ing more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30-tablet trial. good morning, everybody. i'm betty nguyen. major decisions expected from the supreme court this hour. the justices have today and monday to issue all the opinions for the rest of the current term. two cases with real world consequences for families and unions and two directly aimed at the obama presidency. joining me is attorney ari melber and reporter for msnbc.com arine carmoan.

this is about religion and contraception and the obama mandate. will it hold up this time? >> it's hard to say. hard to predict. in oral arguments there was definitely some receptivity by at least four, easily five justices to the idea that if you have a corporation that is built a certain way, you ought to have your religious values embedded into the corporation. the problem is that if you override the employees' decisions, which could be religious or agnostic in nature, that's not a good balance, that the individual ought to triumph any values embedded in a company itself. >> if they move in favor or hobby lobby, what does this mean for women's rights, same-sex couples? >> the court's never found that a corporation can be religious or have religious exercise. a corporation can have free

speech rights. but a corporation isn't covered under the religious freedom restoration act. so it would create a precedent where an individual would be the same as a corporation and could potentially discriminate against people, for example, decide not to serve gay people. any company could come in and say, because of the boss' religious objection, the employees are then subject to that, whether it's not getting the same preventative care coverage as everyone else or not getting served for your wedding. >> i want to shift to another case. that's the president's recess appointments. this leads to a bitter battle between the republicans and the president. explain to us exactly what's at stake here and what they're really fighting over. >> they're fighting over whether the president can take over and

use the recess period to get his appointees in -- >> we just got a decision on the recess appointments. i'm being told in a defeat for the obama administration, this has narrowed his power to make recess appointments. so in hearing that, we're going to go to pete williams as soon as we can get him in front of a camera to talk about this. but hearing that, ari, what does that tell you? >> well, let's be clear. we don't have the opinion in front of us yet. they make these announcements. then the physical opinion is released. what i can say is if the court is basically affirming the d.c. circuit and is narrowing the recess power, that would be something along the lines of the court saying, we're going to look to what the senate defines re recess as and not the president. the president basically took people he wanted to put on a labor board and put them in while he said the senate was in recess.

the senate said it wasn't really in recess. that may sound like a lot of political mumbo jumbo. but the reason why it matters, you think about fights over big appointments. who's going to be defense secretary or on the supreme court itself? these get fought out and when the senate doesn't act, the president typically have been able to push people at least temporarily through his power. if this is a narrowing of some kind, that would restrict this president's ability to do that and others' in the future. >> while we wait to get pete to talk to us about the details of that ruling, i want to move on to the abortion issue and protesters. one of the other cases deals with that. how far away from abortion clinics people can stand and shout and whatnot. explain to us what's at stake there? >> the case concerns a massachusetts law firm in 2007 that created a 35-foot bar roar

zone around abortion clinics. people were having trouble accessing the clinics safely because of the protesters standing in their way. so they created a buffer zone. the fact that the protesters who came and petitioned to the court and said it violated their first amendment, the fact that the court agreed to hear their case means that the court may be willing to revisit the issue of how much you can restrict speech balanced against the safety of patients. >> we appreciate both of you weighing in. there's a lot on the table here. we did get one decision and to reiterate, the u.s. supreme court in a defeat for the obama administration has narrowed the president's power to make recess appointments. we're going to speak with nbc's pete williams. he is inside the courtroom right now. but we'll have the latest from the court as it happens. he'll be talking to us shortly. thank you both for being with us. catch ari and his fellow cyclists at 3:00 p.m. this

afternoon. in the meantime, syria and iran are taking on a much bigger role in what is happening in iraq. the syrian government is dropping bombs along iraq's western border and "the new york times" reports iran is sending in drones and supplies. secretary of state john kerry is advising surrounding countries in the middle east to step away from any action that might further unhinge the delicate situation. >> we've made it clear to everyone in the region that we don't need anything to take place that might exacerbate the sectarian divisions that are already at a heightened level of tension. >> nbc's ayman ayman mohyeldin joins me. what's going on? >> reporter: this is an issue they've been dealing with ever

since their own revolution begin and has morphed to include elements of militancy. but isis has managed to overtake several key border crossings and towns along the iraqi/syria border. this would mean there's another dimension to their own internal problems. as a result, they're taking the air-strikes that they had to over the course of the past several days. but they're in some ways paying back the iraqi government who's stood by the regime of president bashar al assad. and they welcome the air-strikes and the support they've been getting into the syrian regime. from the iranian perspective, it's different. iraq is a close ally to iran. but if you look at the two countries side by side, iran's backed syria and iraq over the past years. now it's being dragged into a proxy wars -- >> ayman mohyeldin joining us from erbil, iraq.

