it's. oh i'm john berman in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture the supreme court began hearing arguments today to determine the constitutionality of obamacare and is the most corrupt supreme court in modern history have the power to decide what health care americans could get also the postal service has been a part of american society for hundreds of years and it's been getting screwed for just as long are we really ready to let it fall victim to the republicans war on labor and

a woman was brutally murdered in california over the weekend in apparent hate crime or hate crimes the consequences of fear mongers spreading hatred and ignorance across cable news and radio airwaves in america. you need to know this all eyes are on the supreme court as today kate thought three straight days of oral arguments to determine the constitutionality of obamacare the issue at hand is whether or not the individual mandate also the core of romney care is constitutional according to a number of different things or they can choose not to rule on obamacare at all since the mandate doesn't kick in for two years and thus no party has been harmed yet they can rule in favor of obamacare declaring it constitutional they can narrowly strike down just the individual mandate and keep the rest of the launch act or they can. do what right wing attorneys general who are in the pockets of the

for profit health insurers want them to do and strike down the law together if that happens and fifty million americans will lose access to health care not to mention seventeen million children being denied insurance coverage because of preexisting conditions and more than one hundred million americans will have to live in fear that their insurance company will cap them just when they need a lifesaving procedure so the big picture here is this why does the supreme court have the power to strike down laws passed by congress and signed by the president it seems like a normal thing to take a lot of the supreme court and they'll decide whether to keep or kill it but that gives the supreme court the power of kings in this nation which was not the idea of the founders it gives them more power than either the executive branch the president or the legislative branch the congress because they can strike down laws passed by congress they can even tell the president not to implement laws that he signed. do you think of founders really intended the nine unlike to the people

sitting on the supreme court should be more powerful than the other two branches of government and the founders intended supreme court to have the power to strike down laws the actual truth is no this was debated extensively at the constitutional convention seven hundred eighty seven they explicitly decided not to give such a power to the supreme court in the federalist papers which were written by hamilton and madison mostly john j. and and george mason a little bit but they were published in orders sell the constitution to the american people and seven hundred eighty eight alexander hamilton reassured us that we should ratify the constitution because it would prevent the unelected supreme court justices from having too much power and federalist seventy eight he wrote the judiciary from the nature of its functions will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the constitution because it would be released in a capacity to annoy or injure them it proves on contrast incontestably that the judiciary is beyond comparison the weakest of the three branches of power

departments of power they can never attack with success either of the other two but attack them with success it as done and may do again today or this week or this month as the constitution says the supreme court is only the final court of appeals it two people or companies have a lawsuit goes all the way through the courts over and over and over benchley has to stop somewhere that somewhere is the supreme court there just the final appeals court and even that capacity they could be regulated by congress they're subordinate to congress as the constitution says an article three section two the supreme court shall have appellate jurisdiction both as the law in fact as such exceptions and under such regulations as congress shall make. so how did the supreme court get the power to strike down laws and stop presidents to become the unlikely kings and queens of america the answer is really simple be took on for themselves at eighteen no three in a case called marbury vs madison when chief justice john marshall the crankiest rightwinger of that age which is why john adams appointed him on his way out of

office just to shove it in thomas jefferson's face when judge chief justice john marshall announced in that case that he was taking as part of supreme court president thomas jefferson when raising he wrote in a letter to sponsor roan who was patrick henry's father in the an old friend of his he wrote if this decision stands then indeed is our constitution a complete. a which is latin for a suicide pact the constitution jefferson wrote on this hypothesis is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary which they may twist and shape into any form they may please because he is secretary of state james madison had won that case marbury vs what is it going to look so the supreme court took out of power that became precedent but there was so much public blowback and so many presidents were furious about this from jefferson to enter jackson it was rarely used in the first fifty years of america president enter jackson eighteen thirty two disagreed with john marshall has his decision to georget the state of georgia

could seize indian lands refuse to follow it in fact he said chief justice john marshall has made his decision let him in force that marshall could similarly lincoln and franklin roosevelt both try to regulate the supreme court as a new organ gingrich pointed out a few months ago check this out just like jefferson jackson lincoln and f.d.r. i would be prepared to take on the judiciary if and tried to do not restrict it so from what it was doing. i never ever ever in my life thought i'd agree with newt gingrich but he's right and so is the dean of stanford law school larry kramer wrote a book entire book titled the people themselves the phrase the jefferson used when he talks about who should determine the constitutionality of laws instead of the supreme court instead we have a supreme court that has become so powerful that scalia and thomas claim they're even above the judicial code of conduct that every other federal judge has to follow a supreme court that has become the lord of our land founders didn't intend this

