twilight zone. >> okay. >> vanessa williams remembers i was in her bathroom and eugene is a sick barritone. >> i learn identity got something new on my broadway schedule "after midnight." >> absolutely. >> what did you learn? >> i learned that arianna huffington has a book out called "thrive" t if you want to thrive -- thank you very much for everyone coming to her event last night. >> it was a great event. >> so nice. so supportive. >> and i learned that willie is vanessa williams' lover. said it right to the camera. we got it on tape. >> that's unusual. that's a news breaker. >> breaking news. >> stick around because here comes "the daily rundown" and luke russert. dramatic increase in the number of both the dead and reports of those missing in that massive mudslide in washington state. the difficult rescue missions

continue this is morning. supreme challenge, the high court takes up a controversial challenge. country's healthcare law. we'll go live to the court for a preview of what's at stake. and as the search for the wreckage of malaysia flight 370 continues, we'll have reaction to the devastating news of the passenger's families. good morning. it's tuesday, march 25th. i'm luke russert in for chuck todd. chuck will be with us later this hour with more on the president at the hague. developing developing news on the west coast. workers will begin a fourth day of searching for victims in mud debris. no one has been found alive in days. instead, six more bodies were pulled from the mud on monday. raising the death toll so far to 14. officials say they are trying to

track 176 reports of people unaccounted for. although they expect they may be getting multiple reports about the same people. >> i would like to reiterate that that number is about individual names reported. they are not individuals that are deceased. they are not individuals that are injured. they are not individuals that are missing. there are 176 reports. >> the mudslide happened at the worst possible time early saturday as weekend visitors arrived and locals slept in. triggered by weeks of rain, it sent a wall of heavy mud cascading down the hillside. 49 structures were destroyed, some buried under 15 feet of earth. the local fire chief says the debris field is dangerous and unstable making it difficult for search and rescue teams to get around. >> it's muddy. in areas it's like quicksand. the debris field is like big berms of clay and quicksand,

gasoline, oil, contaminants, those types of things, propane tanks. it's a very challenging environment to work in and move around in. it's very tedious and slow going. >> nbc's miguel almaguer is live for us in washington, a few miles from where the mudslide occurred. miguel, for those of us on the east coast who may not understand the severity of a mudslide, how does something like this happen where you get 176 reports of possible missing persons? >> reporter: luke, there's been a lot of confusion and chaos up at the search site. rescue teams have not been able to get in there immediately after the first two days of this slide. there is confusion about who is missing now. this area was evacuated shortly after the slide. many people have not been able to get in contact with loved ones. that may be some of the reasons behind the confusion, folks calling family members -- family members looking for people who may actually be safe, but who are not in danger immediately.

that's why those numbers may be a little high. on the flip side, as you mentioned, the number of dead is 14. there's a big concern that that number will rise over the next several days. there is concern that some of those victims may be trapped under feet of debris and mud. so, they're concerned that once they get in and start to excavate the area, they will find more bodies. that's why the search today is so critical, as crews are running out of time. luke? >> miguel, i just want to go at you in terms of this mud slide, is this brought on by heavy rain or this time of year? how does something like this physically occur? >> reporter: here in the northwest, quite often. this hillside has been vulnerable for some years. engineers say they've warned local county government officials that this hillside was unstable for up to 60 years and warned that a catastrophic failure was imminent. there was a slide here on this

exact same location. of course, on a much smaller scale six years ago. depending who you ask, county officials say they thought the road was safe, hillside was safe but engineers who have worked in this area also said they warned officials that something like this could happen and it was triggered, as you said, by steady rain. a hillside that just gave way. luke? >> miguel almaguer from arlington, washington state. thank you for joining us. >> reporter: sure thing. effort is now suspended, but ships and planes from six different countries are planning to head back to the southern indian ocean tomorrow. the international search is now focused on a remote section of the indian ocean 1,500 miles of perth, australia. gale forced winds and massive swells forced crews to call it quits overnight. the search area is huge and shifting. crews have to rely on satellite images to guide them to the possible wreckage of flight 370. >> if i can put the analogy of what we've got out there at the