president obama heads to minnesota next hour. the president is meeting with someone who wrote him a letter and spends time in the community. he's trying to put a face to some of the economic policies. >> what i hope to do is tell rebekah that not only am i listening and paying attention but that there are actually policies out there that could end up making a difference in her life. >> on this trip, the president will hold a town hall and give a speech on the economy. and in between, he'll also do some fund-raising. ikea is taking steps towards something the president is likely to bring up on his trip. that's increasing the minimum wage. it says it will raise wages by 17% starting january 1st. the president of ikea says they want to create a better life for their workers. and the gap says job

applications have surged more than 10% at its stores since announcing it would raise wages in february. it's a massive day for the u.s. soccer team at the world cup. the u.s. will face germany and one of the american players is calling this match "the biggest game of a lot of our lives." but the biggest problem right now may be the rain. it has flooded out parts of the city where the match will take place. just moments ago, we learned the game will go on but the refs will have the final call and they will make that announcement next hour. nbc's katy tur is in grant park with all the information surrounding this. >> reporter: it would be a big deal if they postponed this. they play soccer much like they play football, in driving rain and snowstorm. the u.s. team played in a

snowstorm before the qualifiers of the world cup. it's likely it's going to happen. a massive game indeed. we're playing the number two seed. we're the number 13 seed. the number two seed is germany. they are a very good team. they've been very far in most of the world cups. so it's a pretty big deal. if we tie or if we win, we move on to the next round. if we lose, we still have a chance at moving on to the next round. just depends on a goal differential between portugal and ghana. but if we do lose, we're hoping portugal wins because portugal has less points than we have. it's very complicated. very exciting day, though. grant park is the place to be. it's the official viewing party for the u.s. and it was packed on sunday for the game against portugal. just teeming with screaming, excited fans. they're opening the ghaith gates in about 15 minutes. there's already a line down the block to get in. tons of people watched the

portugal match, about 25 million. more than the nba finals, more than baseball, the world cup. we can only imagine what it's going to be like today. most people are supposed to be at work during the game. >> trust me, they're going to be watching no matter what. >> reporter: i was going to call in sick. but they said, you have to come here to grant park. >> you're not sick obviously. the u.s. soccer coach is giving help to fans back here at home who may be stuck at work. tell us about that. >> reporter: he tweeted a sick note if you need one. basically telling employers that their employees need to go to the game in order to support the team because it is such a big game and they need the entire country -- the end of it even said, if you are a good leader, to the bosses, you would be watching it adds well. it's precedent for this. over in china, when the world cup started, there was a big

black market for official hospital sick notes. >> we have ours, right. so we're out of here -- no, we're stuck. katy, thanks so much. we just learned, breaking news, the soccer's governing body has banned uruguay's luis suarez for nine games and four months after he seemingly bit his opponent at the world cup on tuesday. he's been fined $112,000. fifa says, quote, such behavior cannot be tolerated. biting players. coming up, john boehner is talking about his plan to sue president obama. >> this is not about impeachment. this is about his faithfully executing of the laws of our country. >> so if it's not about impeachment, what is it about? but first, susan collins becomes the fourth senator to embrace same-sex marriage as a

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welcome back. two huge court rulings on same-sex marriage are catapulting the issue a major step closer to the u.s. supreme court. first in utah. the 10th u.s. circuit court of appeals ruled same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. >> it's a great day for everyone in utah and a great day for the entire nation. i just hope that the stay doesn't last too long and that the marriages can continue. >> now, this ruling applies to six states under the appeals court's jurisdiction but the judges put the ruling on hold pending an appeal. and in indiana, a u.s. district

court judge ruled the state's law banning same-sex marriage is not constitutional. so let me bring in senior fellow at the center for american progress action fund, aisha moody mills and democratic strategist and chair of the gay and lesbian victory fund, steven elamendorf. steve, seems like we're getting a decision in favor of same-sex couples, something moving very fast. every few days, seems like we're hearing about this. almost half the country lives in a state where same-sex couples can be married. how close are we to having marriage equality nationwide? >> i think we're pretty close. i think this will get to the supreme court in a year or two. and when it does, i'd be surprised if the supreme court went in an opposite direction. everybody's realizing, it's not a big deal. it's a big deal for the people getting married but nothing bad is happening. there's no backlash. they see loving people getting

