she suffered from an infection due to a ruptured intestine. she won an award for the miracle worker when she was only 16. later in life, she opened up about her struggle about bipolar disorder. we'll get more on that story as well as others on our website. >> the republican presidential candidate back away from at uniony pledge to support the eventual nominee. the state attorney general of north carolina said he can't defend a law. a deadlocked decision, the divided supreme court by fee doubt hands a major victory to organized labor. how the decision could impact the presidential race.

this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm stephanie sy. an unconditional pledge by the republican candidates to support the eventual gop nominee is all but dead this morning. at a town hall last night, all three candidates were given a chance to say they would support the eventual nominee but all declined. that goes back on a pledge the candidates signed with the republican party and it makes the race that much more fraught. this morning, donald trump is defending his campaign manager, who has been charged with battery. as al jazeera's michael shure reports, it's an issue that is overshadowing policy debate. >> please welcome ted cruz. >> senator ted cruz was first up in cnn's gop town hall in milwaukee, wisconsin. right off the top, a question about the news of the day, the arrest of donald trump's campaign manager. >> the reporter alleged that she

was physically assaulted. that, i will say it's consistent with the pattern of the trump campaign. the culture of the campaign has been a campaign built on attacks, on insults, and i think there is no place in politics for insults, for personal attacks, for going to the gutter and there should be no place for physical violence, either. >> with that, cruz brought up the vitriol between his campaign and donald trump's. >> i'm not an easy person to tick off but when you go after my wife and daughters, that does it. >> when the audience had their turn to ask questions, substance trumped salaciousness. >> how much does your religion affect your decision making? >> most farms in the dairy industry cannot find american born workers. what is the short term solution to keep our current labor force intact? >> will you send an overwhelming force with unrestricted use of

power to obliterate isis? >> last, a change of heart from cruz about supporting the republican nominee. >> if donald trump is the gop nominee, would you support him? >> let me tell you my solution to that. [ laughter ] >> donald is not going to be the gop nominee, we're going to beat him. >> when trump was asked if he wanted cruz's support. >> i don't really want him to do something he's not comfortable with, just like i can't imagine jeb bush. look, i beat these people badly. >> if the nominee is somebody that i think is really hurting the country and dividing the country, i can't stand behind him. we have a ways to go. let's tee how this all folds out. >> is it fair to say that you believe donald trump looks like he would harm the country if he was the nominee? >> that will be up to the voters here.

i'm not going to get into that. that is too much below the belt. >> trump supported his campaign manager. >> i didn't know we had these supreme court cameras around all the time. i said this is wonderful, this exonerates him totally. >> you're running for president of the united states. >> excuse me, i didn't start it. i didn't start it. >> sir, with all due respect, that's the argument of a 5-year-old. it's the argument of a 5-year-old, he started it. >> he was booed when he went after cruz. >> so phony. i know you have a couple of people out there, because you put them in the audience, but it's so false, the whole thing with the -- >> john kasich continued to take the high road and talk policy. >> i have been able to be able to accomplish things in politics. i'm going to tell you, not because i'm so great, but i've been able to attract people throughout the years. i have some people have been around me for 30 years and we form a great team. >> michael shure, al jazeera, janesville, wisconsin. the supreme court justice

are hearing arguments this hour after splitting 4-4 over a case involving union dos. >> this is a big victory for public employee unions and if justice scalia had still been on the bench, it could have well gone the other way. this case involves the california teachers association and the question of fair share dues, dues that teachers must pay even if they don't want to join the union, dues they have to pay is because they sometime get the benefit of any contract negotiated by this group. a number of teachers had sued arguing this violated their right of free speech. in a simple one page ruling, the

supreme court said: the judgment is affirmed by an equally divided court, in other words, it was a 4-4 split. no national precedent is set and the court has simply affirmed the lower court judgment, the ninth circuit which found that these fair share dues are legal. the head of the national education association issued a statement saying the u.s. supreme court rejected a political ploy to silence public employees like teachers. on the other side, the center for individual rights, they represented the teachers who were suing over these dues, they said this is too significant a case to leave as is. a full court they said need to decide this question and we expect this case will be reheard when a new justice is confirmed. this case really brings into sharp focus the absence of justice scalia and it could be one of many critical and controversial cases that end in a tie this session, including cases involving abortion, affirmative action, immigration and parts of the affordable care act. ian mill hauser writes about the supreme court, he said the