it's a corruption of our constitution and nothing will happen until enough people wake up this isn't a left or right issue again new freedom rich agrees with me and spread the word jefferson was right and our constitution has become a thing a wax in the hands of nine unliked of justices and now they say they have the power to decide if it will all have health care or not for more on what's its for more on what's at stake with the supreme court's hearing on health care i'm joined by congressman dennis kucinich representing mr its website is because us congressman welcome tom thank you and thank you for that very learned presentation about the constitutional history of the supreme court's. who should pay shouldn't the legislative branch write ten for that matter the executive branch writes thank you because i think it's so worth saving thank you we really you know you made the comment earlier today when we were in my radio show the the executive branch and

the supreme court the second and third among equals have come to exceed the power of the legislative branch and when you you know for those who are watching you may think this is a theoretical discussion let me tell you something it if you have the founders having created in article one the legislative branch the legislative branch is directly elected the executive branch isn't directly elected they have to go through left tours but the executive the legislative branch directly elected and no want to lecture. supreme court so we're at a situation where the right of the people to be able to have decisions made by their representatives is under attack again the very fact that the supreme court is holding this particular hearing and not only is is. you could argue you know the constitution and it's back again but health care the possibility of our joining it is thirty four countries in the o.e.c.d.

the fully developed nations of the world and in thirty three of them it's a crime to go to prison for to sell health insurance primary health insurance on a for profit basis and yet here in the united states we not only do this but to morrow dick armey and his buddies my story if what i heard today is correct are paying to bus a whole bunch of tea partiers out of the supreme court to stand out there was signs and say you know kill obamacare this is we've gone insane in this country what is the situation with healthcare what do we need to be doing well first of all it should be said that the supreme court in entertaining this discussion is setting the stage for undermining congress' ability to regulate health care and if the insurance companies are given carte blanche we can expect even more. raises premiums and less care for the american people more caps on the amount of money that would be spent for health care and less access to health care what i believe will happen as

a result of this health care issue going to the supreme court is the following if they overturn obamacare then it is in my estimation an opportunity for us to wake america up again on the issue of single payer not for profit health care because president obama's plan was health care reform within the context of the for profit system needed reform but not sufficient to take us to a condition where the insurance companies will not have the final say over many health care policies in this country so if they overturn it it would be sort of like an alcoholic a bottom. what everybody would say well we know what would happen is immediately as your story pointed out there be fifty million people without coverage again we go back to square one and that would also mean that people who have killed. and with preexisting conditions would be covered that you have those who have their young people twenty six and under they would be off their policies that would be limits

put back on the amount of money that would be spent for health care coverage people who need serious procedures would find that they would have access to the many more who would be able to afford it there are many things that will happen if the bill is struck down however the paradox of all this debate is as follows. single payer which is a fact not for profit health which is a fact and every other industrialized nation may see a revival if the supreme court goes against president obama's health care plan and if that happens i think you'll finally see a coalition coming together that will sweep the issue back into congress and once and for all the country will be set back on a path of universal single payer not for profit health care and the republicans lose a big fundraising tool a big thing to yell about or i will overturn obamacare what happens if the supreme court upholds obamacare or or says it's several and we're going to take out the

individual mandate leave everything else intact. if people are not required to have health care if if they are what they really be saying isn't so much a defeat of the individual mandate as they would be saying look the congress doesn't have the power to regulate that despite you have so many people who might be gaming the system and not having insurance and then if they get sick the public ends of paying for them anyway they can get away with that well now we we have to anticipate that if the supreme court says that part of this plan is ok and some of it's not that we have to also be ready to go back to the fundamental question and that is how are we going to challenge the insurance companies in the in the interim period between the time that the form of health care passed and the present day they have raised their premiums as an industry aggressively their profits have gone up risen faster and then the rest of the standard and poor's five hundred we have to ask ourselves are we going to continue to be at the mercy of the south care

systems or the insurance companies or once and for all we break the chains that bind us and go for a not for profit system now i had a problem with a bill that began with i reluctantly voted for it because it was reform within a context of a for profit system but the true reform is to go for a not for profit. did congressman kucinich percent of us thanks so much for that thank you very much already. we just put a picture of me when i was like nine years old once in selma true. i mean i am a little get a tattoo i love driving that bus is a planned trip. he was kind of yesterday.

i'm very proud of the role that i'll just see its place. look. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so sleek you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear see some other part of it and realized everything you saw you don't i'm sorry welcome to the big picture. of.