married and that's a good thing. and all these court decisions just reaffirm that the march towards full marriage equality nationwide is inevitable. it's going to happen soon. and people who are against it are rapidly i think realizing that. and there's no energy against it anymore. >> aisha, i want to bring you in, another prominent republican has announced her support for same-sex marriage, talking about maine's susan collins. this makes senator collins just the fourth republican senator to publicly support marriage equality. why do you think only four have done so so far? >> we see this across the board, be it marriage equality or other issues, that republicans are too busy playing politics with people's lives, that that's what's unfortunate. we don't see a lot of republicaning coming out because they don't feel it is politically viable for them to support equality. you have to stop and ask yourself, why are we in a place

where the folks who are elected to serve americans don't believe all americans should be treated equally? i'm excited that senator collins came out in support. it's great for us, it's great for america that this is all happening so rapidly. >> one of the first republicans in congress to publicly support same-sex marriage is congress richard rana of new york. and he won his primary tuesday night defeating a challenge by a conservative state assemblywoman. new york is more progressive than many other starts. but are there any lessons the gop can learn as a whole here? >> well, i think the lesson that republicans need to learn is if they want to build a viable national majority, they're going to have to eventually be for gay marriage. 60% of republicans, not democrats, are for gay marriage. it's inevitable. they can either follow or lead.

right now, there are great republicans like susan collins and rob portman who are leading. but too many are following. it's not just about gay voters. it's about all sorts of voters. they are parts of families who are getting married and want full equality for the people they love. >> aisha, i mentioned senator collins. is the latest republican in congress to announce she supports same-sex marriage -- let's talk about the latest polls showing 40% of republicans supporting marriage equality and nearly 60% of republicans between 18 and 29 support it. so is the republican party's acceptance of same-sex marriage just inevitable as we heard by steve and will 2016 presidential candidates have evolve or lose? >> i think that all candidates are going to have to evolve to reflect the interest and the values that steve said of the american population. the republican party is teetering on this brink of not being relevant.

they're trying to figure out how to pander to their very, very right wing base and figure out how to move forward. what we all know is that the country is moving in a way that we care about all of our citizens equally, believe they should all be treated the same, believe everyone's family is equally valuable. if they don't get on board with that, they're not going to have an electorate. >> thank you both for your insight today. we appreciate it. >> thank you. we want you to check out these live pictures. look at this. all that red, white and blue. the flags, you've got it, all of it. people are just swarming there, the gates are open in chicago, grant park. and soccer fans are just running in to secure their spot to watch the big game at noon. we're going to have more on the fans, social media, the increase in soccer's popularity, all of that coming right up. go, team usa! we'll be right back. in life, it's how you get there that matters most.

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so the latest republican battle against the president just might involve a courtroom, at least if speaker john boehner has his way. he wants to pass legislation next month giving his chamber the right to sue president obama. the reason? president obama's use of executive actions. but appearing on "the daily rundown" earlier this morning, the president's new press secretary says boehner's lawsuit will not change his boss' actions. >> what the president said is, i'm leaving the door open to working with democrats and republicans to make progress but i'm not going to wait for republicans to try to find common ground. i'm going to use the authority that's vested in the authority of the president of the united states to take action on my own. >> one reporter pressed boehner on what he would be suing president obama over, he didn't quite have an answer? >> what specific executive actions are you planning to challenge in court? >> when i make that decision, i'll let you know. >> there you have it, joining me

now is politics reporter at "the washington post," jackie kucinich and perry bacon. thanks for joining us. >> good morning. >> jackie, let me start with you. the obama is lawless talking point is one we've heard for a while from the gop now. why to bring this into a lawsuit now? >> the gop has been trying to do this for the better part of a year. there was a bill that passed in march that would have made it easier to sue the president. now that passed the house and didn't pass the senate. why now? the midterms are very close, this provides good fodder for the base. it will raise some money. and it gives speaker boehner a little bit more standing with his conference. >> i want to get to that with you, perry. how much of this is speaker boehner doing what he wants to do versus what the more conservative members of his caucus is wanting him to do? >> this is what both groups want.

immigration policy, the president has changed the rules on deportations a couple of years ago saying young people who are brought her by their parents cannot be deported. the administration says they're going to change the rules and expand that policy of not deporting people. the republicans are worried about that. and this lawsuit is a warning shot. they are saying to the president, if you change immigration law or take another big executive order, we're going to fight you, take you to court. that's what this is about. >> and just to had on to what perry said, there's also been a lot of frustration about the affordable care act and the changes that the administration has made to that. i think that also is fueling a lot of the frustration among republicans. >> it has implications in a bunch of different areas. jackie, one of those conservative caucus members, outgoing minnesota rep michelle bachmann, tried to explain this all on fox yesterday. take a listen. >> listen, the house has the power of the purse. this isn't a small power.

