and adam liptak has been covering the court since 1986. he is the author of a book on the supreme court and there is a legal commentary on national public radio's talk of the nation. he has also recently offered a recent edition of quarterly guides to the supreme court. he comes from pittsburgh and has degrees from the university of north carolina and northwestern university. joan biskupic, who is identified easily by gender, covers the supreme court for reuters. she was the first to cover the lincoln assassination. [laughter] >> we are not telling her age. no, kidding. she covered the court since 1989. she covered the court for usa today and she covered for "the washington post." along the way she earned her jd degree at georgetown law school. she specializes in judicial biography and this included influential justice and after that she worked for justice antony scalia. she is now working on a book involving justice sinusoidal sonja sotomayor. and this person is robert barnes. he has been planning to go to law school but changed his mind

and yesterday, adam liptak reminded the american public how dangerous.his article he revis itted the clapper versus amnesty case where the supreme court rejected the warrant. but the court did make sure to get clarity from the feds as to who would have standing. solicitor general donald b. verrilli, jr. stated to the court . . . seems pretty black and white. so in a 5-4 decision the supreme court accepted his assurances and ruled in his favor, but apparently no one told federal prosecutors who have been refusing to make the promised disclosures in criminal cases, so basically the surveillance program is now immunized my friends from any challenges under the fourth amendment. here to discuss this teflon arm of the government is patrick toomey, a fellow with the aclu's national security project. mr. toomey welcome to "viewpoint." >> thank you for having me on your show, john. >> john: it's a pleasure to have you. it gets so mind boggling that it seems like it is almost designed to bogle the mine so we just switch off and go watch the kardashians. but is th

[laughter] last but not least, adam liptak who took over the "new york times" supreme court beat two years ago. he graduated from yale. he was on the "times" in-house legal department, telling them what they couldn't do. a decade later he became a lawyer covering legal issues, and supreme court nominations. his work has also appeared in other publications. looking at sunday's "new york times," this ad announcing his new book, "to have and to hold." i plan to ask him all about it. >> available for preorder on amazon and itunes. >> one more preliminary note, there should be an evaluation form on your table. i do not see them. maybe someone from the bar can distribute them during the program. we would appreciate if you fill them out and leave them on your way out. i'm going to sit down and join the panelists. let's start talking about last week at the court. the court saved all four of its biggest headline cases for the last week of the term. how did last week compare to last year when the affordable care act came down? was it just as crazy? tony, would you like to start? >> i do not th