right now it's time for "the daily rundown" with chuck. >> supreme court will look at health care. on the line, nothing much. just maybe the president's political fate and the limits of congressional power. that's all. we're coming to you live from the supreme court for all of it. is it the strain of a long campaign? rick santorum wins louisiana. sets sights on wisconsin. lashes out at the press and he's not the only one who has been going over the top. president obama and south korea say the u.s. has a moral obligation to reduce the world's nuclear stockpiles and he gets more direct with outgoing russian counterpart asking for putin to give him space until after the election. we'll tell you more about that. it's monday, march 26th, 2012. a beautiful day. why not spend it inside listening to organize arguments. first read of the morning.

in just over an hour, signature accomplishment of the obama administration goes on trial. in six hours of oral arguments spread over the next three days, the nine justices will hear the most important supreme court case perhaps since bush v. gore. 26 states and a national business group are challenging the health care laws central requirement that all americans get health insurance. the political stakes could not be higher for the president, the 2012 race for basic questions about the role of government. "the wall street journal" called today's arguments "an issue that not only can sway this fall's elections but also could help define for generations what congress is and isn't entitled to do. "the washington post" the justices will take the extraordinary step of striking down for the first time since the new deal a monumental domestic program proposed by the president and passed by

congress. >> most of this law doesn't begin to take next until 2014. there are important parts that are happening right now. you have 2.5 million kids between 18 and 26 who now are on health care on the parents' plan only because of this law. you have 5 million seniors saving over $600 a year in prescription drugs. you have free preventive care on mom og raffy and cancer screenings. we'll be glad that republicans called this obama care. >> the message that the country has battle fatigue on health care and is ready to stop fighting about it. >> what people don't want to do, they don't want to refight this political battle. polls say that people don't want to start over. they don't want to refight this political battle. >> where the american people are right now is they don't want to refight this battle again. >> the polls they are citing is republic democratic polls. this is lindsey graham. >> this is probably the centerpiece of the debate and

the proper role of government. the vice president whispered to the president when he signed the built t bill two years ago, it's a big fing deal and now it's a big fing mess for the party as a whole. >> stakes are high for the president. they aren't small for mitt romney either who vowed friday he'll repeal the law. >> this presidency has been a failure. at the centerpiece of this failure is this piece of legislation back here. obama care. >> most americans want to get rid of it and we're among those americans. i want to get rid of it too. >> this is not the conversation romney wants to have. he's trying to shut down the republican primary. an opportunity for political opponents to remind republicans of clips like this one from 2008. >> you backed away from mandates on a national basis. >> i like mandates. the mandates work. >> beg your pardon? i didn't know you would admit that. you like mandates. >> let me tell you what kind of

mandates i like. >> the ones you come up with. >> mitt romney is trying to shut down the republican primary eight days until wisconsin primary. rick santorum is all there for you. talk about a do or die chance for you in wisconsin. subject matter couldn't be better for you. we'll see how he takes advantage of it. members of the public have been camped out here outside of the court since friday hoping to score one of the 60 seats available to the general public for each day of argument. nbc news justice correspondent pete williams will be heading inside in just a few minutes. mr. williams, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, chuck. this is really unprecedenteded in modern supreme court history. the entire week of courtroom arguments devoted to one single act of congress, the health care law. the court cut it up into four separate pieces. today the first question which is under a 150-year-old law can the court even hear this case now or do they have to wait until 2014 when the individual

mandate kicks in? the reason for that is there's a long standing federal law that says you cannot challenge a federal tax before it goes into effect. if you don't get insurance under the individual mandate, you have to pay a penalty on your tax form collected by the irs. is it a tax? then tomorrow the big day. the individual mandate. does congress have the power to require all americans to buy something? then on wednesday two questions. first in the morning if the individual mandate is found to be unconstitutional, can the rest of the health care law nonetheless survive and then in the afternoon, a challenge brought by the states to the expanded requirements in the health care law to cover more people and provide more benefits under the medicaid law. a total of six hours of argument. we expect a decision sometime in late june. >> two questions for you, pete. considering what today's argument is about, why wait until -- what if they decide you can't hear the law? does that make tuesday and wednesday obsolete? >> reporter: first of all, they won't make a decision on that

