supreme decisions. in just about an hour from now, the highest court in the land will decide the future of same sex marriage in america. just one day after striking down a key part of one of the most important civil rights laws ever passed in this country, we're live at the supreme court. plus, turmoil in texas. a marathon filibuster watched by hundreds of thousands of people across the country as democrat state senator wendy davis takes a stand to block a vote on an

anti-abortion bill. >> good morning from the congressional women's softball game. it's wednesday, june 26, 2013. this is "the daily run down." now here's chuck todd. >> well, i'm in for chuck todd. chuck arrived in africa ahead of the president's trip. ahead of tonight's big congressional women's softball game. the ladies of congress will take on the members of the d.c. press corps team. all in the name of raising money and awareness for young women with breast cancer. we have a packed show. the president is just about to leave on a week-long trip to senegal, south africa and tanzania. you're looking now at live pictures of andrews air force base where he will be taking off. we're keeping our eye also on the courtroom in florida where the george zimmerman trial

continues today. our legal team is standing by and we'll bring you new news as it happens. the big story of a big news day is at the supreme court. where just about an hour from now the nine justices will hand down decisions in two catises tt could define marriage for the next generation. one challenging the constitutionality of california's ban on same sex marriage. the the other challenging federal defense of marriage act. which does prevent the government from recognizing same sex marriages in the 12 states where they're currently legal. today's decisions come a day after the court dealt what is widely regarded as a fatal blow to the 1965 voting rights act. the formula which governs which states must get permission from the federal before changing how they govern elections is

unconstitutional. president obama, whose election was cited by some critics of the act, to argue that the law was no longer necessary issued a statement saying he was, quote, deeply disappointed by the ruling. congressman john lewis offing good georgia, who still has the pen president johnson used, called it a major setback for civil rights. >> i think what the court did today is stab the voting rights act of 1965 in its very heart. these men that voted to strip the voting rights act of its power. they never stood in immovable lines. they never had to pass a so-called literacy test. it took us. 100 years to get us where we are today. so will it take another 100 years to fix it? >> the ruling leaves it up to congress to bring the act back. yesterday, the president and

members of his administration called on congress to act. >> we're going to work with congress in this effort. the administration will do everything in our power to ensure fair and equal voting processes are maintained. >> congress needs to act. to make sure that either american has equal access to the polls. >> states have already begun to respond to the ruling. texas attorney, republican attorney greg abbott said, quote, with today's decision, the state's voter i.d. law will take effect immediately. redistricting maps passed by the legislature may also take effect without approachal from the federal government. a big legal day. nbc justice correspondent pete williams is live at the supreme court. and our guest is a supreme court expert. pete, i want to start with you, let's talk about where we go now from the decision. which is does the justice

department have the remedy? leaving it up to congress, leaving anything up to congress these days seep s seems like a cause. where do we go from here on the ruling yesterday? >> i think all paths lead through congress. because congress either has to answer the homework assignment given to them by the supreme court to update the map where the preclearance rule will apply. till they update that map, the preclearance rule is dead in the water. or some other legislative fix. administration officials had said they were looking at possible legislative changes. obviously, the justice department can still sue. it can still challenge changes in voting laws. but they can't use the preclearance thing which was so powerful. blocking any changes till they were approved by either the justice department or a three-judge panel. that was the force, the very teeth of the voting rights act. now the justice department is, in essence, like any other litigant. anybody can still sue. it's not the entire voting

rights act that's dead. >> professor, i want to ask, in context, obviously, a lot of focus on the prop 8 and defense of marriage act rulings that we expect in about 55 minutes. put this in context. this ruling. which i think got less press. but has in the way they ruled in theory a very long impact on how elections are conducted and how lines are drawn in this country. >> this is probably the premier civil rights law maybe in the history of the united states. and it's now been dramatically modified. i want to make one important point. we talk a lot about state redistricting and state voter i.d. laws. that's not the only thing this is about. there are hundreds of communities in the united states that make changes in their voting laws that affect the way people are able to vote on the basis of race and ethnicity. and though were all precleared too. you move a polling place out of the hispanic neighborhood to the