4-4 split is a sign of things to come this term. >> i don't think that this case is necessarily the best example of the court's dysfunction, because in this particular case, the plaintiffs were asking the justice to overrule a 40-year-old precedent, so that precedent remains in effect and we all know the law now, it's what the law has been for the last four decades. the problem is you've got so many other cases going down on birth control, on immigration, where the law is more unclear, and this is just an appetizer of what could come if we have a bunch of 4-4 decisions in these other cases, where you could have a great deal of confusion, you could have conflicting court orders, parties may not know what to do because the supreme court won't have ruled one way or another on it. how do you think the members of the supreme court feel about these splits? do they do things to try and avoid them?

>> well, their side certainly in the birth control case that they're trying to make it work. they issued a very strange order yesterday laying out a very slight tweak to the birth control rules and essentially asked for briefing on, hey, if you make this slight change, would that be cool, which is not something that the supreme court normally does and is probably a sign that at least one of the justices is casting about trying to avoid a 4-4 split here. >> he also says republicans may be willing to put up with these results and continue to refuse to hold nomination hearings former rick garland. they hope the next president is a republican who nominates a conservative to the bench. garland is meeting with democratic senators al franken and kirstin gillibrand. he sat down with republican senator mark kirk of illinois tuesday. it is the first meeting garland has had with a republican. kirk said he would consider

voting for garland. winds are expected to cause down after causing damage. gusts of 50 miles an hour took down trees and wires. it was worst in new hampshire where one wind gust topped 133 miles per hour. high winds knocked a tree into a car there, killing the driver. a potent spring storm will bring severe weather to the south today. let's bring in nicole mitchell. >> a major system, the same one that brought all that snow through portions of the rockies and we still have some of that going. the northern edge, more has started to move through portions of the midwest. on the trailingently, oklahoma, texas, some moisture starting to build up. that's part of our thunderstorm line for later in the day we have not only a pool of moisture coming across from the pacific but now that this is closer from the gulf coast, that is going to enhance moisture, so pretty wide area that is going to see this. now the northernently, thunderstorms into wisconsin and then the snow starting to wind down in wyoming where we still

have winter weather advisories that go into this evening. this is the next 24 hours, lights later into tomorrow and late tomorrow to it hits the east coast. today, this starts moving through portions anywhere from the great likes through the south. here's that put into motion. you can see that wide swath of moisture, this is not great news especially for the south. a few weeks ago, we had that tremendous flooding situation. it takes a while to color out. you can see lingering activity in the south. all of that rain, he could have widespread areas, getting five or six inches, so that's going to cause problems. in the meantime, severe weather is set up with this and the risk will shift slightly to the east tomorrow but especially around our gulf coast states is where we are going to want to watch that as this moves through. severe weather, the biggest risk is hail, but high winds and isolated tornadoes over the next

two days. thank you. more trouble in the cash strapped detroit schools, a group of pins pals stand accused in a million dollar kick back scheme. the president outlines his plans to tackle addiction in the war on drugs.

>> the gay community in

particular was being portrayed incredibly negatively. >> a lot of people's lives have been put on hold. >> we're prepared for the fight that we know we're facing. >> twenty-one people were killed, nearly all of them transgender women of color. >> we have a reason to wake up and live just like everybody else. >> it's easy to demonize something that you don't know. >> they forget that you're human and everyone deserves some respect. >> one woman, one man! >> marriage is a civil right! >> if they redefine marriage, what is it to be? >> they are pushing social change on some people who are still very resistant. >> i'm willing to face my consequences as you all will face your consequences. >> the next big day in the battle for gay rights at the supreme court. >> we absolutely believe this is a state's right issue. >> all we're asking for are the same rights everyone else has. >> gay marriage is legal. >> this momentous, historic, landmark decision. >> same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. >> we just felt like we had to be here. >> our human dignity is being recognized. >> this is just a watershed moment.

>> i saw some other people that actually started to cry. >> this ruling will strengthen all of our communities. >> i couldn't be prouder of our country. >> there's no gender. there's just people. >> i finally get to blossom into the beautiful flower i am. >> al jazeera america. proud to tell your stories. new fallout in north carolina over a law critics say discriminates between gase, lesbians and transgender people. the state attorney general is refusing to defender it as he runs for governor.