until much later. they'll actually vote sometime this week but they'll hear all of the arguments before they vote so they can't stop after monday because they won't decide that issue until they decide it all at once. it's all of a piece. >> and the second question, who are the lead actors here making the arguments for each side? >> reporter: the lead actor for the government is a veteran supreme court advocate at a private law firm in washington before he went to the obama white house counsel office and became the top justice in court. and on the other side, a former solicitor general in the bush administration will argue on behalf of the states. they are the main combatants that we'll hear from. there are others lawyers involved. lawyers for federation of independent business and lawyers for other parts of this. >> all right. pete williams, we know you have to get inside. thanks very much. just so you know, a quick programming note.

at 2:00 each day, these oral arguments audio will be released. we'll have a special at 3:00, i'll anchor right back here and we'll break down oral arguments and play them out for you and bring in experts. that's coming up this afternoon. same deal for tomorrow afternoon. back to my first read. rick santorum celebrated a big win in louisiana saturday but that victory is already being overshadowed by what the romney campaign is trying to call a meltdown last night in wisconsin. santorum easily won louisiana 49% of the vote. coming in more than double digits ahead of mitt romney who won just 27%. but santorum ended the night with a five delegate edge over romney thanks to louisiana's delegate rules. santorum picked up ten. romney five. another five were unallocated bringing the count to 490 for romney, santorum 203, gingrich, 137 and ron paul, 34. santorum said he can still pull

out a win in wisconsin. >> i can't outspend him in wisconsin. you can help outwork him. the race isn't over until the people of wisconsin sing. we need you to sing a week from tuesday. >> santorum's effort to soften his image in the badger state by stopping to bowl both saturday and sunday -- >> three strikes in a row. that's a turkey. that tells you that you have someone who can relate to the voters in wisconsin. >> maybe so but that plan may have been derailed when he became frustrated with reporters asking him to clarify this remark. >> mitt romney agreed with barack obama on every single thing that he did because he put it in place in massachusetts. it's the blueprint for obama care. don't believe me. ask obama. why would we put one up who is uniquely -- pick any other republican in the country. he's the worst republican in the country to put up against barack

obama. >> well, on the rope line after the event he lashed out at "the new york times" reporter for asking clarification. >> you said that mitt romney is the worst republican in the country. is that true? >> what speech did you listen to? >> right here. >> stop lying. i said he was the worst republican to run on the issue of obama care. would you guys quit distorting what i'm saying. to run against barack obama on the issue of health care. he fashioned the blueprint. i've said it at every speech. quit distorting my words. if i see it, it's bull [ bleep ]. come on, man. what are you doing? >> the romney campaign is trying to take advantage of what they call a meltdown moment saying in a statement rick santorum is becoming more desperate and angry and unhinged every day. that's right they used the word unhinged. they are tweeting with the hash

tag "tantorum." newt gingrich may have had his own version of one on friday when trying to see what outrageous thing would get him attention. he said this on a radio show. >> what the president said is disgraceful. it's not a question of who that young man looked like. any young american of any ethnic background should be safe. period. and trying to turn it into a racial issue is fundamentally wrong. i find it appalling. >> of course that was speaker gingrich talking about trayvon martin and the president's response to it. this is what white house senior adviser david plouffe said yesterday. >> those two comments are really irresponsible. i would consider them reprehensible. the president spoke movingly as a father and made it clear there's investigations going on. i think those comments were really hard to stomach really. >> finally today with eight days

to wrap up the nomination before the wisconsin primary, romney raises money in california. he'll pick up the endorsement of tea party backed senator utah senator mike lee as heavyweights get closer to saying romney's nomination are a done deal. >> it will be romney. the elephant hasn't sung yet but she's warming up. >> unless romney steps on land mine, he looks like he'll be the nominee. >> i guess we should start calling them presumptive. let's see after april 3rd. president obama is in south korea. he's meeting with world leaders on nuclear security. at one point he apparently told russian president medvedev it will have to wait until after the election.

