency, about information-sharing, and about community policing.

We don't know many details.

How much pressure is there now on President Trump to do something about police reform?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Judy, there is a lot of pressure on him.

I mean, I think many of us have been surprised at how quickly this issue not only rocketed up to the list of issues that Americans say they are concerned about.

I just saw a CNN poll out the other day that showed this as the number one issue for voters.

Obviously, many more Democrats see this as a top issue than Republicans.

But, still, it was ranked higher even than COVID.

And I also think we have been surprised at how quickly Americans' opinions, specifically white Americans' opinions, not just about police, but also racism writ large in this country, have changed in such a short period of time.

And the president needs to get with the right side on this issue.

Right now, Joe Biden is seen as having an advantage on handling race relations -- again, this is a CNN poll -- by more than 30 points.

So the president wants to come out, understandably, very quickly, put something out there as an executive order.

Congress is going to, in all likelihood, get to this some point -- this issue at some point in July, which will give the president another opportunity to sign something.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Tam, you cover the White House.

If you're President Trump or one of the people around him, how do you look at this issue?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Well, President Trump has really been going back and forth on what his message is and who he's delivering that message to.

He is someone who his campaign ran an ad during the Super Bowl about criminal justice reform.

But, at the same time, he wants to be the law and order president.

And he's speaking different two different constituencies.

But, clearly, as Amy says, the fact that the White House has rushed, has worked hard on this executive order, the fact that the president is, according to officials, going to be calling on Congress to do more just is a sign of the pressure that he's under to show that he's doing something and isn't simply focused on law and order or individual cases.

That said, whether he ties this into the larger idea of systemic racism that the protesters are marching about, or whether he really makes this about the few bad apples, which is what he's been talking about, that there are a few bad cops, I think that remains to be seen.

It seems much more likely that he's going to lean on the side of, well, let's root out the few guys that are trouble.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Meantime, Amy, the president continues to say he's done more for African-Americans than any -- at one point in the last few days, he's better than Abraham Lincoln, it sounded like what he was saying.

But, Amy, I want to ask you about this rally, first campaign rally he has had since the pandemic began.

It's going to be in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of a terrible massacre of blacks back in the 1920s.

It was going to be held on Juneteenth, the anniversary of the end of slavery.

They have now moved it to Saturday.

But my question is, is it still smart for the president to be doing this?

AMY WALTER: Well, nobody in public health thinks it's a good idea for him to be doing this.

The Tulsa newspaper, the editorial board said, we love having a president come in, but we would like him to not come in the middle of a pandemic, especially when it means a whole bunch of people crowded together indoors, which is, according to all health experts, about the worst possible thing that you can do with COVID.

But, Judy, it comes back to this.

It's -- the politics of it really aren't the issue here.

It seems to me it's what the president wants to do.

He loves getting the adoration of the crowd.

He's been missing it desperately.

Look, the reason that the president, though, is sitting at a very low point of job approval ratings -- in fact, he's dropped now close to 40 percent job approval rating -- it's not because he hasn't held enough rallies.

It's because the two most important issues right now to Americans, the COVID crisis and race relations, he's seen by a majority as not handling those particularly well.

And so doing a rally isn't going to make his approval ratings move at all.

So, politically, it's really for him.

It's not for his political standing.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Tam, help us understand the White House thinking here.

Why do they think it is the right thing to do?

TAMARA KEITH: Well, he doesn't like polls, right?

He doesn't trust the polls.

But he doesn't have the thing to point to, to say, look, the polls are wrong, I have amazing enthusiasm, just look at these people.

Well, after Saturday, he's going to have that back.

He's going to be able to say, look at those 19,000 people that we packed into the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

And look at Joe Biden.

He's still doing these small gatherings that are socially distant.

This is not going to be socially distant.

The Trump campaign told me today they will be passing out masks, but they will not be required.

And they will pass out hands sanitizer, but the arena will be absolutely full, is what they say.

President Trump has said that social distancing wouldn't look so good for a rally.

It wouldn't really work.

So he's going to have this big, bold, loud example of how he has enthusiasm.

, does one rally negate a bunch of negative polls?

Probably not.

But it'll look good in the ads.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And just a few seconds to each of you.

Does it -- is it a problem for Joe Biden that he's not getting out, Amy?

AMY WALTER: Well, right now, the RealClearPolitics average has Joe Biden up eight over Donald Trump.

So I would say, no, it's not a problem for Joe Biden to still be in his basement.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes, and he's making the calculated risk that it may not be a great idea to be the source of a super-spreader event.

Now, we don't know whether the Trump rally will turn into a super-spreader event, but, without social distancing and masks, the public experts -- the public health experts I talk to are really concerned.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, I guess if you can be eight up from your basement, why change things?

(LAUGHTER) JUDY WOODRUFF: Tamara Keith, Amy Walter, we thank you both.

AMY WALTER: You're welcome.

JUDY WOODRUFF: On the "NewsHour" online: the latest episode of our podcast "America, Interrupted."

This week, we look at the police department in Camden, New Jersey, which many point to as a model for reform.

What did it get right, and where does it fall short?

You can listen now on our Web site.

That's PBS.org/NewsHour/podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

Join us online and again here tomorrow evening.

For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon.