This is a rush transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," March 18, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Is It Legal" segment tonight, three hot topics: the Supreme Court hearing gun control case; the Spitzer prostitute threatens to sue; and should Reverend Wright's church lose tax-exempt status because he said this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT, TRINITY UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST: Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich, white people. Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain't never been called a (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: All right. With us now attorney and FOX News analyst Lis Wiehl and attorney and FOX News anchor Megyn Kelly.
Got the new 5 p.m. show going on, huh?
MEGYN KELLY, FOX NEWS: Yes.
O'REILLY: "Campaign '08." There you go.
KELLY: Still doing the 9 a.m., too.
O'REILLY: How long did it take you to think up with the name of that show, "Campaign '08"? Is that like...
KELLY: It's called "America's Election Headquarters."
O'REILLY: OH, "America's Election Headquarters"!
KELLY: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
KELLY: Get out of here. Right.
O'REILLY: I stand corrected.
All right. Reverend Wright, obviously a campaign deal there, correct?
KELLY: Yes. He definitely crossed over the line. But I don't know if it's going to get him in trouble with the IRS. I don't think it will. Basically, the rule is you can get tax-exempt status if you're a religious organization like his church is.
But, in return, you're not allowed to step over certain political lines.
O'REILLY: But he did.
KELLY: You're not allowed to campaign and so on. Yes, he clearly did. He crossed the line there. But as a rule, the IRS doesn't go around revoking church's tax-exempt status when they just make a comment or two or even four or five. It's got to be sort of a really, really bad one or a habitual...
O'REILLY: So he would have to be wearing a Barack T-shirt? And...
KELLY: Yes. Let me put it this way. They've only done it twice in 50 years to churches. And in one of the cases...
O'REILLY: Only twice in 50 years? Really?
KELLY: In one of the cases the church took out a full page ad in "USA Today" backing one...
O'REILLY: Yes, that might have been it.
LIS WIEHL, FOX NEWS LEGAL ANALYST: Not just backing one candidate.
O'REILLY: Twice in 50 years?
WIEHL: Saying that basically, if you voted for Bill Clinton, you're going to hell. I mean, that's really...
O'REILLY: That's not good.
WIEHL: That's not — that's not a good one. So I think it's a technical violation. But there is no way the IRS, who's not exactly beloved, you know, at this point anyway.
O'REILLY: No, it would be a bad political move to do it. That's interesting, only twice in 50 years has a church for political — and you know, they do it all the time. And Wright does it, too.
KELLY: Oh, yes.
O'REILLY: Conservatives do it all the time.
KELLY: The IRS went after the Christian Coalition.
O'REILLY: Yes.
KELLY: Pat Robertson and actually wound up losing. The Christian Coalition, they had to pay a fine, but they didn't lose tax-exempt status.
O'REILLY: OK. Now, gun control, a very emotional issue in this country. And the Supreme Court, what is it?
KELLY: Well, the case comes down to the Second Amendment and what it means. Believe it or not, that has yet to be decided by the Supreme Court. Does that little phrase in the Second Amendment, "the right to bear arms," the people's right to bear arms, does it mean you and I have a right in our homes to bear arms? Or does it just apply to militias?
O'REILLY: It means you and I have a right to bear arms in our homes. It's clearly stated there. But what is the — what is the case that drove this?
KELLY: There's a guy in D.C....
O'REILLY: Yes.
KELLY: ... where there was a gun ban on all handguns in homes, who wants to have one.
O'REILLY: Yes.
KELLY: So he bought one, tried to register it and turned down.
O'REILLY: And D.C., the city of Washington, has a ban on people owning handguns.
KELLY: Yes. You cannot have them.
O'REILLY: And so he sued?
KELLY: So he challenged it. And it went up and made its way all the way up to the D.C. Circuit of Appeals. That's right under the Supreme Court.
O'REILLY: Right.
KELLY: And that court found in his favor and threw out the D.C. gun ban.
O'REILLY: Right.
KELLY: And said that amendment does...
O'REILLY: I think the Supreme Court will do the same thing.
WIEHL: I don't think so. Because the D.C. gun ban is the only time in any of the circuits that the circuits have said, "Yes, you're right. It's an individual, not a militia," which is really what it is.
O'REILLY: But it's — it's stated. It's stated twice. It's stated that individuals have the right to bear arm. And isn't there an "and" in there?
KELLY: But yes, there's another phrase about the militia.
O'REILLY: Isn't there a conjunction in there?
KELLY: There is.
O'REILLY: Between the two?
WIEHL: And there's a 1939 case which is what the Supreme Court is going to have to look at, where the Supreme Court said, "No, it doesn't apply to individuals. It's a collective militia right." So I don't know how they get over that precedent.
KELLY: I don't know if you looked at the transcript of the argument. You are so wrong. The Supreme Court is going to affirm the D.C. Circuit of Appeals there are at least five justices on that court that were sympathetic to Heller, the guy who brought the lawsuit, the guy who lives in D.C.
O'REILLY: All right. But we're not going to solve it tonight. You say — you say the gun ban will hold. And you say Lis is terribly wrong and shouldn't even be on the dance floor with you?
Would you go that far?
KELLY: No.
O'REILLY: I want to see how ruthless you are, Kelly.
KELLY: No, but she's wrong.
O'REILLY: All right. Final one. We have this tart with Eliot — tart, T-A-R-T, with Eliot Spitzer.
WIEHL: Not a...
O'REILLY: Whose lawyers — lawyers say that, in addition to getting paid all this money, now she wants to sue the media? Is that correct?
KELLY: Yes. Apparently, Ashley Alexandra Dupree [SIC], a.k.a. Kristen, doesn't like the fact that her pictures have been taken and put on your show and other shows and the newspapers. And she wants to sue for copyright.
O'REILLY: Who took the pictures?
WIEHL: Everybody.
KELLY: Everybody.
WIEHL: It's on her home page.
KELLY: We did it.
O'REILLY: She had to pose for these pictures.
WIEHL: Everybody took them.
O'REILLY: No, no, who took the actual picture?
KELLY: I don't know. She did or her friends did. But they were hers.
O'REILLY: And they got out. Do you know how they got it?
KELLY: She posted them all over her MySpace.
O'REILLY: She posted them. Oh!
KELLY: But she says that then publications took them and put them...
O'REILLY: But they always do that.
KELLY: They always do it.
O'REILLY: As soon as you get into the public domain.
KELLY: She wants to sue for copyright or trademark infringement. Well, normally, you might have a claim for that unless it's a news event. This was.
WIEHL: I think she just wants to see them — make a lot of money off them. And it was agents that actually took those photos not just friends.
O'REILLY: Do you think she can sue the media?
WIEHL: She can sue. Anybody can sue.
O'REILLY: But will she win?
WIEHL: Not a penny, not a dime.
O'REILLY: So just to get more attention.
WIEHL: Absolutely.
O'REILLY: ... for this little trollop.
KELLY: She's not sure she if she's going to sue. She's thinking about it.
WIEHL: Considering it.
O'REILLY: Yes.
WIEHL: You can tell how we feel about this one.
O'REILLY: You ladies like her?
WIEHL: Not too much.
O'REILLY: You don't like her too much?
KELLY: On my show, Hemmer felt sorry for her.
WIEHL: Why we feel sorry for her?
KELLY: He felt sorry. He bought the whole background she put on her MySpace and now we learned that was all false. And she's living in this fancy apartment. Please.
O'REILLY: Do you like her?
KELLY: No.
O'REILLY: Do you like her?
KELLY: Like is so — I don't support anything she does.
O'REILLY: I love to put the ladies on the spot.
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