who is through the post office publican plan that is through the united states postal service and seven million united employees are replaced with private mail carriers like u.b.s. and that x. is only working ever since republicans in congress and president george w. bush passed a poison pill law in two thousand and six requiring the postal service to prefund employee health benefit program to the tune of five billion dollars

a year for future employees who literally are not yet even born a seventy five year future and obligation and no other business or government agency has ever had to do. the post office has been hemorrhaging cash and looking at shutting down post offices and laying off workers across the nation this week the senate is expected to take up legislation that would and sixty delivered mail for example wipe out post offices across the nation they didn't even more layoffs postal service has been around since before our nation was born since seven hundred seventy five so we really prepared to let this staple of american society go down the tubes joining me now is fred reland a national president of the national association of letter carriers fred it's a pleasure and honor to have you with us likewise to be the two largest employers in the united states or wal-mart which is not unionized and the united states postal service i think it's almost six hundred thousand employees in that mission which is unionized the ever since reagan declared war on the working people in one thousand nine hundred eighty one boston atco there's been this relentless war on

organized labor that's seen national unity as a should go from twenty five percent when reagan came into office to run seven or eight percent of private sector one of the eleven percent overall i believe. in your opinion is this part of this this poison pill of the republicans put in and the overpayments that the post office is made into the other federal trust funds retirement funds this is part of that i believe it is i can understand the anti-government anti-union and middle class agenda but what doesn't make any sense is those that have that agenda don't know if they realize their effect they're having an affair to the point true trillion dollar industry which the postal service is a cornerstone other effects between seven and eight million walk workers many of them private sector most private sector but the the the tragic reality right now is in this political season and we've seen this we've seen this in twenty five red states where republican governors and legislatures have laid off employees cut you

know cut benefits the more they can lay off people the worse the economy gets the worse the economy gets the less likely to is the president gets reelected it's like a political pawn. in any case what happened in two thousand and six i did we get to this point how do we get out of. well what happened two thousand and six this congress mandated the postal service start prefunding your future retiree health benefits for the next seventy five years as you indicated that could include people who already would born yet and do so would you change your period. which is a great thing to prefund future retiree health benefits if you got the profits to do so then of course with what happened with the economy and so forth it became unrealistically able to do so but there was nothing in the law to stop the payments and as a result of that so all the losses that we've read about for the postal service since that time have been attributed to this prefunding the postal service has had to take all their cash all their borrowing authority and put it into this account

where there's about forty five billion dollars right now so we're one of the richest broke companies in the country well then and in fact i remember in and needed to thousands before the republicans came up with this bizarre idea most of this is actually talking about coming out with a fleet of electric cars for short area deliveries and some very innovative stuff because it had a small profit and that it just basically have exhausted all their cash reserves for this prefunding that they could have used for those type things and other innovative ideas is is the best way for the people who are watching right now to get involved in this to contact their member of congress and the senators and say stock this attack on the president of this yesterday especially right now there's a bill in the senate seven hundred eighty nine that you consider and the bill doesn't make a lot of sense because it doesn't make any sense to legislate at a time when you have no plan for the future of the postal service has no plan to deal with the unfair burden of prefunding there's no plan to replace the revenue

that's been lost to the internet. having a plan to do nothing but just mantel the nation's only universal communication and delivery service is not a plan it's just an indication of the leadership in the postal service that has no idea what to do. fred thanks so much for being with us tonight you keep up the great work he does his postal service was created by benjamin franklin seven hundred seventy five and we shouldn't have to raise american history just because conservatives are afraid of unions and workers rights to call your congressmen and women and let them know that we need to preserve this critical american institution . meanwhile in sanford florida today marks one month since seventeen year old trayvon martin was gunned down or walking home from a seven eleven and now we're learning more about martin's killer george zimmerman as slate is reporting zimmerman had ecus three calling police on what he deemed suspicious young black men in august of two thousand and eleven zimmerman placed

a nine one one call to report a black male acting suspicious in his neighborhood three days later did the same thing this time reporting a suspicious group of black teens and in april of last year zimmerman called the police to report a black male between the ages of seven and nine also acting suspicious in either quote none of these calls zimmerman give a reason as to why the people he was pursuing were suspicious and last month zimmerman again placed a call to report a suspicious right teenager just before shooting trayvon martin's death. just as this trayvon martin case is boiling over there's another seemingly fear driven tragedy for our nation to deal with a thirty two year old iraqi mother of five children living in california died over the weekend after she was brutally beaten and what authorities are now investigating as a crime for team he was found unconscious line in a puddle of blood last wednesday with

