jay sekulow and julian epstein.in their take on how things went today. [ gans ] [ marge ] psst. constipated? phillipscaplets use magnesiu an ingredient that rks more naturally with your colon than stulant laxatives, phillipscaplets use magnesiu for effective relie of constation without cramps. thanks. good morning, students. today we're gonna continue... home protector plus, from liberty mutual insurance, where the costs to both repair your home and replace your possessions are covered. and we don't just cut a check for the depreciated value -- we can actually replace your stuff with an exact or near match. plus, if your home is unfit to live in after an incident, we pay for you to stay somewhere else while it's being repaired. home protectorlus, from liberty mutl insurance. because you never know what lies around the corner. to get a free quote, call... visit a local office, or go to libertymutual.com today. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? megyn: the u.s. supreme court wrapping up argu

the presses and in my hands here already with my highlighting there our constitutional scholars, jay sekulow and julian epstein. we will analyze what this means and whether this is a political or legal document coming up. >>> while americans are struggling to keep up with rising gas prices, new figures show a startling jump in the cost of food, making it difficult for many to afford what they need to feed their families. take a look at this. chicken is up 3.6% from last year. potatoes up just over 10%. ground beef up nearly 11%, and cheese is up more than 14%. peanut butter now costs 36.6% more than it did last year. why? stuart varney is the anchor of "varney & company" on the fox business network. why, stu? >> two reasons. number one, diesel has gone straight through the roof. the average price around the country is $4.16 a gallon. truckers use diesel, so they add the cost of diesel onto their distribution costs for food and groceries around the country. farmers use diesel in their tractors. that makes growing the food more expensive. reason number two, the u.s. dollar is down. when the do

jeff toobin is joining us with jay sekulow from the american center for law and justice.eff, first to you. can federal judges be distressed by what the president said without being characterized as deranged by hatred? >> absolutely not. this is a phony controversy from day one. what obama said in its full context is completely appropriate and uncontroversial. of course the president knows that judges can declare laws unconstitutional. his own administration is asking the courts to declare the defense of marriage act unconstitutional. they declare laws unconstitutional every year. every first year law student, most college students know that. obama didn't suggest otherwise. he simply said under the precedence of the commerce clause which is relevant in the health care law, he thinks the supreme court should uphold this law. there's nothing wrong with that. >> jay, i know you disagree with jeff on this. if politics and ideology permeated the judiciaries to really damaging levels at least in some instances. >> well, look, the damage here was the president of the united state

bush and jay sekulow, chief counsel for the american center for law and justice. come, good to have you here. >> good morning. martha: good morning to all of you. i want to start with you, jay. when you look through some of the comments that are said in this eric holder letter which we all remember was requested about by the fifth circuit judge who basically said he wanted a three-pain paper on what the president had said. give me your response to the letter and i want to you ask in detail about it. >> well, you know, of course the attorney general had no choice but to respond. the fifth circuit had the authority to ask for a letter brief on a topic raised by the administration. that was whether the court could strike down a law as unconstitutional. the president seemed to be questioning that. so the department of justice wrote that letter brief but they hedged it. they didn't back away from the president's position. they basically tried to put it in a different context or a more complete context. but the end result was this was a injury, if you will, brought on by

we will have a fair and balanced debate with jay sekulow and julian epstein coming up on that. >>> plusa 70-year-old piece of government polling data so popular it crashes a government web site. we'll explain what that's all about. >>> and former nbc news anchor tom brokaw suggesting the u.s. should be following china's example. what do you think of that? >> i think that we have gotten a little soft, quite honestly. i think that we are not facing up to what the 21st century means to this country and to the rest of the world. is this what we're doing now? i don't want a pluer anywhere near my coffee. not in my house. with maxwell house french roast, you let gravity do the work. [ male announcer ] maxwell house french roast. always good to the last drop. [ male announcer ] maxwell house french roast. or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business, it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities. that's why we extended $6.4 billion in needit to small businesses across the country

also jay he sekulow has argued 12 times before the high court.t doesn't happen every day? >> it sure doesn't. megyn: now some are saying the circuit panel was out of line. and it was the one judge who asked the doj attorney to submit that letter acknowledging the court, ability to review the law. but all three judges signed off on the order. was the fifth circuit out of line? >> absolutely not. when the president makes a statement, the department of justice is representing the president's position. the president of the united states says it's an acts of judicial activism if the court declares a law unconstitutional. i think they asked a legitimate question. she didn't say of course you can strike it down. she started talking about severability issues. i think there is no doubt that the president's statements have aggravated a lot of federal judges, and within legal circles it has been a constant commentary. at the end of the kay the president is trying to pull back some of those statements. but he's publicly challenging the supreme court of the u