>> nbc's kristen welker is traveling with him live in seoul for us this morning or this evening for you. the white house desperately trying to clarify that remark. krist kristen? >> reporter: that's absolutely right, chuck. in fact, we asked deputy national security adviser ben rhodes during a briefing about this comment. asked him to clarify. he hadn't heard about the comment that the point in time but was quick to issue this statement and we do have a graphic of part of that statement. he said given the long standing difference between the u.s. and russia on missile defense, it will take time and technical work before we can try to reach an agreement since 2012 is an election year in both countries, it is clearly not a year in which we are going to achieve a breakthrough. again, chuck, one of these moments that really probably wasn't meant to be heard by the public. just to put it in context for

you, president obama, and president medvedev wrapping up their own meeting here. reporters caught part of it and recorded part of that conversation in which president obama asks president medvedev to pass that information along to president-elect putin. there's been a lot of other discussion at this summit which is of course centered around national security and nuclear security i should say. one of the main topics, iran and north korea. president obama has been pressuring china as well as russia to really stand with him on these two issues and of course the issue of north korea has been center here because we are in south korea. president obama urging north korea not to move forward with a planned rocket launch saying

that would only further isolate north korea and would also basically derail a deal between the united states and north korea for food aid. chuck? >> all right. kristen welker traveling with the president in south korea. kristen, thanks. obviously going back to that medvedev moment. it's that word flexibility. what flexibility does the president want to have after the election? that's what a bunch of republicans who are obsessed with this one issue, there's a few of them out there on capitol hill, about missile defense. you're going to hear from a few of them over the next few days. more to come in this special edition right here. we're in the senate swamp. that's the nickname for this area between the capitol and the supreme court. in a few minutes, hiring our heroe heroes. giving veterans a chance to get back to work. a look at the president's schedule. right now he gets to sleep. we're closer to half a day ahead of us. you're watching "the daily

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a new mission called hiring our heroes. an effort to give veterans a fighting chance for a job. congress is doing its part as well considering legislation to add incentives for businesses that hire veterans. the bill was introduced and a democratic counterpart is co-sponsoring it. both are veterans. both join me now.

i want to put up this stat, gentleman. the veterans unemployment rate 12.1%. 8.7 for the civil population on average in 2011. it's worse for veterans. oddly it seems like a head scratcher because of how much training you get. you would think these would be the best people to hire. why is there a struggle? >> they are. thank you for bringing attention to this important matter. they are the best trained and really i think the finest fighting force that we've had in american history and that's not taking anything away from prior generations but statistically we can show that. we all know it's a very difficult economy. the bill i introduced less for jets and more for vets basically takes a tax loophole, eliminates it and provides a steady funding stream for veterans to be able to get employment and it helps our small business owners have an incentive to hire veterans. >> congressman scott, it seems

to me there are two things that businesses are not saying but it's out there. one is they're nervous that if they hire somebody who goes from active to the reserves, they get called back into duty and they suddenly have a job opening issue. the second thing is this concern that maybe these deployments are going to make them lesser employees. >> i don't think they'll be less less lesser employees but they've been deployed more than ever before. in vietnam war, you served one tour and that was your commitment. people are serving, three, four, five, six tours and in the reserves we never got activated. there was no expectation of being activated. you knew it was always a chance but it just didn't happen. we need to make sure that we

