tole by registration plates. other drives cut in front of me on the road. >> reporter: if she is afraid she doesn't show it. and any way, she is too busy picking up passengers. >> you can find out much more on our website, aljazeera.com. the affordable care act is here to stay. >> the supreme court upholds a key provision of the affordable care act keeping healthcare subsidies for millions of americans. ♪ this is al jazeera america, i'm randall pinkston. a seismic decision today by the

supreme court for the second time the justices lead by chief just disjohn roberts upheld the affordable care act, this time ruling that subsidies can stay for millions of americans who get their coverage through federal exchanges. michael shure is live at the supreme court. michael what is the mood at the courthouse for those who are waiting for that decision? >> reporter: randall it is finally starting to calm down here, people who got the news they wanted to hear supporting the aca were out here all morning until very recently and just to show you what a contentious time at the court this is already, the rainbow flags have moved in waiting for the gay marriage ruling from the court. so on to the next. but you should know a little bit about the case. the supreme court ruled 6-3 in favor of the aca, and the king's

lead lawyer had this to say today, randall. >> today's ruling is a tragedy for the rule of law in this country. in a 6-3 decision the supreme court has twisted and somersaulted on traditional rules of statutory interpretation and essentially allowed the irs to rewrite the very statute that congress enacted. this is an incredible beach of the constitutional separation of powers, and for that reason it is all the more important for congress to now do two things, one to protect the separation of powers even more vigilantly and secondly, to undertake real reform of obamacare, and the problems it is causing for millions of americans. >> so they are saying let's take it back to congress. congress has done about all they can do until now. some presidential candidates have been tweeting their own ideas, but congress probably not going to take it. john boehner even said we don't

have a clear plan but we'll take it under advisement. on the other side of the coin you had ron pollic who could not contain his delight. >> today's decision has monumental significance. it means that the affordable care act, is not just the law of the land it will remain the law of the land. it means that the millions of people who have been receiving subsidies that make all of the difference in terms of whether health insurance is affordable people will continue to receive those subsidies, and they will continue to have health insurance. >> one of the people not being talked about too much is the solicitor general, randall, and he had a good day, he was 2-0 when you look at the texas fair housing act. so it was a good day for the white house and that man.

>> the person against the affordable care act, mr. kasman he said the court through it back to the internal revenue service, but the chief justice managed to get a ruling on his side, and that the court was going to use the interpretation of the brood meaning of the words, and not the four words that scalia was focusing on. >> yes, it was about legislative intent. and the intent was not to give this to the irs. so the -- the 6-3 ruling does say that and when you see john roberts signing off of it and saying those things you are absolutely right, randall. >> and we have to mention justice scalia who had a scathing descent. >> yes, he called this now

scotus care, not obamacare, because the supreme court has had two chances to overturn it. you can be sure a lot of republicans running for president are going to use that phrase. but he was incensed by this ruling. >> president obama spoke a shorted time ago about the decision. he says he hopes the ruling can help bridge political divisions over the law. >> the point is this is not an abstract thing anymore. this is not a set of political talking points. this is reality. we can see how it is working, this law is working exactly as it is supposed to. in many ways this law is working better than we expected it to. for all of the misinformation campaigns, all of the doomsday predictions, the talk of death panels and job destruction, for all of the repeal attempts, this law is now helping tens of

millions of americans. and they have told me that it has changed their lives for the better. >> mike viqueira has more for us from the white house. >> reporter: and the president admonishing congress to put it down as a political weapon put obamacare down. they have tried to repeal it some 50 times in the past. that is unlikely to happen. republicans will still have this issue heading into the 2016 presidential race but one thing the president wanted to see happen that hasn't happened is the expansion of medicaid. it was a provision allowed under the affordable care act, the president now pressing for the states to expand medicaid for lower-income individuals. >> house speaker john boehner is one of the republicans who opposed the law. >> the problem with obamacare is still fundamentally the same. the law is broken.

it's raising costs for american families. it's raising costs for small businesses, and it's just fundamentally broken. and -- and we're going to continue our efforts to do everything we can to put the american people back in charge of their own healthcare and not the federal government. >> david arjoins us now. we have been focusing on those four words that scalia says should have been read as they were written. but let's talk about the pab tick collapse indication. half of the court ruled against affordable care act. the ramifications would have been extrordanaire for individuals and doctors and hospitals. >> right. you can't overstate the impact. 34 states within the course of the union, 6.4 million people, the average premium increase in

those states about $272 per month, that's about $3,200 give or take over the course of the year. so people living on the margins, the subsidies kind of push them in, this might push them out, and that's the concern that insurance companies have had when they signed on to obama. when this administration and the legislators got them to provide all of these services that they never did in the past in terms of covering people with preexisting conditions. covering women without jacking up the cost the buy in was everybody had to get covered. if you have people coming out of the system now because subsidies are not there, that centerpiece of the law could have been jeopardized. >> and that could have been a catastrophe for healthcare in america? >> absolutely. the denial on preexisting conditions, if you have diabetes you can have a higher premium,