moment we're not searching for a needle in the haystack. we're still trying to define where the haystack is, to put it in context. >> time is running out. >> but time is running out to find the flight's black box. just as the search was suspended, nearly 100 chinese family members stormd the malays malaysian embassy in beijing. they shouted "tell the truth and return our relatives." we'll get to ian williams in perth in a moment. first, we go to nbc's eunice yu. some unbelievable images coming in to the united states. storming the malaysian embassy, calling the malaysian official there murderers. can you give you the update of what the feeling is within china

of how malaysia has handle this had after the day we found out that this flight is most likely lost in the southern indian ocean? >> we definitely have seen a brief turn to rage here. those families had marched three miles from the hotel where they were staying all the way to the embassy to stage that sit-in. largely peaceful protest. at the same time, people were very angry. and many of them were saying that they were demanding that a representative from the malaysian government come down and accept a statement that condemned malaysian government and that actually accused the malaysian government of deception as well as ineptitude. there was a very heavy police presence around the embassy. there were police as well as paramilitary troops cordoning off the area. this protest was happening in a country that largely snuffs out public protests very quickly, which is an indication that the

chinese authorities were allowing these angry chinese families to vent their frustration in this very public way. luke? >> and, eunice, diplomatically, is this creating tensions between the two countries that could fester for some time? >> absolutely. the chinese government itself has been reiterating over and over that it wants to get more accurate information out of the malaysian government. it said again today that it wanted to get more evidence and satellite data analysis so it could actually see how the malaysians led to this conclusion. the malaysians are under tremendous pressure. malaysian official did accept that statement from the family and malaysian ambassador went to visit the families at the hotel. again those families said they were very dissatisfied with his visit. luke? >> eunice yoon in china, thank you so much. nbc's ian williams joins us

live from perth, the base of the international search operation. ian, we know there's going to be a search going out today. the weather has played a role on how quickly this can go forward. >> reporter: the weather has been horrendous, luke. that's how it was described by the australians today. they concluded it just simply wasn't safe to send aircraft out, or ships into that area. the latest we're hearing is that the search will recommence tomorrow, weather permitting. if it does, there will be a record number of assets out there. we'll see the largest deployment so far. there will be 12 aircraft from australia and new zealand, the u.s., china and japan as one of the small fleet of ships. they'll be going to a more -- what is described as a smaller area. apparently, the satellite technology that enabled them to conclude the aircraft went down

in the southern part of the indian ocean has enabled them to narrow the search area, but -- this is the but. that search area is still the size of alaska. and the bad weather today means that even though they have ko d coordinants, they may have difficulty finding them. >> thank you so much. next, we'll go live to the snowy supreme court where the justices are set to take up the most closely watched issue of the term. does the new healthcare law violate the religious freedom of private employers? they're set to take up the case at 10:00 am. we're expecting decisions from the high court today, too. big day over there. you're watching "daily rundown"

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less than an hour from now, the supreme court will take up the first challenge to the health care law in nearly two years. the issue today, does the law violate religious freedom of private employers by requiring them to provide coverage for contraceptives? hobby lobby and christian book stores, both owned by david and barbara green of oklahoma and their children, who are southern baptists. a company who makes kitchen cabinets, conestoga.