edge of the white neighborhood and make it harder for latinos to vote. those don't have to be precleared anymore. >> you make a great point. which is the breadth of the ruling. a lot of people think congressional districts and voter i.d. there's a lot more to it. pete, i want to come back to you. obviously, the news of the day, the news of the next few days is going to be -- maybe the next few weeks, is going to be how the court rules on prop 8 and the defense of marriage act. it's more complicated than just for or against. can you just lay out sort of the options before the court on each of these two cases? >> sure. on prop 8, the options are to -- for the supreme court to say prop 8 is perfectly constitutional or to say prop 8 is unconstitutional. those two things seem the least likely options. the third option which seems the most likely based on argue argument is the court will say the case was not properly before the court. that the people who appealed,

the proponents of prop 8, did not have the proper legal standing. remember that the state of california who is really the defendant at the heart of this case, it was their law, they said it's unconstitutional. they chose not to defend the law on appeal. so the people who got it on the ballot stood in the shoes of the state. the federal government has -- the supreme court has issued a series of rulings over the years who say you don't have the right to sue. you can't challenge something just because it makes you mad and you're a taxpayer. you have to show some specific injury to you. and there's a question here about whether the prop 8 proponents can meet that test. if the supreme court disposes of the case on that basis, it would not say anything about same sex marriage but it would still allow it to resume in california. >> and professor, i want to get you in one more time on this. which is do we -- gosh knows predicting what the supreme court will say or do is a fool's errand. but let me ask you to go down

that fool's errand. tell me, do we -- obviously, the oral arguments. do we have any indication? as pete outlines, it's possible they could say they're sort of -- there are no technical grounds for this case to be met, which would be a totally different outcome than i think everyone expects. >> i think it's quite plausible people will be disappointed on the prop 8 part. there is the defense of marriage act part. from the oral argument, it seemed at least plausible, maybe likely, that the court will strike down the federal government's refusal to recognize valid state same sex marriages. >> long running implications and thank you for taking the time. professor, my man, pete williams, stay cool, if at all possible. thank you, pete. turning now to texas. where democratic state senator

wendy davis has become an overnight sensation after single-handedly blocking an abortion bill in the state by talking and talking and talking. davis began the filibuster, a bill that would ban abortions, after 20 weeks, and require abortion procedures be done at surgical centers. she kept talking for nearly 13 hours. >> this lenggislating is being done. voted on. look around the room. primarily by men. you can imagine -- or maybe you can't how a woman feels to be told that her feelings on these issues, that no matter how difficult, no matter the circumstance that she's dealing with, if she can't fit into either would be of these little square pegs, she is not going to be able to exercise her

constitutional right. and ways hat's so disturbing ist we don't seem to care. >> senator davis wore pink tennis shoes, you see them there, that have already become iconic. according to the rules of the state senate, only one person can filibuster. you cannot sit down. you cannot eat. you cannot even lean on anything or go to the bathroom. and you can't go off topic at all. moments before midnight, republican lieutenant governor david duhurst ruled that davis had violated the senate's three strike rule. saying she had gone off topic. and another strike, after a colleague offered davis a back brace. you see it being put on there. a back brace. just seven hours into the filibuster that allegedly violated the lean policy. the crowd in the chamber erupted. >> your point of order is well taken and is sustained.