a note near her reading go back to your country you terrorist authorities believe her tumor was beaten with the higher on saturday she was taken off life support so my paper crimes like this and the trayvon martin murder people tragic consequences of a drumbeat of fear it's constantly being heard across our so-called cable news and radio airwaves in america fashion here joins me now he is the vice president of the center for american progress editor in chief of think progress dot org and the progress report as welcome back thank you for having me terry to have you with us the the first of all do you what kind of relationship do you see between these two cases that edges where you see what i think is a climate of fear and hate that it's conditioned a few crazy killers to act out with their fear and hate i think in both these cases you saw these stereotypes and these prejudices that i think we see in larger society in called take it take ok did i believe a lot of the far right kind of governing

a climate and then you see some actors who are moved by that climate in my opinion and that's certainly what we saw in california i think zimmerman we're going to see more details about what moved him but it seems like certainly racial stereotypes played a pretty key role there. you know nobody is sure of the exact reason why a crime right now is lower than it's been a long long time there are some who theorize in fact the guys who are freakonomics that it's because richard let out a gasoline twenty years ago and we've got a generation of kids who are brain damaged by lead but whatever it may be murder rates now they've been dropping ever since the clinton administration most crime where it's america is safer now than it's been a long time and yet there's this constant be afraid be afraid be afraid isn't that basically the only thing the right the hard right has to say. if their alternative is to say oh and by the way we want to take away your social security when the question is why and in the period i think of great cultural change within our society we're moving from minorities to

a minority majority country by twenty fifty we're going to have a lot of agents a lot of indian americans a lot of americans and all kinds of chinese americans here constituting the majority of the united states and in this period of cultural change people are getting used to new ways new habits and you norms of the society that they've lived in and some are resistant to that change and i think in that context when you're resistant to it it's the role of all of us let's change advocates to make them understand that this isn't something to be fearful of there are those few and i believe that you know some of the far right we've documented this with the view that we're people who are out there engineering and manufacturing a campaign of hate every given day to scare you about the new elements within our society i think those are the people we've got to push back on it's these instances which are educating moments to get people to understand this isn't just rhetorical games when people are saying oh muslims are threats to america this actually could have serious and severe and and really the worst rapper questions

you can possibly imagine and even now i mean if you just flip the situation of don and and look at for a moment if this woman who was beaten had been a third. two year old mother of five and she had been beaten by a fellow with brown skin and a turban yelling allah akbar something like this would be wall to wall on fox news for the next month. and yet the fact the matter is it's getting it's not being treated as a terrorist act yeah i think that hopefully it will where in the process hopefully of learning who the killer is we still don't know it's not like the george zimmerman we're still trying to figure out what the details are all we know is that a note was left with her that suggested that she needed to get out of country and she was a terrorist so i think we learned motive through that note but we have a hard identity and i think once we start to fill in some details we're going to learn a lot more but i think you're right to suggest that there is a cable news dichotomy here certainly and use that how we treat these instances and

i think that is probably the worst of corporate america influence over this because they're looking at viewers and they're looking at numbers and they don't care whether this story is right or not they know that if they write a story about muslim terrorism in the united states it's going to get some viewers so it's going yes going to sell and unfortunately when you write a new report the justice of this which is pushing back on some of this hate i think well that doesn't sell and i think those of us on the progressive side of trying to argue there's actually not only the right cause but also a consumer base here for people who actually want to know about this we need to wake people up to this face think so or do it artistically on television great work you're doing to see two interesting topics are first is the second amendment. which was passed frankly to limit the power of a standing army during times of peace and maintain a citizen militia answerable to local authority you can read it in the constitution

of the state of pennsylvania why do you need to prove what you know how to drive before you can get a driver's license because if you don't know how to drive you can kill people with a car so why not a recent license and gun owners the supreme court has already said it's totally constitutional always jordan. zimmerman doing with a concealed carry permit after being arrested for assaulting a cop and making dozens of crank calls to nine eleven if you drove your car into a cop car and were busted for driving dangerously on the road dozens of times you lose your driver's license the second issue is why was this law passed in florida and sixteen other states it's a big deal it was pushed by the n.r.a. and wal-mart through alec the american legislative exchange council wal-mart is america's largest gun were the retailer the n.r.a. is the lobbyist for the gun manufacturers this law makes it harder to sue gun sellers for selling guns to crazy people and scopes more here on our streets we need more gun sales and more deaths since florida passed this bill justifiable

homicide rate in that state has almost tripled and with wal-mart alak in the n.r.a. refusing to talk to the press about their role in putting that gone into george zimmerman's and and then giving them immunity from arrest when he killed trayvon martin. for. sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then a glimpse something else you hear see some other part of it and realize that everything is ok if you don't i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

mr.