they say the requirement of the law that they, like other companies with 50 or more employees pay for insurance covering contraception violates their religious beliefs. >> this case is entirely 100% about whether the government can coerce families, families of faith to buy these life-destroying products and coverage for this for other people. >> the obama administration argues that the freedom of religion applies only to the greens and the hahns individually. withhold coverage for vaccines and blood transfusions and even possibly have the right to refuse to serve gay and lesbian customers along with denying contraception. >> what's at stake here is the rights of millions of american

women, who use birth control versus the personal views of a handful of ceos. >> nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is live at the supreme court, braving the cold for us. pete, what are the main questions before the court today, it seems to be, can a private, not for profit company have religious rights? >> reporter: the question is, yes, a for-profit corporation doesn't have religious rights. the companies are arguing that they should be exempt from this law becausative federal law called the religious freedom restoration act. it says that you get an exemption for individual. so the question is, does that apply to corporations? corporations do have a lot of individual rights. the courts have decided over the decades, they can sue. they can own property. of course, the supreme court recently famously said they have free speech rights in the citizens united decision. does a for-profit corporation have freedom of religion?

that's the big question. >> and, pete, on top of the opening arguments in those cases that we expect today, there could also be a few decisions that come out of significance. what do we know about that? >> reporter: before i get to that, luke, let me say what happened in the lower courts here. >> sure. >> reporter: that's the real question of the day here. the courts are divided on this question. hobby lobby, the big company here, it won its case. conestaga wood, the company in pennsylvania, it lost. the lower courts are divided. in terms of what we could get today, who knows. given the interest in this program i'll say one of the biggies for the political world is the challenge to what's called the agregate limit, how much can you give to all federal candidates combined. political question from right across the street on your beat, the president's recess appointment power. >> nbc news justice

correspondent pete williams, thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate it. stay warm, my friend. stay warm. >> reporter: too late now! time for today's first data bank number, 168,000. that's how many gallons of oil spilled into the waters off the coast of texas after the collision of a ship and a barge on saturday. the spill was in the channel protecting galveston bay and oil has been found, get this, 13 miles off shore. all shipping and cruise ship traffic has been stopped in one of the busiest seaports in america near houston. chuck todd himself will join us live next in the netherlands with the president where tensions are running high over russia's removal from the g-8. today's tdr 50 trivia question, however, when was the last time both north and south dakota had more than one member of congress a piece? the first person to tweet the correct answer to @chuck todd and @daily rundown will get an

on-air shoutout. the answer and more coming up on tdr. it's a growing trend in business: do more with less with less energy. hp is helping ups do just that. soon, the world's most intelligent servers, designed by hp, will give ups over twice the performance, using forty percent less energy. multiply that across over a thousand locations, and they'll provide the same benefit to the environment as over 60,000 trees. that's a trend we can all get behind.

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today his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack, be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. what was once the g- is now the g-7. europe, u.s., canada have ousted russia from the group of industrialized countries, punishing president vladimir putin for the annexing of crimea. >> with the decision now to kick russia out of the g-8, that means that strategy is over. that means the idea of integrating russia into the west is done for now. it's the end of the post cold war order. >> the g-8 summit in sochi in june is off.

instead, the g-7 nations will hold their own summit at the same time in brussels. though the declaration threatened new sanctions on moscow's arms, the g-7 nations stopped short of actually imposing sanctions, saying they will be triggered if russia invades eastern or southern ukraine. this morning, the u.s. tried to reassure ukraine it has not given up on crimea, issuing a joint statement on the annexation, quote, illegal. crimea is an integral part of ukraine. the united states will continue to help ukraine affirm its sovereignty and territorial integrity. aid package authorizes $1 billion in loan guarantee to ukraine and also includes imf reforms and prepares for further sanctions. but the bill faces an uncertain future in the house over those imf reforms. the russia has tried to downplay the g-8 snub.