the chair recognizes senator for a motion. >> retire senate bill -- house amendments to senate bill 5. >> just an amazie ining environ. republicans did not have enough time to pass the bill before the legislature special session ended at midnight. when he announced the vote occurred too late to be signed into law, a crowd supporters erupted outside. >> the lieutenant governor has agreed that sb-5 is dead. [ cheers ] >> our political editor joins me for more. this is an amazing story that overnight blew up. over 200,000 people one point watching the live stream of a filibuster in the texas state

senate. rick perry, the governor, can call another special session, they can bring this bill up again. where do we grow from here? >> if you look at texas, they have the votes to pass something if perry does call another session. so it could be a short-term victory for democrats. in the end, there may be something that winds up passing in texas. a lot of this had shades of wisconsin. if you look at some of that with scott walker and collective bargaining rights. i think what it might serve to do is fire up the base potentially. you look at yesterday collectively, you had climate change being a focus from president obama. environmental activists haven't really been that fired up for the president over the last five years. you look at the voting rights, what happened at the supreme court. and minority voters who could be fired up to go to the polls. and now of course abortion rights. which appeals strongly to suburban women. you know, another key element.

and midterms are about the base. some of this might not appeal to swing voters but midterms are about base elections. >> i'll add another one too. the same sex marriage. the decisions from the court. who knows -- but very possible in terms of firing up both basings on the ballot in 2014. massachusetts elected a new senator last night. a little bit of a humdrum race. ed markey, democrat, longtime congressman, 54.8% of the vote. gabriel gomez, interesting story. never really got it. i hesitate to say what conclusions can we draw from this other than democrats tend to win in massachusetts. republicans did, in some way, target this race. the senate committee spent over $1 million. did grabriel gomez ever have a chance? >> the structure of massachusetts politics is so difficult generally. it was lightning in a bottle for

scott brown in 2010 and the environment is so much different today. i do think -- i hate to be pessimistic. the one big picture thing to draw from this is just how low turnout was. this is not, like, isolated to massachusetts. the l.a. mayor's race. south carolina. there's a certain level of lethargy that's -- i think people are a little tired of ways going on. they're not fired up by these candidates. you look at the candidates that have run in 2013. it really is not -- mark sanford. he ran against elizabeth colbert bush. maybe a level below where the top tier could have been. >> not an impressive turnout. thank you. we have much more, much more in depth look at the results from last night's massachusetts senate race on our website. make sure to check it out at

rundown.msnbc.com. up next, the president prepares to head to africa for his first extended trip to the continent and his first visit since 2009. we'll look at what he hopes to accomplish. but first, a look ahead at today's politics planner. circle 10:00 a.m., supreme court decisions expected. this is the last day that the supreme court will be ruling. proposition 8, defense of marriage, we'll be talking about it. [ male announcer ] this is george. the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪

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nelson mandela is being visited by family members and religious leaders. a bishop said he is praying for a peaceful end for the former president. we got no official update on that condition this morning. crowds have been gathering outside the hospital where he is being treated. well wishers have left signs and messages of support. president obama will be be in south africa a few days from now. south african officials say he will not visit mandela in the hospital. the white house had said previously officials would reach out to his family and defer to them with regard to any meetings. of course the president has plenty on his agenda. a trip that will have cultural significance but plenty of substance as well. both from a diplomatic and economic fronts. pre president obama and his family are expected to arrive in senegal this afternoon and stay

till friday. then the first family heads to south africa. first to meet the president, then to cape town. the trip wraps up in tanzania. he'll be home a week from today. to tell us all about it, george condon who covers the white house for "the national journal." i want to read a line from it. you say, this tour may mark a welcome maturation of u.s./african relations. you say it's the first one that finally has the feel of normalcy about it. in relationship to george w. bush's trip there and president clinton's trip to africa. explain what you mean. >> i was on president clinton's trip, six countries. and there was very much a sense of symbolism and wrapping up the past. there was apologies for our failure to do anything about the slaughter in rwanda. there was the emotional talk about slavery.

there was hinting of what could come in the future. president bush did talk a lot, he delivered on aid and help on aid. but there wasn't a normal relationship there. this trip, it's not so much about aid or about how terrible things are on the continent. we're in a battle with china over trade and investment. a marketplace of over 3 billion people. i want to ask you because these trips are planned long, long in advance.