reduce the number of deployments so that when people join the service, particularly the reserves, they're not activated year after year after year. >> are you concerned that maybe all of the attention that we give in the media and it's all of us and proper attention, ptsd in particular, all of these issues that we give attention to when veterans come back from wars unintentionally affects an employer? >> well, i would like to think not. the small business owners that are hiring our veterans, they love america just like all of us. i don't think that's a real key factor. >> it's a small percentage of veterans coming back. >> that's true. but the community that we have a privilege to represent in southeast virginia is just a very patriotic community and i think bobby and i working together on this bill, he's the first member to co-sponsor this bill. he's a democrat. i happen to be a republican. this is really common ground,

chuck, and i think it's a ray of light up here in washington that we're working together to move this forward. >> congressman scott, is it extra job training that some of these veterans need sort of because maybe they've been out of the active workforce because they've been fighting for the last five, six, seven years and there's been technological changes, things you need to learn you don't have. >> you also mention with deployments going back and forth, a lot of them is very difficult to hold a job when you have to go for a year. particularly the ones in the reserves. when they come back, they don't have the support services and they're looking for a job as soon as they come back. as you indicated, they don't know where they're going to be after a year. they need a lot of different services. one of the things we have to look at is the budget. we're so fixated on tax cuts if you look at the ryan budget, veterans affairs budget is being cut significantly. there are a lot of services that

are needed to be provided and we have to make sure that we provide all of those services that they need. >> when does this bill get voted on? >> when we get enough co-sponsors. we're going to move to the floor this year. there's a heavy lift there. >> we're committed to moving it forward. >> bipartisan effort here. thank you both for coming on. wonderful day. i know i'm officially in the senate swamp. it's not that long of a walk. >> thank you, chuck. >> thank you both. networks of nbc news will focus on hiring our heroes all week long. tomorrow we'll talk to senator jim webb, a decorated member of the marine corps. what's in store this week on wall street? market rundown is next and plus the wife of the american soldier accused of slaughtering 17 afghan civilians spoke out exclusively to nbc news. we'll tell you what she said. which president appointed the most supreme court justices? and how many? tweet me the answer.

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the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. the wife of staff sergeant robert bales is speaking out for the first time in an exclusive interview with the "today" show's matt lauer. robert bales is now in solitary confinement at ft. leavenworth. his wife says she can't believe that her husband was involved in these murders. >> it seems to me like i just don't think he was involved. i don't know enough information. this is not him. it's not him. >> how do you get your head around that kind of news? >> it's devastating to hear.

it hurts. it hurts my heart. just very, very saddened. >> that was nbc's matt lauer with kari bales. get more of it at todayshow.com. time for the market rundown. becky quick is there. >> good morning. the talk on wall street today has been a speech from chairman ben bernanke of the federal reserve that he gave just about an hour ago. he was speaking to the national association of business economists and he made comments on the job market. we all know the job market has been looking better over the last many months. he made comments that, yes, we have seen improvement but he also cast a bit of skepticism as to whether this could continue. he thinks there's long-term structural factors weighing down the jobs market and says he thinks some of these gains may be very temporary. that's the position of the fed right now and what it does do is

allow the fed to defend its position of this easy monetary policy. this accommodative stance that we've seen and that's where the markets are taking cues from this morning. the idea that fed will not pull back from this policy any time soon boost oil prices once again this morning. they're above $107. and it's helping the stock market as well. it looks like the market is going to be opening up by about 100 points on the dow after these comments from the fed. they looked like they were up 60 points and now up about 100. back over to you. >> all right. thanks very much. up next, live here at the supreme court. how did we get here? been two years since president obama signed this landmark legislation. and now we're fighting about the mandate obscure law from the 19th century and need to know about wheat and weed. we'll have much more on this coming up on "the daily rundown." [ female announcer ] want to spend less and retire with more? then don't get nickle and dimed by high cost investments and annoying account fees.