>> the protest over a new law many are calling discriminatory against the lgbt community played out on the streets tuesday. >> we should not even be here today. >> tuesday also turned into a war of words between the two men vying to be the state's next gone, republican incumbent pat mcrory and roy cooper. >> we're here because the governor has signed statewide legislation that puts discrimination into the law. >> cooper said he won't defend a law which among other things makes transgender people use the bathroom of their birth sex. >> our office has defended the state, its officials and agencies when they've been sued. our office will continue to do that, except it will not defend the constitutionality of the discrimination in house bill two. >> cooper called the law an embarrassment, prompting a response from the governor later in the day released on you tube. >> the real embarrassment it politicians not publicly respecting each other's positions on complex issues. >> the bill's sponsor called on cooper to resign and governor

mccrory wants cooper to change his mind. >> when you are the state's lawyer, you are a lawyer first and a politician second, therefore, i'd like to encourage the attorney general to reconsider his flawed logic. virginias governor veep toed a so-called religious liberty bill in his state. critics are calling on the senate in mississippi to vote down a similar bill they say would discontinua discriminate e lgbt community. it would allow businesses to site their religious beliefs in denying service to gay or lesbian customers, but this one allows public employees to refuse to hand out marriage licenses. >> the first amendment of the constitution protects everyone and their freedom to believe whatever they want to, but it's never been used as a tool to deny someone else their civil rights. >> it's not clear if the bill will pass in the state senate or if the governor will sign it. it already has been approved in

the statehouse. within the next hour, we should know whether two minneapolis police officers will be charged for fatally shooting a black man. any charges will be announced for the death back in november. the officers have been on administrative leave since. the prosecutor plans to release video of what happened, something protestors have been demanding. new questions over leader ship in detroit's embattled school district. a group of principals are accused of taking kickbacks from a vending company. it comes at the same time the district says it's running out of money. >> the alleged scheme involves 12 current and former principals an administrator and a vendor. the criminal complaint said they received thousands of dollars in bribes from a vending company which in some cases did not deliver any of the goods or only a portion of the goods for the purpose of making transaction appear legitimate. >> in exchange for approving

these fraudulent invoices, bribes were paid to these principals. the total amount of the bribes that he paid varied for each of the individual principals but the total is $900,000, so just under a million dollars in bribes. in exchange, he received payments for $5 million and of that, we believe $2.7 million was fraudulent, so the loss to detroit public schools is around $2.7 million. >> the vending company is accused of secretly scamming school after school for 13 years. it's a blow to a school district already struggling under a more than $500 million deficit. earlier this year, teachers from more than 80 schools marched in protest over dilapidated schools, overcrowded chooses and

not enough teachers. >> the victim are the students and families who attend detroit public schools. the teachers, the educators who really want to make a difference in the lives of detroit public school children and so a case like this is a real punch in the gut for those who are trying to do the right thing. we hope that if there is a message today that it may seem easy to take a bribe, i'll tell you what, it's also easy to get caught and we will catch you and hold you accountable. >> the vendor paid the kick backs in the form of cash, checks or gift cards. the white house is out with a plan to increase the number of patients doctors can prescribe anti addiction drugs to. it gives an additional $11 million to states to expand treatment programs and spends another $94 million for community health centers nationwide. robert ray has more on the reasons behind the effort.

>> barack obama. [ cheers and applause ] >> 2,000 medical professionals advocates listen to president obama and others talk about the opiate and heroin abuse crisis in america. >> it's not enough just to provide the architecture and the structure for more treatment. there has to be actual funding for the treatment. >> crystal is a mother of two and now in recovery from heroin addiction. her hope is that the struggle she endured can be a lesson for others. >> it slowly happened from weekend to then needing it throughout the week, needing something to go to work, eventually, i need something stronger than the vicodin, i was doing oxycontin, dilaudid, things like that until it eventually led into me doing heroin. >> opiates, drugs like morphine, codeine and others killed 28,000 people in 2014, more than any other year on record. the president is calling for $1.1 billion in funding to expand addiction treatment centers, increase mental health coverage and heighten awareness at medical schools across the country. >> frankly, we're still underresourced.