we talked about at the top, it has been critical, what does that do, if the president is in africa, he's going to be in south africa later this week. how do you handle an incredibly planned trip, such a huge x factor looming out there? >> the main thing is you show respect. there is a case of a local politician who released a picture of mandela not that long ago. where it was clearly injurious to the family. you don't do that. you show respect. you don't try to force yourself into other situation. clearly, he's in his final days. if there's a funeral to deal with, you adjust your schedule. the indications from south africa are it would take several days before a funeral --

>> to your point, that's what the president at least so far has said kind of deferring. that costly trip to africa is actually worth it. thank you. we will get a live report from chuck who has just landed in africa in just a few minutes. right now, you're looking live at the supreme court. where the crowds have gathered ahead of the rulings expected in just about a half an hour. plus, we're keeping our eye on the developing news out of that courtroom in florida. the latest from the zimmerman trial is next. but first, today's trivia question. it's a good one. in how many states is the senior senator younger than the junior senator? the first person to tweet the correct answer to @dailyrundown gets an on-air shoutout from us. is like hammering.

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we're watching a developing story out of massachusetts where new england patriots star tight

end aaron hernandez was led out of his home this morning in handcu handcuffs. has been caught up in the investigation into the death of a 27-year-old semipro football player who was found murdered near hernandez's home. the two were seen together on the last night of lloyd's life. it's not clear why hernandez was taken into custody. there's no word on whether he has been charged in the case. right now in sanford, florida, the third day of testimony is beginning in the george zimmerman trial. prosecutors will caught more witnesses today after jurors on tuesday heard from the president of the homeowner's association where trayvon martin was killed and the police officer who tried to save martin's life. joining me now, lisa bloom, our legal analyst. a lot of moving parts. give us the takeaway from yesterday and what we know to expect today. >> the judge has ruled moments ago that those prior nonemergency police calls from george zimmerman will be coming

in. we know when he called to report trayvon martin, that wasn't the first time that he called that nonemergency police number. he'd done that many times in the past. about half a dozen of those prior calls were in dispute. the prosecution wanted to get it in. the judge has ruled this morning that those calls will come in. yesterday, i thought one of the more significant witnesses was the police liaison with the neighborhood watch. george zimmerman was the coordinator of the neighborhood watch. on direct examination, she said that zimmerman was told very clearly he's to be the eyes and ears of the police but he was not to follow or confront any suspicious people. good for the prosecution. on cross examination though, she admitted that george zimmerman was polite and professional with her at all times. and that he was told to call in any time someone was suspicious. i think the dcefense is going t use that to say he was doing what he was instructed to do. >> lisa bloom from the zimmerman trial in sanford, florida, thank

you. chuck todd will join us live from africa next. crowds have gathered outside the supreme court. what we're expecting from those blockbuster decisions. we expect them right at 10:00 a.m. this is about everybody getting the same rights. >> i'm hoping they leave prop 8 in place, leave doma in place. >> for me, best case scenario is doma goes away, that marriage is between two people that love each other. a talking car. but i'll tell you what impresses me. a talking train. this ge locomotive can tell you exactly where it is, what it's carrying, while using less fuel. delivering whatever the world needs, when it needs it. ♪ after all, what's the point of talking if you don't have something important to say? ♪

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president obama isn't expected to arrive in senegal till this afternoon but the press arrived there this morning. our own chuck todd is just off the plane. he joined me like now. hey, chuck, you look rell timplly well rested. tell us what we can expect out of today with the president

there. >> well, think about the juxtaposition of today. the president's already wheels up. so he will find out on air force one the supreme court decisions that get handed down in about 25 minutes on gay marriage. i'm told if there is something unexpected about the decision, perhaps either the supreme court gets more restrictive for some reason. maybe somehow keeps doma as law of the land, doesn't strike it down. or legalized gay marriage, does something that hasn't been predicted. then we might actually hear from the president after he came down on camera after he arrived here in senegal. other than that, the likelihood is you'll see a press statement. jay carney is going to end up with the press pool traveling with them. that's probably how we'll hear from the president, his reaction to what happens with prop 8 and doma. the next week, this is a mix of