we c i hear your frustration. we can impeach the elected officials -- >> oh, man! rome's burning -- respectfully disagree. >> that's not filing. that's kicking them out of there. what else are we going to do? >> democrats are already fund-raising off this idea. is this giving them ammunition and having the opposite impact of what republicans really want? >> what are democrats going to do without michelle bachmann when she retires this year? i guess they'll raise less money. comments like that do undermine what republicans are going to do. or are trying to do. >> perry, check out these statistics here. president obama's use of executive orders is actually lower than his predecessors during the same point in his presidency. according to rachel maddow's team, obama has the lowest average use of executive orders in 117 years. so given all of that, given the

numbers, given the facts, how does this suit really hold up in court? >> i wonder if it will even get to court. but it's not really about executive orders the republicans are upset about. it's executive actions. the immigration thing i referred to, the epa policy changes, the changes in the health care -- the aca implementation, that's what they're upset about. executive actions, not executive orders. usually the courts are wary to get into involvement of a dispute between the president and the legislators. it's hard to imagine the court will intervene in these disputes. but it's really about executive actions and the republicans are very flusters about that. they've said it for a while now. the president announced earlier in the year, i'm going to act on my own and he's lived up to that and done that and the republicans are trying to fight back now. >> i'm going to shift gears. we want to talk about hillary clinton who's still on her book tour. we learn her book sales are down

by over 40% in the second week. and she's been dogged by her comments on her personal wealth. first her husband defended her in a new interview with pbs and she says she can defend herself. listen up. >> my husband was very sweet today. but i don't need anybody to defend my record. i think my record speaks for itself. >> so does she have a problem on her hands with this? >> i think she does. the fact that we are still talking about this and not about the substance of her book is a problem for them. it's clear that there's some damage control. and she's being asked about this on every single interview that she's done rather than the content of what's in the book. >> perry, does hillary need to take maybe a break from this book tour? would that help her out a little bit? >> she's near the end. these interviews were all scheduled beforehand. i would caution, the election is more than two years away. i'm sure we're going to be

talking about being broke in november of 2016. she seems rusty but i don't think it's a problem at this time. >> thank you both for joining us. we appreciate it. we are just getting some information in. breaking news now. we've been watching these supreme court rulings. this is what we know so far. the u.s. supreme court ruled that a massachusetts law requiring protesters to stay at least 35 feet from the entrances of abortion clinics is unconstitutional. we are going to have much more on this from outside the supreme court as soon as we can get that. the latest on this, the u.s. supreme court ruled a massachusetts law requiring protesters to stay at least 35 feet from the entrances of an abortion clinic is unconstitutional. much more on this coming up. you're watching msnbc. thank you daddy for defending our country. thank you for your sacrifice and thank you for your bravery. thank you colonel. thank you daddy. military families are uniquely thankful for many things,

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almost everybody's out of town except one or two senators. they come to the floor, gavel it into order and then immediately recess. and they call it a pro forma session. what the supreme court said is the senate is the best judge of whether it's in session or not. and the constitution didn't really contemplate the president being able to make a recess appointment during such a short three or four-day break. it has to be at least ten days. if the white house is in one party and the senate is in another, all the senate has to do is keep doing these pro forma

sessions during holiday breaks and that would frustrate the president's ability to make recess appointments. both parties have done that when they were in charge of the senate. the court didn't go so far as some hoped which is to say a president can only nominate someone for a recess appointment during a recess, vacancies that arise during a recess. the court didn't go that far. the conservatives say the court should have gone that for and limited recess appointments only to breaks between sessions of congress. but it seems an academic point at this point. as a practical matter, when we are in divided government like we are now, the recess appointment power is dead. secondly, the supreme court struck down a massachusetts law that had a 35-foot fixed "no protest" zone around the entrances to abortion clinics in the state. the supreme court struck that down and said it's just too blunt an instrument. that a public sidewalk is a