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the supreme court convenes today for the much anticipated showdown over health care reform. three-day long hearings will focus on four issues. the fight over the individual mandate may have started with former justice department attorneys when they published an op-ed in "the wall street journal" in september of 2009. six months before president obama signed the act into law. a few months later, georgetown law professor randy barnett wrote a legal memo for a conservative think tank. the dean of harvard law school would later call barnett the mastermind behind the legal challenge to the mandate. in that memo, barnett argued that congress can only regulate those who choose to engage in economic activity but the individual mandate regulates someone's decision to not buy health insurance. many constitutional scholars

mocked the idea but over time conservatives have embraced it. >> you've got the individual mandate in here, which i think is unwise. i too believe is unconstitutional. >> for the first time in the 225-year history of the country, the federal government is telling you that you have to buy something. >> american people are telling us that the individual mandates, the requirements to buy insurance are something that they want us to scrap and start over on. >> the mandate itself was a republican idea starting way back in the mid '90s. after a series of conflicting decisions from various courts around the country in georgia, virginia, california among others in fall of 2011, the federal government asked the supreme court to take the case and take it early. the three big case involving two challenges out of florida. joining me now to discuss what to expect over the next three

days is co-host of the third hour of "today" show though she's not there today, savannah guthrie, and an american law professor. thank you both for being here. welcome back. this is what you could do. >> sun is shining and you laugh as you introduce me. things are as they always were. >> let's talk about the mandate. you can't underscore that it was an argument that even conservatives weren't embracing just three years ago. >> speaker pelosi then said when she heard they were challenging the law said are you serious? if you look at it the way proponents look at it, this is an easy case. of course this affects commerce. well within the federal government's right to regulate commerce. health care is 17% of the nation's economy. but conservatives put forward an argument that has really picked up steam and they have at least one circuit court, 11th circuit, which agreed with them that says basically this is an

unprecedented expansion of federal power and you can regulate someone for not doing something and force them into the stream of congress forregul there's no limit to what the government can do. >> arguing against it going from obscure libertarian legal blogger and picked up and it went viral in the conservative legal community, are youglabof ? >> the opponents held up this big stack showing that the legislation was two feet high and how could anybody possibly know what was in it. and then we're here talking about this one very specific provision that nobody thought anything of when it started. >> professor, i want to start with you and then savannah, i want you to get in on this too. this is one branch of government trying to deal with something that two branches of government have approved. executive branch and legislative

branch. how unprecedented would it be for those two federal branches doing one thing and judiciary saying they're wrong? >> it's not unprecedented. we had a big fight of this at the beginning of the new deal. it's what the whole country over the role of the court was 70 years ago. we haven't had this kind of fight for about 70 years and so there's a strange feel to being back in that game again. >> and savannah, politics is not supposed to enter the equation of those nine minds in there they know it will have a political impact and so when you know your decision will have a political impact, how does it not at least in some ways impact your decision? >> no matter what they say, they're not impervious to the political importance of this case. look no further than the three days of argument that they scheduled upon it. i think they are mindful of the thing you point out which is this is a law passed by

congress, legislative branch, approved by executive and you wonder where this court, justice robert as chief justice roberts will want to replace the decision of the ledggislative branch with decision of the judiciary. i think that's why some people think he ultimately may vote to uphold the mandate because he won't want to basically take this out of the political realm and make this a judicial decision. >> i've been thinking on this. you hope for the public sake almost that this is a 7-2 type of decision and there's no question. nothing has stained this court's legacy more than a 5-4 bush-gore. >> everything we know about chief justice john roberts is that he's concerned about that image as well. if there's a possibility to make this decision 6-3, 7-2, something that doesn't seem as close a call that he will be

very interested in trying to achieve that. >> go on legal grounds quickly before we go. will you -- just on the -- do you feel like this is taking congress's power in the congress another level that's not been taken before? >> i personally don't. i think this really is about the economy. whether you buy health insurance or buying health care, you are participating in the economy. >> and this wheat issue, these two obscure cases, wheat and then of course medical marijuana more recently about sort of telling you not to participate in the economy. >> the wheat case is from 1937 which set out the rules we've had for 70 years. basically if something affects the drestream of commerce even it's a private activity, this farmer was growing wheat for his private consumption, but the court ruled if you take all of