diplomatic relations, economic, trade, aid, humanitarian fronts, helping democratic institutions. a lot of those aspects of the president's foreign policy and his agenda here when he's in -- particularly when he's in senegal and tanzania. there's also going to be some symbolic moments. the entire first family is traveling with the president, including mrs. robinson, the first lady's mother, and a niece of the president's going to be going. so there will be some symbolic places they will go, including gori island here in senegal, known as the door of no return or point of no return for slaves centuries ago. and then robbin island in south africa, which of course was the prison where mandela was imprisoned for all those years. so those are the symbolic events. and then of course hanging over all this is nelson mandela's health. the president -- they hope at some point he does get to visit with nelson mandela. but the white house has said it is all up to the family on what's appropriate and what they

would like to do when the president arrives in south africa in two days. >> talk about the juxtaposition. it is not a quiet time domestically, politically, for the president or for politics. aside from the statement potentially on prop 8 and doma, we obviously have the immigration debate heating up here. how do they -- and do they have a plan to sort of keep a hand in the domestic politics, while being a broader -- or should we expect outside of that statement, should we broadly expect the president to be focused, foreign policywise, not commenting sort of on wahat's happening back in the senate or the house? >> there are a couple of press opportunities for questions. there was some back and forth. con step plating whether. contemplating whether to do big interviews out here. did they think it was necessary for the president to add his voice aggressively at the tail end of the immigration debate.

you've got student loans. although they think the deal is at hand on the student loan front, that the senate and the house are getting close to actually having a deal that will get on his desk. we know that kicks off july 1st. there are a couple ways they feel as if they can add their voice to what's going on domestically. it was interesting last night, and i'm sure this has been discussed, that the president's political arm, organizing for america, or decided to use his twitter feed to get people's attention on the abortion filibuster that took place in texas. shows you they're trying to keep their hand in a lot of different political buckets. >> no question, chuck todd in senegal, thanks. as we said, as chuck talked about, president obama's heading to south africa today, but he leaves behind a washington in gridlock. a somewhat rough start for his

second term in office. my next guest wrote about the president's re-election in the new book "the center holds." obama and his enemies. i'm joined by the author, nbc political analyst jonathan alter. i want to start on this, which is we've got a lot -- you've got the nas. you've got irs. all these things happening. president's numbers. some polling dropping. and people saying what has he gotten done. what did the election lead to? gun control not getting passed. you have a theory on that, the setting of the parameters of what we're talking about right now. that the 2012 election govern. >> you have to imagine where we would be if romney and ryan were in power. we'd be having a huge debate about the ryan plan. which didn't just trim president li the government like the sequester. these were huge cuts in programs, eliminating many programs. privatizing medicare. so the whole debate and the

whole senator of gravity would be sharply to the right. so a lot of obama's victory was defending and protecting those 20th century accomplishments and defending that social contract that even ryan said would be changed, were they to win. i think it's easy to get caught up in all these scandal ans and forget this was a momentum election. i tried to tell people on every page. the viewers the show are really sophisticated. the bart set for myself on every page to tell them something about that 2012 campaign that they did not know. >> this is interesting, because i think a lot of people conventional wisdom agrees on 2008 as an historical election. the first african-american president ever elected. hugely historic moment. less people would say the 2012 campaign was momentum. sort of back and forth.