but fundamentally, this individual mandate was the centerpiece of the law. the idea that you could provide subsidies to people to make it more affordable to buy into the healthcare system that they might not otherwise, because at the end of the day, all of us pay for it at the hospital when people go to the emergency room because they haven't done the preventative care that this law tries to instill, the idea was looking down the road and this might lower costs over the long term. >> one of the items that the law did not touch on was the medicaid expansion. even in those states where there are no exchanges, there is no medicare expansion, which means those states are paying for medical care. is a story in texas some of the businesses are saying look texas is accepting billions to washington. let's pick that up. >> yeah critics say block

grants tend to diminish in terms of funding over the years. so there is a lot of back and forth over this. the development of two separate american healthcare systems, the haves who are in primary democratic blue states and this knots which are more republican-based states. but with medicaid you have two separate systems. about 30 states in the union have adopted the medicaid expansion. this law was meant to take care of people with higher income and the medicaid expansion was to take care of the lower to middle-income people. that hasn't happened. back in 1965 when they first developed medicaid and medicare it wasn't until 1980 that arizona first adopted it. so this takes time. right now we do have two separate systems when it comes to lower-income americans.

but today what we have is a system that is at least not bifurcated with those higher income americans. >> and the debate will continue. >> absolutely. >> thank you, david. let's bring in a civil rights and criminal defense attorney. sir, there are several other cases that were pending that have challenged the affordable care act, what happens to those? >> well as of now, those cases haven't come before the supreme court. the challengers in those cases could choose to appeal the ruling of the lower courts to the supreme court, but it's a question now whether the supreme court would even choose to hear them. having heard two cases on the aca already. >> were you surprised by the ruling? >> i wasn't. this was a case of relatively straightforward statutory interpretation. and the ruling showed that the intent of the statute was to

improve insurance markets and not destroy them. and it's clearing taking the 34 states that have federally set up exchanges out of the program would have put the aca into the insurance death spiral that they were intending to prevent in the first place. >> you have undoubtedly seen some of the quotes from justice skalcalia scalia. the court holds when the patient protection and affordable care act says exchange established by the state, it means exchange established by the state or the federal government is of course quite absurd. today's interpretation is not merely unnatural, it is unheard of. who would ever have drefrt that exchanges established by the state means exchange established by the state or the federal government he is saying the plain words tonight say what the court says they said. >> do you read those four words

in isolation, or look at it in the totality of the statute, and the chief clearly said you read it in the totality of the statute. and the purpose of this act was to bolster insurance markets not pull people out of them. and given the fact that chief justice roberts has already supported the affordable care act once it would have been rather surprising if he voted against it this time right? >> absolutely. >> standing by please sir, we have another ruling from the supreme court today, a key ruling in fighting housing bias. the justices ruled 5-4 that federal housing laws can proprib be it seemingly neutral practices to harm minorities. it was the efforts of a texas non-profit group that brought the issue before the high court. section 8 is a housing program providing vouchers to low income

people. they say the policy is dividing this city along racial lines. in 2008 a non-profit group sued mckinney and neighboring dallas for discrimination for how they administer policies. in dallas the issue is tax credit for builders who put up affordable homes. the tax breaks are offered almost solely for housing built in minority neighborhoods. >> dallas has a long history of housing policy being used as having the effect of perpetuating racial segregation. >> reporter: this year the case ended up in the supreme court. racial discrimination when selling or renting property is illegal. the fair housing act became law in 1968 on the heels of the civil rights act. it guarantees equal access to a home without consideration of race religion or national

origin. it was up to the court to decide whether the act covers not just intensional discrimination but unintended discretion nation what is known as disparate impact. in this case creating segregated neighborhoods in dallas. the justices heard oral arguments in january. >> one concern about disparate impact is it's very difficult to decide what impact is good and bad. >> which is the bad thing to do? not promote better housing in the low income area or not promote housing integration. >> reporter: opponents say it's impossible to fairly prove disparate impact because the evidence consists almost entirely of statistics, but a ruling in their favor would be a pivotal step in the legal affirmation of rights.

>> and once again the supreme court ruled in favor of that case. on this one chief justice roberts went with the conservative end of the court. explanation? >> well the majority greatly limited the holding by saying it's not enough to just show a statistical disparity in housing. you have to show it's artificial arbitrary and unnecessary to strike it down. so they narrowed the reading of disparate quite a bit. the chief justice and the other four descenters clearly would have made the petitioners prove the intent to discriminate to bring a housing violation case. >> but that would have thrown a wrench into so many housing discrimination cases, because it's extremely difficult to prove intent but you can say no