the farmers who might grow wheat privately that affects congress generally and the government can regulate it and the recent case in the 2000s where the court looked at private growing of marijuana in california and upheld a federal law that criminalized it. that's the spectrum of cases. there was a time in the late '90s where the rehnquist court was interested in striking down federal laws on the basis they exceeded the government's power under the commerce clause. the roberts' court isn't as interested. this he have issues and agendas but this balance between federal and state governments doesn't seem to be high on their agenda as much as rehnquist court. >> see you a lot this week. i'll see you tomorrow. breaking it down. all this stuff. we'll see you on "nightly news." you're busy. >> mandates and meltdown. we will talk politics but first, white house soup of the day, a little flexibility here. chicken corn chowder. you're watching a special edition of "the daily rundown." we'll be right back.

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>> the dedication and determination of these two world statesmen have born proof peace has come to israel and to egypt. [ applause ] >> daily flashback to this day in 1979 when histories with made on the white house lawn. egyptian president and israeli prime minister signed a peace treaty ending a state of war between those two countries lasted more than 30 years. the treaty is still going today. another reminder that foreign policy achievements can mean little in an election year. it's day one of a three-day marathon here at the supreme court with the justices weighing in on the central piece of the president's health care reform law whether the individual

mandate is constitutional. my panel today, karen finney and "the washington post's" dan balls. before we get blown away here. it's a windy day. it's beautiful but windy. karen, i want to start with you. one thing happened friday of somewhat political significance and that is this decision by the democrats and team obama to take obama care and say, fine, you want to use it, so will we. it became a twitter war. that was amusing to watch. an odd decision to do it now. some might ask where was this six months ago? >> six months ago they weren't ready. there is that whole stages of acceptance. it's here to stay. just go with it. make it your own. >> it had become too much of a negle negative. why have his name associated with a negative to try to split the baby a little bit. >> they simply have not won the public relations war on this

issue from start to finish. they always assumed once it passed and got implemented people would think better of it. that hasn't been the case in terms of public opinion. i think if that's reality, you have to deal with that and take it on and try to make the argument consistently particularly in a moment like this when it's so front and center at the court. >> over the weekend david plouffe kept citing this poll. came to find out when i asked him it's a democratic polling. not republican polling but idea that public has fatigue over health care. they don't want to refight the battle. is that the best case you can make? that doesn't seem like a positive argument. >> the way the argument breaks down is when you go back to people and say we're going to do away with this program, what happens to the people who have already started to benefit from this program like the young people who are on their parents -- >> you make a policy argument. he was making a pure political argument. >> i'm suggesting that as part of that political argument, it gets to a larger conversation of we'll scrap all of that and

start all over again? nobody wants to do that. >> if you are the santorum campaign, you have eight days basically to make your last stand in wisconsin, could you come up with a better topic to come in the national conversation than individual mandate in health care? >> no. they are doing essentially a daily rollout of some element of health care focused on the similarity between the obama law and the romney law that was passed in massachusetts and they'll hammer him day after day after day to make this argument that this issue goes off the table if he's the nominee. >> and yet the romney campaign is hoping to make rick santorum -- we heard earlier rick santorum over the weekend he called mitt romney the worst republican you could put up against president obama. he said he was saying only on this issue of health care later in a clarification. obviously he used a curse word this morning he reacted to that. here's what he said about using a curse word on air.

>> if you haven't cursed out a"the new york times" reporter dirg the course of a campaign, you're not a real republican. i said i had enough of this -- you know what. that's what i did. look, we're out there slugging away. we're the candidates out there that is mixing it up. we're mixing it up. >> karen, romney campaign tried to create a hash tag tatorum. looking to play the conservative victim of the liberal media card. >> "the new york times" is the next best foe of the republican party. are you kidding me? >> you just met with him. i love this image. speaker gingrich and rick santorum at bistro d right here about four blocks away this morning. they are both here in town. you had a breakfast with santorum. what else did he say on this?