much more negative. you, as you argue in the book, argue this was critically important for the country, this election. >> right. and barack obama by the way thinks 2012 was a much more important election than 2008. because it was all on the line. this is not -- was not your father's republican party. so they had triumphed and everything that had happened in the last couple years had been validated by that election, the country would have swung very sharply to the right. much more sharply than if john mccain had been elected in 2008. and something like -- take something like immigration reform. the only reason we're talking about it at all -- it wouldn't be on the table, is because obama got 71% of the latino vote. if you got 60%, wouldn't be an issue. but suddenly, because the voters spoke, this is on the table. so everything that's going on now. look at the supreme court decision on voting rights act. this is very likely to tip off

another backlash like we saw against voter suppress efforts in 2012. which i tried to -- in "the center holds," i tried to bring all these stories of voter suppression into one place so people could read them in context. these were very relevanrelevant. it's possible obama would not have carried florida had the supreme court made this decision last year. because the statute they passed there, you know, was subject to the voting rights act, and now it might not be. >> let me ask you, because i'm fascinated by this. one of the untold stories of the election is that mitt romney actually won among so-called independent voters. "washington post"/abc conducted polling on independents for a very long time. they did a survey in january, favorable/unfavorable. 60 favorable.

they just did one -- i wrote about it this morning -- today, 49% favorable, 47% unfavorable. what do you attribute -- we talk forever about independent -- there's a critical piece. the book is entitled the center holds, independents in theory occupying the center. >> just in terms of last year, a lot of people thought romney was going to win because in the fall he started doing really well with independents. that was extremely misleading because those independents were not really independents. they were republicans who had really gotten upset with what had happened in their primaries and were no longer self-identifying as republicans. then at the end of the campaign, they came home to their historic place in the republican party. so not all independents, but a very large share of them who moved to romney toward the end were just republicans. while republican i.d. had gone way down over the course 2012.

so that ended up misleading people about where the country was. >> an important point. all independents are not created equal. the book is called "the center holds." available in your local book stores. thank you. coming up, the gaggle will be here. we'll be previewing the major decisions. it looks about 17 minutes from now as we get closer to decision time. the two couples that are challenging prop 8 have arrived at the court. first, wouldn't be "daily run down" without this. the daily soup. white house soup of day. tum yum gong. i have no comment. we'll be right back. ok, i am coming.

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we're just a few moments away from the supreme court issuing its final decisions for the year. those decisions include rulings in two of the most highly anticipated cases of its term.

both relating to same sex marriage. now it's trivia time. we asked, in how many states is the senior senator younger than the junior senator? the answer is eight. arkansas, hawaii, idaho, maine, minnesota, missouri, north carolina and north dakota. when ed markey is sworn in, massachusetts will be the ninth state where the june yor senator's older than the senior senator. markey turned 67 in july which makes him three years older than elizabeth warren. curious how big each of the age differences in the senate are? of course you are. we'll put it all on our website. and congratulations to today's winner. ben goodman. well done. if you've got a political trivia question for us, e-mail us. we'll be right back. my name is mike and i quit smoking.

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right now you're looking at live pictures of the supreme court, where people are gathered outside the court, waiting to hear how the justices will come down on california's controversial proposition 8 and the federal defense of marriage act. these pictures are just into msnbc. the plaintiffs in the prop 8 case arrived it at the court, just moments ago. let's bring in our gaggle to talk about it. from the political report, amy walter, producer on capitol hill, casey hunt. and politico's carey brudolf-brown. prop 8 and doma. the question here is for me the political impact of all of this. >> right. >> we have seen a lot of same-sex marriage ballot initiatives fail. we saw three succeed in 2012. do you see ballot initiatives continuing to go on? obviously it depends on what the court orders. but is that the path most likely outcome going forward in these

things? >> that voters continue to have to vote on this. >> yes. >> it seems like we kind of passed that. that era has gone by. partly because people have sort of moved on. when you look at the polls from where the public is on same-sex marriage, much more supportive of it than they were even four or five years ago when the -- these ballot initiatives were all the rage. it seems to me, based on what we have seen, i'm no supreme court analyst, but it seems to me from what we have seen in these past couple of decisions, the court isn't going to make some decision that is going to be very black and white and sweeping and obvious. >> narrow, more likely. >> correct. so i think that's going to be the piece of it legally to deal with. politically, the way to deal with it, as you have seen, republicans have been very quiet about an issue they were at one point using as a wedge issue. >> to drive republican turnout. >> casey, i want to talk to you about the hill and amy makes a good point. when did we expect the reaction on capitol hill from john boehner, mitch mbl come, eric