one of color or a certain protected class has been allowed to purchase or rent here right? >> absolutely. this statute has been reauthorized by the congress, and each time it has been done so with the acknowledgment that disparate analysis is a fair way to interpret the statute. so to force them to prove intent would be almost impossible, unless you can say we're attempting to prevent integration here. >> thank you for joining us on al jazeera america. moving on now to other stories today, paying their respects mourners come out for the first funeral for the nine murdered at emanual ame church. ♪

the first funerals are underway for one of the nine victims killed last week during a church shooting at emanual ame

in south carolina. another funeral is set for this afternoon in the charleston area. morgan radford what is going on in charleston right now? ♪ >> reporter: randall you can probably hear the live gospel band just here to my left and they are singing hymns and offering words and songs of encouragement to the mourners. they also have signs out here. they are also passing out free bottles of water. our entire crew has been here all day, and every hour people are coming up saying when is the president coming? there is also great anticipation for the president's arrival, which to answer that question is tomorrow. he is expected to deliver reeulogy at 11:00 am for reverend pinckney.

but he began to preach about a mile up the road at the tender age of 13. >> morgan thought we were going to a package. my apologies. we were looking at videos of the long line of people paying their respects in columbia yesterday when his body was lying in state at the capitol rotunda. we college of charleston is honoring one of the victims. what have they decided to do. >> reporter: that's right. the college is just a few minutes up the road and also where the service will be happening for reverend pinckney tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. but they are honoring the longest serving librarian. >> morgan radford in charleston thank you very much. jurors in the trial of

accused theater shooter james holmes have begun hearing from the defense. they are hoping to prove that he was legally insane when he opened fire inside of a movie theater. more than 4,000 firefighters now battling a series of drought-fuelled wildfires in the west. one fire shut down stretches of the main interstate. john henry smith has more. >> reporter: several large wildfires continue to rage in the drought-stricken west. >> the extreme heat. the extreme working conditions are making it difficult for us. >> reporter: this fire in california was started by lightning. in arizona over night, another fire started after a fighter jet crashed near the mexican border about 230 miles southeast of phoenix. the newspaper is reporting that the plane hit a gas line and sparked a fire three football fields long.

no word on any casualties. earlier wednesday, north of los angeles, this fire raged, evacuated 350, and threatening hundreds of homes. and a blaze more than 2500 miles wide here lake tahoe. high winds that fanned the flames earlier in the week dissipated enough on wednesday to allow helicopters to fight the fires from above, still in the tahoe area some families were considering evacuation. >> this is a little too close to home to our little town. >> i figure if push comes to shove everything we can get in that toyota prius is all we're going to take. >> reporter: and as people leave businesses suffer. >> we'll hope it ends soon and all of our friends and neighbors

will come back in to town and we'll be back in business like we should be. coming up on al jazeera america, using a bird's eye view to help elephants. how drones are protecting herds in africa. ♪

available for your apple and android mobile device. download it now ♪ new york city is taking whole foods to task for allegedly overcharging customers. the consumer chief says the supermarket routinely overstates the weight of prepacked meat dairy and baked goods. he says the problem is ongoing even though the city has been meeting with the chain for a month. whole foods denies the allegations. environmental protesters in brazil are demanding that the government do more to fight pollution. they want authorities to cleanup the rivers and bays in the venues to be used in next year's olympic games.

white foam caused by household detergents have been choking brazilian rivers. using drones to stop the slaughter of elephants. 96 elephants are killed every day, now one man is using this technology to put an end to it. ♪ >> this is a new attempt to use drone aircraft to counter the extraordinary poaching problems in africa. the poachers operate at night. what our drones are available to do is for the first time see at night, and so they can see the thermal signature of these poachers and their cars and the animals, and were able to get to the poachers and to call the rangers before they have a chance to kill the animals. the aircraft are controlled from the mobile command center and

they then can either tell the aircraft where to go or in some cases the aircraft has an autonomous flight plan and it goes on its own, and the operator views the video from the camera and decides whether the aircraft should stay and loiter and -- or condition on within the next eight or nine years, all of the wild elephants in africa will have died from poachers, and the same is the case with rhinos. a single rhino horn is worth a half a million dollars in the black market. the thought of having noel -- no elephants or rhinos in the world, and unacceptable.

if we can do something about this, as we really need to do so, and that's why i'm so excited about the air shepherd campaign. when we play airplanes the poaching stops. >> the program will begin soon in south africa and botswana. to learn more visit air airshepherd.org. the blade is the first environmentally friendly 3-d printed car. the body is held together by carbon rods that means les plastic is used for the printing process. it has a 700-horsepower engine. that's it for us for now, i'm randall pinkston. the news continues next live from london. and remember for the latest headlines go to our website,

aljazeera.com. ♪ ♪ ♪ fighting back, suicide bombers attack the syrian city, close to the border with turkey. >> hello, there. this is al jazeera live from london. also coming up, south africa's president released a report into the police shooting of 34 striking miners. edgingrd twos the abyss, european leaders fail to agree on a deal on greece's debt, plus. >> in the occupied west bank, as palestinian officials submit their first complaints to