public forum and that simply paint a line on the sidewalk is easy to enforce the court said but it's not the kind of narrow tailoring that the law requires when you're limiting public speech. the public in the past has upheld moving bubble zones that you can't get closer to six or eight feet to someone who's entering a clinic. those are not affected by today's ruling. but states that have these fixed zones and there are a couple of states that have them. they're probably in around 15 or 16 cities by city ordinance. they're all in trouble now by this definition. the state had argued that this is a much easier way to enforce it. but the supreme court said that's not enough justification for it. >> does it mean we're going to see cases of perhaps violation, intimidation and whatnot because the buffer zone isn't there anybody? >> reporter: massachusetts said it needed it for that reason. but the court said today if somebody is blocking an

entrance, the police can order them to move and if they don't, they can be arrested. but they can't paint a line on the sidewalk. it frustrates the people who are trying to -- they say they want to talk to people entering the clinic. the only way to be heard was to yell. >> those are the two rulings that we've gotten so far. do you expect more today or is that going to be it? >> reporter: no. that's it for today. >> i want you to stick around. i want to bring in ari and irin to talk about this. this is a big win, isn't it? >> it is right now. it all depends on who's in charge. as pete was reporting, presidents in both parties have used this power. but it doesn't fall just along political lines at the court. it is the more liberal bloc, so to speak, that is in the

majority in this opinion limiting this power and for practical purposes it means the senate, whoever controls it, can make it much harder to ever get a recess appointment in because they have these little faux sessions to say they're never in recess. having said that, what justice scalia and the conservatives on the court said they want to go farther in limiting this power. it reserves the right of a president at times to do recess appointments. but practically that is less likely to happen. >> does it affect the appointments made under this rule that they're saying you can't use anymore? >> yes. it basically strikes down those appointments as invalid. you have the court saying to the president because you made this in this three-day mini recess that the senate says wasn't a recess, those appointments aren't valid. whereas, if they did something through what the court is explaining as a real recess or a recess between terms, it would

still be valid. >> irin, i want to bring you in. we want to talk more about the buffer zones. is this a surprising ruling to you or did you expect something like this to come down from the supreme court? >> this is what advocates for abortion rights expected. there was no split of the circuits. this was a law that did not seem to be substantially different. what the court hasn't done is issuer a broader ruling. they said this law is too broad. massachusetts needs to try a less-intrusive means of making sure that people can safely enter. but what they haven't done is overruled their precedent. >> i want to bring in pete williams again who's been following this all morning long. >> reporter: a couple of points here, the first thing, it's important to point out that on this abortion protest case, the opinion is unanimous. it doesn't break down along

ideological lines. that's a big important point. secondly we know the last day -- we're going to get the last opinions on monday, not tomorrow. monday will be the last day. that's when we get the big hobby lobby case. >> a lot to watch for come monday. big news today as well. pete, thank you. ari as well and irin, we appreciate all your insight today. a lot going on, including this. check this out. this live picture right here, world cup fever is hitting the usa. chicago fans are filing in grant park to watch the match. just about an hour and a half from now. the interest is huge as you can imagine. even celebrities are getting in on the game. >> crucial game, huge game. the eyes of the world are watching. let's do this. >> let's do this. this is a sign. soccer is here to stay, or is

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sprinting. clearly they're excited to get the best spot. the last time team usa hit the field, 25 million americans were watching, pushing the ratings higher than that of a world series game. can you believe it? soccer fever here in the u.s. has members of team usa taking notice. >> right now, with this tournament, the country is in a soccer fever and they're glued to the tvs when we play. it's reaching new levels in the united states. >> indeed it is. the vice president of competition for major league soccer and has played for the u.s. at the 1998 and 2002 world cups and howard bragman is the vice chairman of reputation.com. he's tracking soccer online through social media. jeff, the u.s. soccer team has just arrived at the arena. they will play against germany. they posted this vine video online. look at this.

it just kind of shows them filing out of the bus. it's leading up to the excitement. are you surprised by how many people are glued to every little aspect of this? >> it's capturing the hearts and minds of a nation in the same way that the hockey team did in 1980 and other teams have since then. but this sport has really grown and really evolved. major league soccer will be in its 20th year next year. we see this growth being very positive for the sport. >> absolutely. howard, what is it about the world cup that has people so engaged in it? >> well, let's understand, this is the biggest social media event since the history of the internet. 454 million social media interactions the first week alone. i'll tell you what's going on. we've got young people who love soccer perhaps as much as they like the traditional american sports. it's truly a worldwide event. we've had great games, great

competitions, sexy young players. all that adds up -- >> you had to put that in there, didn't you? >> it all adds up to -- >> we noticed. don't get me wrong. >> it's added up to huge social media interactions and then we have suarez's bite -- >> he was suspended for nine games and four months. >> before we get your prediction, you have your own ideas of what's going to happen today. we wanted to get a prediction from another fan of team usa. look at this. >> it's going to be raining, right? as everyone knows, germans hate the rain. they're fearful of it because 93% of germans can't swim. they've never learned how to swim. >> never knew that and that he was such a soccer commentator. multitalented will ferrell there.