as nbc's chief correspondent richard engel reports, it stings. more from eastern ukraine. >> reporter: luke, throwing russia out of the g-8 is a personal insult to vladimir putin. this was a feather in his cap, to be part of the world's biggest putin wants to show his people constantly telling the russian people that russia is a democracy, just a controlled putin centrally commanded democracy, but a democracy nonetheless. it would almost be like if the united states had boycotted the sochi olympics, because it was such a personally important project to putin. it hasn't had a great impact on the ground. russian troops remain stationed just across the ukrainian border in force and this cold war style standoff continues. luke? >> richard engel, thanks so much. chuck todd is traveling with

the president. he joins me now from the netherlands. chuck, we're starting to see european nation that is rely so heavily on that russian energy and do a lot of training with russia, perhaps sanctions regarding the energy banking and defense sectors. will they actually follow through on those sanctions eventually? >> reporter: well, i think that's the open question. that's why when you look at what the president accomplished yesterday, he basically accomplished the bare minimum to call this a success. and i say bare minimum, because there is no new punishments for the status quo. while retorically to say -- that's where there is ambiguity about the decision that was made

about the group of seven. that said, they made this bigger decision that if russia tries to destabilize eastern and southern ukraine somehow crosses the border, then the europeans agree -- that really means that merkel, angela merkel then agreed to sanction sectors of the russian economy, including the three big ones, financial sector, energy sector, and of course, the arms. they sell a lot of arms around the world. so to sanction those. it is interesting on the energy front, the g-7 nations start aid brand new working group of sorts to try to figure out a way for europe to wean itself off russia's energy so that way there is more flexibility. that's the issue here. there isn't a lot of flexibility. europeans don't see a lot of flexibility in punishing the russians because of how reliant they are on their energy. day two of the nuclear summit. one of the more intriguing on the side meetings, luke, is a

trilateral meeting between the united states, essentially president obama playing mediator between the japanese and the koreans. at the end of april, there's a big asian trip that the president will be going on, making stops in both tokyo and seoul. tensions between essentially america's two closest allies in asia, korea, south korea and japan, are pretty bad right now. the old cultural tensions between japan and korea that date back to world war ii have been flaring up, almost nationalistic tendencies against the other, japan and south korea. tricky diplomacy and the united states can't afford not to have japan and south korea united with them because any sort of wedge that china could drive in between that alliance is something that would hurt the united states' ability to create this new asian check of sorts against china over the last couple of years when the obama administration has been trying

to make its pivot to asia. luke? >> and, chuck, a big piece of news coming out over the last day that i think a lot of folks in the united states will care about, as well as some of those world leaders that are hanging out with president obama right now. that is a significant change in policy. the president announced regarding the nsa and how it collects all that metadata and whether or not the government will continue to do that. >> reporter: well, look, here is what we know about the nsa and what we don't. i expect, by the way, in the next 90 minutes the president will be doing a press conference with the danish prime minister. in the couple of questions it i expect he will only attack a couple -- one of them will be about the news of the nsa. the president, in january, hinted that he didn't want the government collecting the bulk data. what he did not say is whether he endorsed the idea of creating a third party to do it or just have the telephone company does it themselves. what the president is endorsing

is an idea for the telephone companies -- for the government to essentially pay the telephone companies to hold this metadata longer than the period of time that they had been doing it. now here is the biggest caveat of all, though. nothing is going to change as far as the obama administration is concerned with nsa bulk collection until congress weighs in. luke, you tell me, what are the chances congress will be able to pass major nsa reform, having to do with this metadata? mike rogers is trying to get new legislation out there. this legislation screams grandstanding all over. plenty of 2016ers who want to use this as a launching pad, rand paul the most. this, in the administration is essentially saying congress has to do this, then he will support it. meantime, bulk collection continues and the white house's senior official told me the president will continue to sign the order every 90 days authorizing the bulk collection until congress changes the law. i ask you, luke, how likely is

that going to happen any time soon? >> that's not easy. rand paul and the gop and the right wing of the party, they'll take a while to figure that out. bracket voting is now open. my bracket, rfk, mario cuomo, hillary rodham clinton. we lose the hrc gore matchup so many people wanted. rfk. when was he here? he was an eight seed, i believe. >> second seed going all the way to the final. who have you got? >> well, it's interesting the seeding on this. very controversial. daily rundown march madness. go on our website and see the entire bracket. vote something open on the 18th, 19th century bracket. number one seed -- you didn't go with a one seed there.