i don't think the public realizes yet the scope of the problem. my hope is that by being here today, hearing from people who have gone through heroic struggles with this issue, hearing from the medical community about what they're seeing that we've got the opportunity to really make a dent on this. >> gary mendel lost his son to heroin and said the president could do more without waiting for congress. >> there could be an executive order tomorrow, an emergency executive order. this is spreading 30,000 people are going to die this year. that's half of the vietnam war. >> president obama is pushing congress to act on what the c.d.c. calls a problem of epidemic proportions. >> my hope is is that all the advocates and hopes and families who are here and those listening say to congress this is a priority. >> robert ray, al jazeera, atlanta. a scathing report accuses louisiana jails of refusing to give h.i.v. testing and treatment. only five out of 104 parish

jails offer routine testing. some were need wait for extended periods without receiving medications. after release, they were not referred to proper medical providers to continue treatment. louisiana ranks second behind washing.com in new h.i.v. infections. glenn ford spent 30 ears on death row in louisiana for a crime he did not commit. he was released in 2014 and died of lung cancer 15 months later. the state refused to pay compensation. as janet martin reports, his lawyer is still fighting for him. >> as i feel most time, hopeless sometimes. >> in his final months, glenn ford was a fee feed man. after 30 years on death row, wrongly convicted of murder, he was released only to find out because of a technicality, all he'd get from the state was an

apology and $20. >> which would equal the chicken box. i think i got some doughnuts and a cold drink, and that was it. >> al jazeera sat down with ford one year ago as he was suing the state for compensation. at the same time, he was losing his battle with cancer. ford died three months after hour interview at age 65. his attorney refuses to give up on his case. >> he never saw any formal recognition from the state of louisiana that what happened to him was wrong and he also died not knowing whether he would be able to provide for his children and grandchildren. compensation was the way that he thought he would be able to do that burns he was released. >> in 1984, an all-white jury convicted ford in the shooting death of a jewelry store owner. there was no evidence he pulled the trigger or had been at the crime scene. detectives linked ford to the killing after finding he pawned items from the victim's home.

in 2013, nearly 30 years later, the d.a. said a confidential informant identified someone else from the shooter and agreed ford had not participated in the robbery or murder and a judge ordered his release. the state attorney general refused payment saying he wasn't grahamless since he pawned items from the victim. >> he still was wrongfully convicted, still spent way too much time in prison. he still spent, you know, 30 years longer on death row than he should have, so he's entitled to compensation. >> under louisiana law, the maximum awarded for wrongful conviction is $330,000. last year a district court sided with the state denying ford compensation. the case is before an appeals court. if a judge grants compensation in ford's case, the attorney hopes he the state will have money to pay. >> for these guys, that compensation money is their only consistent form of income. >> his last wish was that any

payment be put in a college trust fund for about his grandchildren. >> there is no retribution, no payment. they can't pay for that. >> he felt it was the least the state could do for taking 30 years of his life. jonathan martin, al jazeera, new orleans. still ahead, the remarkable life of actress patty duke, in front of the camera and off.

al jazeera america. >> patty duke is being mourned. it was her personal struggles that later helped launch a national conversation. al jazeera's erica pitzi has more. >> for a 16-year-old, it was the role of a lifetime. >> water. water.

>> patty duke played helen keller in the miracle worker opposite ann bancroft as anne sullivan. years later, oscar night memories never faded. >> joan crawford told me i was wonderful! gregory peck! i met gregory peck! all of it was truly a wonderland. >> with the awe came plenty of adversity. her father was an alcoholic, her mother a manic depressive. duke herself struggled with bipolar disorder, a battle which hollywood turned into a sitcom classic. ♪ they're cousins, identical cousins all the way ♪ >> the patty duke show made her a t.v. star, playing cousins.

duke, who was married three times, including to the addams family's john astin, went public with her illness in 1982. from 1985 to 1988, she served as president of the screen actors guild, an actress, and advocate, when she was asked how she would like to be remembered she said. >> i'm proud that when i get a job, i'm going to give you have paid for and maybe even more. >> her son shared a picture of himself as a baby in the arms of his famous mother, patty duke, the caption, i love you mom. erica pitzi, al jazeera. thanks for watching. the news continues next live from doha. have a great day.