will the rain have an impact? >> it will have an impact. if there's puddling, it could be a disaster for the game. the ball will essentially stop. they may postpone the game. >> howard, what do you think is going to happen? >> we're never going to look back again. this world cup has changed the way americans will look at ports. when you're talking 25 million, 26 million people watching on tv -- >> give me a prediction on today, team usa -- >> oh, the u.s. is going to win. of course we're going to win. i'm wearing my red, white and blue. come on, betty. >> of course, i give a win to the u.s. >> it's unanimous. go, team usa. jeff and howard, thank you both. we're going to be all enjoying the game today. coming up after the break, vermont congressman peter welch joins me to talk about the next steps for iraq and today's supreme court decisions.

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let's get back to our breaking news out of washington, d.c. and the new decisions handed down moments ago by the u.s. supreme court, including the unanimous decision to limit the president's power to make recess appointments. for reaction, i want to bring in democratic congressman peter welch of vermont. congressman, let me start with the decision on presidential recess appointments. that's really a blow for the obama administration. what's your reaction to that? >> well, it's not a blow so much for the obama administration. it's a blow for the effective functioning of government. i actually can see the rationale of the court. it's up to congress to decide when it's in recess and when it's not. but it's also up to congress to act on a president's proposed nominees, whether it's george bush or whether it's barack obama. and what we've done now is create a tool for congress -- this could be a democratic congress next time around, that allows them to basically deny any action on any presidential

appointee. so the gridlock that we have now will only get worse. so this is politically, i think, a very dangerous development that has been created by congress and i think it's very bad implications for the future. >> going to be interesting to see how it all plays out because of this ruling. i also want to talk about the rapidly changing situation in iraq. now we have the governments of syria and iran entering into the conflict. how does this complicate things there? and does this change our strategy at all? >> i think it informs our strategy. it's very clear that this is a sunni/shia fight. and maybe a fight to the finish. right now, you've got iran coming in because they support the maliki government. in fact, they support maliki much more than we do. so that's a huge contradiction that iran and the u.s. are both supporting the shia -- have supported maliki. but what it says to me is that the u.s. has to be sort of sober

about this. and the thing we can do is work with our allies, including the gulf states, to shore up the satellite countries where there's a flood of refugees, jordan, lebanon, turkey. secondly, we've got to persuade the gulf states and saudi arabia, our allies, to stop financing and arming the radical sunni fighters that are slaughtering people. and then third, obviously, we have to use all the influence we can with the maliki government to have an inclusive government. as long as maliki is operating in a sectarian mode, and that's how he's operated, it's going to go from bad to worse. >> very quickly, when it comes to the president moving forward with possible missile strikes in iraq, you said, quote, congress needs to be more assertive when it comes to crossing that line to militant engagement i don't know what the lawyers would say, but i know as a congressman what i would say if it were going to start militant strikes, congress should have a say.

do you think congress has too often neglected its role when it comes to checking military options pushed by the executive branch? >> i do. i think congress has abdicated its responsibility too often and turned a blind eye to the implications of essentially getting involved in a militant conflict. the history of iraq, of afghanistan has not been a good one in terms of american foreign policy. i believe congress has a fundamental responsibility to make the decision yes or no when we're going to engage in military action on this scale. >> congressman peter welch of vermont, thank you for sharing your view. we appreciate it. that wraps up this hour of msnbc. i'm betty nguyen. up next, "news nation." craig melvin talks to a pastor who's defrocking was overturned. plus, world cup frenzy. a live report from brazil with the big game just an hour away.

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good thursday, everyone. i'm craig melvin in for tamron hall. tamron is on assignment. this is "news nation." we start with breaking news. within the last hour, the supreme court justices handed down two decision, one limiting the president's power to make recess appointments and they also ruled that a massachusetts law requiring protesters to stay at least 35 feet from the entrances to abortion clinics is unconstitutional. nbc's justice correspondent pete williams joins me now. pete, let's start with that abortion protester law. was this at all a surprise or no? >> reporter: well, it did seem from the oral argument that the court had reel doubts about the constitutionality of this law. the opinion of the court says that it's simply too blunt an instrument to paint a line on the sidewalk 35 feet from entrances as massachusetts has done and say no one can enter that zone toro