cantor, the leadership. will they say something? my guess is they don't want to talk about this issue. is that fair? >> i'm going to go with muted. >> right. >> somewhere between muted and silent. >> right. obviously, you have a cadre of republicans on capitol hill who are going to seize on this. a lot of them causing problems on a host of other issues. and you're going to see those people speaking out on this, probably no matter which way the court decides to rule. but, you know, you saw boehner and the house leadership sort of taking this up as an issue aggressively about a year ago. and they have since sort of backed off of that. and have started to realize, you know, this -- hey, this isn't a winning issue for us. >> to amy's point, it's not just younger people who are more supportive of gay marriage. we had the pulsers look at it, people within generations in the last five years have gotten more supportive. >> republicans is the only group -- >> the republican base in particular. >> their opinions have not changed. >> i want to talk about this.

we have this going on -- so many things here. this going on in the court, the immigration fight in the senate nearing its final moments. >> and there's a connection between the two. there's been a -- there was a push by gay rights advocates to specifically write into this law that the foreign partners of same-sex couples could apply for green cards. that was rejected, because -- not rejected, but republicans said if you put that in the bill there is no way we're going to pass it. so democrats have been waiting for the supreme court to rule, strike down doma. if they do, then you nullify that issue that there won't be the need to try to push for that language now on the floor. if the supreme court upholds doma, you're going to see a lot of pressure exerted today on patrick leahy, the senate judiciary committee chairman, other democratic leaders, to really make a last-ditch effort to at least get a vote on the amendment. it's been extraordinarily hard to get votes on noncontroversial amendments in this debate. so the likelihood of getting a vote is very small.

>> okay. >> and certainly it won't pass. it needs 60 votes. >> the connection, which i didn't know about until you sat down five minutes ago is fascinating. quickly, "lightning round." i was captured by the wendy davis filibuster, as were 200,000 other people, which is amazing to me. amy, a one-off -- sort of a thing we don't talk about, a real moment. quickly, your take. >> that's going to be the question, is can she generate enough enthusiasm, maybe even in the state of texas, to do something for a democratic party that has been on the down slide. they have not had a victory in a long time in that state. >> and to that point, there is a group called battleground texas organized by a former obama operative saying we're going to try to turn texas blue. is this a step -- people on twitter this morning saying this is the moment that texas started to turn blue. overstatement, understatement, right statement? >> it certainly -- evidence that adds to that particular trend. and that is an argument they have started to make that, look, especially with demographic

shifts, the latino population, that texas is changing. >> 2020, i would say. carey rudolph-brown, shameless plug. >> i can't do anything else but the soft ball game tonight between women members of the press, us three and women members of congress, benefits young survivors of breast canner and an extraordinarily tense competition but a shout out to all women both sides. >> on that note and personal note, my family friend, marian seeka, who is a breast cancer survivor, playing this game for people like her. >> amy. >> how can i top that? it is really tough. one shameless plug for the amount of money raised for this group. this is the fifth year this game has been played. $125,000, shattered all records. record ticket sales, as well. >> awesome. >> but you can still keep buying tickets. >> jackie kucinich, my soon to be co host. jackie, get out there and play tonight. that's it for this edition of

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good morning. i'm chris jansing. a historic morning at the supreme court. today, nine justices will rule on two cases that could redefine equality and gay rights in this country. in just minutes, we're expecting decisions on the defense of marriage act, and california's proposition 8. nbc's justice correspondent, pete williams, is standing by. and we will have those decisions right when they happen. take a look now. huge crowds outside the supreme court on both sides of this issue. dozens of people were in line already last night. by this morning, 7:00 a.m., that line stretched down the front steps and wrapped around the corner. we have been hearing people chanting, holding up signs, preparing for both of these decisions. some of them camped out overnight to witness history.