>> he said a number of things. he's not going to let this issue go. he makes the argument that the worst thing that could happen to the republican party is to have this nomination battle end now and for the obama team to be able to have four or five or six months financial advantage just pound on the nominee. best thing is short two-month general election which means take this to the convention, negate the money advantage and he's the best to run. >> i've heard him make that argument before. trivia time. we ask which president appointed the most supreme court justices and how many? the answer was a trick question. it's george washington. our first president. he appointed ten supreme court justices. six original and four more by the end of his term. we'll be right back. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. all right, let's decide what to do about medicare and social security... security. that's what matters to me...

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bring back the panel, smaller than usual here to make sure i don't violate any rules. i want to go back to this supreme court case. dan, do you buy -- all of us today have given this the implications of this couldn't be bigger. >> right. >> do you buy it? >> we always say that at a moment like this. and in three months, we may look back and say, we were absolutely right, or other things happen that may diminish it. part of it is what the rest of the campaign looks like. obviously health care is front and center in this campaign in a lot of ways because it symbolizes, particularly to conservative voters, things they don't like about the obama administration. i think that's going to be there almost regardless of what happens in the court. >> karen, what strikes me is that partisans from both sides, i've noticed, have been talking about, well, we could lose this case and -- it could be better for us politically --

>> sure. >> insert "us," either side. on your side, can you make that case with a straight face? >> of course you can. come on, chuck, that's what they used to pay me for. absolutely you can. >> but do you buy that? >> i certainly buy that both sides are prepared to make the argument either way. >> they're going to have to. >> exactly. it is fairly substantial what's happening here today. it's not just about health care reform. there are issues about the legislature and who controls what and who gets to say and a lot of the feelings that people have about the government in general. so i think there's a lot out of this, i think both sides will actually utilize to their benefit. >> and i'm not a legal scholar. but the unintended consequence on this is a little scary to me just as a historian and appreciator of the history of this town. if you don't like legislation that's passed by the opposing

party, if they strike this down, you think it could end up that this just becomes the norm, where political opponent ifs they don't like a piece of legislation, let's go to court? >> i want to say no because i think the system doesn't ultimately allow that to happen, that this is a special case. this was a big, long battle that took place in that building. >> right. >> and it will get adjudicated in this building behind us. but it's not the normal legislative battle that took place. and i think that that's going to affect the way it goes in the future. >> but that's certainly part of what's frightening about what's going on right now. >> it's just in the way. shameless plugs? >> team bra shaer, thank you for a couple of guys. >> i want to give a shoutout to our colleagues who gave a great show on saturday night. >> dan and i cannot be the authors of that. tune in today at 3:00, you'll hear the oral arguments of what

happened in there. today, we're live right here at the supreme court. tomorrow, another big day of armts. tomorrow is mandate day. coming up next on msnbc, chris jansing. see you later, bye-bye. we're not really dealing with too much in the way of stormy weather today. but a lot of the major airports should have clear skies and mild temperatures. middle of the country looks good. chilly and windy up around boston into new england. seattle, some showers. but mild weather continues from phoenix to denver. enjoy it.

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i'm here to unleash my inner cowboy. instead i got heartburn. [ horse neighs ] hold up partner. prilosec isn't for fast relief. try alka-seltzer. it kills heartburn fast. yeehaw! good morning. i'm chris jansing. and the stakes couldn't be higher. right now, before the supreme court, historic oral arguments are set to begin on a challenge to president obama's signature health care law. the high court ruling will affect how you get and pay for your health care. but the critical decision coming in in time to impact the november elections. nbc justice correspondent pete williams filed this report just moments ago before entering the supreme court to hear those arguments firsthand. >> reporter: chris, at 10:00, the supreme court will begin hearing three days of argument on the health care law, divided up into four separate questions. we begin today with