general sherman. of course, of the famous sherman statement, if nominated i will not run and if elected i will not serve, that infamous statement, you had to make him a one seed in that bracket. but the voting starts now in the 18th and 19th century bravenlth sherman, bobby kennedy. you went with one one seed there, al gore and jack kemp, who always was the once and future of the republican party, it seemed, for a couple of decades and never was able to get to that next level. so, this is a fun bracket. i'm already getting a lot of grief. some people think tilden should have been higher than a five seed, he should have been a two seed in that 18th and 19th century bracket. that's the beauty. you get to decide. >> absolutely. >> my four, i'm going with sherman. i definitely have sherman, i definitely have hillary clinton in there. i haven't decided on my last two. i'm still sort of figuring it out on the next two. >> i had --

>> swron glejohn glenn is going into my final four. >> daniel webster, burr, which upsets the sweet 16 everybody wanted. chuck todd from the netherlands, thanks for being on your own show. always great to have you. rundown.msnbc.com to get in on our tdr bracket challenge. it's a lot of fun. you've got to do it. you'll spend an hour of your day doing it because it's so fun to play through the scenarios of american history. data bank number seven, the number of photos that michelle obama has posted on instagram from her trip with her daughters, sasha and malia. chinese government's art sensorship of the internet and media.

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n. rural washington, national guard are entering the fourth day searching for survivors following saturday's mud slide. at least 14 people have been killed and police are tracking down 176 reports of people unaccounted for. the hopes of finding anyone else alive are getting slim. >> the realization that we have responded as well as we can and we will continue to do that but we are turning that very delicate corner into the recovery operation and i think that's only fair to the people who are out there and the process of grieving and healing. not just for individuals and families but for the entire community and our county in snohomish. >> heavy rain is being blamed for what happened in washington state. for more on that and what's happening around the rest of the country, i'm joined by nbc news meteorologist bill karins. bill, that rain, obviously, leading to horrific death total. 14 people there in that mudslide. how does a thing like that happen? >> it's incredible rainfall rates on top of an area that

some people are saying was just a disaster waiting to happen. i mean, this area had a little collapse. the same hill that back in 2006. they thought they stabilized it. they tried to. going back to the 1950s and '60s, two portions of the hill collapsed over time. they knew this was a big problem area and even an army corps of engineers report in 1999 stating this was a disaster waiting to happen. some people have some answering to do as to why they let so many people live in harm's way. the forecast is not helping. very unstable hilltop. we're watching heavy rain here from the bellingham area southwards to seattle, owe olympia, all the way down to portland. we'll continue for the most part watching this heavy rain around a good portion of the day. as we continue into the forecast, it will lighten up a little bit, especially as we go throughout this evening. more rain in the next couple of days. another two inches on an area that's already got 10 inches of

rain. the other story, luke -- you probably see it looking out your window there. let's talk about the snow in d.r. >> it's unbelievable. >> the fourth time it's snowed in march. that's more snow than you got all of last two winters combined. >> i left boston, went to college in boston, because there was no spring. i came to d.c. because i love the spring. it's not come yet. >> no, it hasn't. even accumulating on the grassy surfaces. this powerful nor'easter, luke, it will be the strongest storm that the northeast has seen since hurricane sandy. the difference is that this storm is 100 to 200 miles off the coast and not along the jersey shore. very impressive storm. your friends in boston and the cape will see a blizzard. snow totals are not off the charts, luke, but it's just the fact that it's this time of year that we're going to be dealing with this. april and baseball season can't come soon enough. >> yeah. we're only about a week way from opening day here in d.c. i really hope there's not snow on the ground in nats park. bill karins, thank you for

joining us. appreciate it. the next number in our data bank. $70. that's the minimum charge for car service in miami where the transportation company uber is battling strict city regulation that is favor the taxi industry. uber frequenter marco rubio visited company headquarters monday accusing the government of unfairly siding against the innovative young company. some believe that his visit may help to favor him to uber's younger clientele, which i admit i am one. guilty as charged. tdr 50 soup of the day. in jamestown, north dakota, world's largest buffalo. not buffalo, new york, unfortunately. buffalo city grill is serving up creamy chicken wild rice. that doesn't get you excited, i don't know what will.

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it fills you up right. our focus on the dakotas today, modern day gold rush happening all across the country. in this case, it's black gold. north dakota's economic boom. and could fuel a new era of energy production in the united states. north dakota has been an energy producer for decades. it wasn't until seven or eight years ago that new drilling technologies, including hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking led to -- chemicalically treated highly pressurized water to break up the rock formations has raised concerns about air pollution and bro groundwater contamination. highlighted by last december's train derailment, explosion near

haselton. the obama administration sees the development as a key piece of the country's energy future. >> america is closer to energy independence than we have been in decades. one of the reasons why is natural gas. if extracted safely, it's the bridge fuel that can power our economy with less of the carbon pollution that causes climate change. >> the increased energy production in north dakota has been focused around something called the back end rock formation, the 25,000 square mile formation holds billions of barrels of crude oil. once fracking became more mainstream, north dakota went from ninth amongst oil-produce ing states to the second. today it sits just behind texas. according to one report, oil

production increased 40-fold between 2007 and 2013, increasing from 18,000 barrels a day to 760,000 a day last year. the u.s. geological survey estimates between the back intend three-fourths, second major formation, there's another 7 billion barrels of oil undefined. nearly 700 cubic feet of natural gas could be recoverable as well. it has accelerated. life in north dakota has transformed. total employment has increased to 40,000. unemployment rate has sunk to 2.6%. that's the lowest in the country. per capita income has roughly doubled in the past decade. more workers are needed to keep up with the oil boom. just last week, the state announced a new ad campaign designed to draw tens of thousands of new workers to the

state. >> messages, there's opportunity here. it's waiting for you and your family, the background, skills and expertise that you have. when you get here, you're going to find a quality of life, quality of opportunity, safe streets to live in. you're going to find a place that you can call home. >> with me now, north dakota republican senator john hoven, who served as governor between 2000 and 2010 when the boom began. senator, thank you so much for joining us. >> good to be with you, luke. >> so i want to ask you, research from a journalist named russell gold in the wall street journal says 15.3 hl americans live within the miefl an oil well as of 2012. a lot of these folks are within north dakota. obviously, you've seen a huge economic boom to your state. are you comfortable with the environmental impact that fracking has had so far? >> yeah. we've been doing fracking in this country since 1955.

and we do it in a very safe way. we provide a lot of transparency and disclosure. the real challenges we have are the challenges of growth and opportunity. we're not the fastest growing state in the nation. we need more roads, more schools, morehousing and more infrastructure. we're working hard to catch up and maintain our high quality of life. >> one thing that's interesting about fracking when you look at it -- i want to put this quote on the screen. it's not just oil and gas that comes out. fracking injects a large amount of water. that water is put down a well never to return. the sheer number of water that comes back out of wells means the contaminated water, not oil and gas, is the industry's largest product. what flows out needs extensive treatment before it can be reused in another frack job much less released into nature. >> understand, we don't treat

the water and release it. we put it back down holes. so we bring water up with the production of oil. we always have. that's not new to fracking. but then we put it back down the hole two miles under ground from whence it came. in essence it's a recycling process. >> what's interesting here is that you guys have had an overflow of people, especially in that region, as to where all this natural gas and oil is found. it's obviously grown the tax base within the state. 200 million taxes. you talk about all this growth. are you worried that north dakotans could get too greedy too soon or do you have a long-term view of what to do with this disposable income? >> we did a number of things to make sure we're prepared for the long term. all the royalties that the state receives from oil production on public lands goes into permanent trust funds for education. those trust funds are now in the billions. also, 30% of all attached

revenue we receive from oil production goes into what's called a legacy fund, a permanent endowment fund that can't be touched. that's also in the billions. and we have no debt. we are financially in an incredibly strong position. >> one thing that i have found interesting, in doing some research, obviously there's a huge boom that you guys are undergoing. there is some waste in terms of how natural gas products are flared. according to congressional testimony, flaring reached a high point december 2013 with 36% of natural gas products fla flared. what is the state of north dakota doing to make sure that you don't have the natural gas coming out of the ground wasted with flaring? >> we're working so hard to catch up. we're flaring off gas. we very much twoont capture that. we're working to build and

develop the gathering systems and get that product to market. we need more pipelines to do that. that's why i fought so hard, both as governor and now here as a u.s. senator, to get more infrastructure, to get pipelines. so instead of flaring that gas, we can capture it and get it to market. >> quickly, if there's somebody out there looking for a job and wants to move to north dakota, what's the one thing they should know? >> it's a great state, great place to live, and we need you. we have good paying jobs and we welcome you to north dakota. >> john hoban, thanks for joining us, we preeshd it. >> thanks, luke. trivia time, 1973, last time north and south dakota had more than one member of congress apiece. today's winner. send your trivia ideas to us. we'll be right back. ♪

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oral arguments start in just a few minutes at the supreme court and protesters are already gathered outside. inside, the justices are minutes away from hearing arguments on an essential question, can a for-profit corporation claim it has freedom of religion and refuse to provide health care coverage for contraception? i'm joined by a professor of constitutional law at american university, also a beat reporter for "the wall street journal" for many years. thank you very much for being here. i'll pose the question to you, prognosticate for a bit. can a for-profit company claim their religious rights have been unjustly violated by this law? >> well, you know, this is the court that said for-profit companies can have free speech rights and now the question is, are they going to go one more step and say they can also have freedom of religion rights? i think it's a close call, and the court may be deeply divided

on this. >> one person to look at who we would not ordinarily look at for a swing vote is scalia. a native american said using peyote was part of his religious custom, scalia said we could have chaos, people claiming they are acting upon religious motives all the time. could scalia side with perhaps the more liberal wing of the court this time around? >> there's two ways to go on this. in 1990 he wrote this opinion that said when you have a general law that applies to everybody evenly, you don't have to make exceptions for religious beliefs, and that would put him on the government's side in this case under the first amendment, supporting the mandate for contraceptive. but congress in response to that scalia opinion, passed a law

designed to protect persons from burdens on their religious beliefs. scalia might opt to take the law rather than the first amendment route and say that that allows the companies to have some religious freedom. >> certainly something to keep an eye on. professor, thank you so much for being on the program. we appreciate it. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." up next, chris jansing has barbara boxer to talk about the case as we expect the court to begin in just a few minutes. don't move. you'll want to hear that. i'm meteorologist bill karins. in an unusually strong nor'easter will be heading along the east coast throughout the next 24 hours. this storm will grow significantly in strength and cause windy conditions along the

eastern seaboard, but most of the snow will be off the coast, only east maine and a bit of the midatlantic will see light snow during the day today. have a great day. in the nation, we reward safe driving. add vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance and get $100 off for every year of safe driving. we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side

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minefield of debris. a race to find the missing before it's too late. and putin pushed aside, the g-8 becomes the g-7. the whole world watching. good morning, i'm chris jansing. a make or break moment in health care, women's rights, and religious liberty. starting moments from now, a longer than usual 90 minutes behind supreme court, hearing arguments in a case that's polarizing and mobilizing the right and the left. the case is sebelius versus hobby lobby. the issue, whether a conservative christian family who own a chain of craft stores should have to pay for insurance that covers certain kinds of birth control. that birth control is mandated under obamacare, but they say it violates their religious beliefs. right now, check out the protesters making their voices heard