drama of the supreme court to the stage in a new play about the combative conservative justice antonin scalia. >> i tell people what they don't want to hear, that's what makes me a monster. that's how half the country see me: combative, law and order conservative. and that's what the other half sees me as a hero. >> woodruff: those are some of the stories we're covering on tonight's "pbs newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the worlds most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: this was a day of terror in the capital of yemen. rebel t.v. in the city reports at least 137 people died, and some

both justices antonin scalia and anthony scalia, both conceded that there would be huge consequences, both used the word disastrous consequences, catastrophic consequences. they just really had these ideas about fixes. so as you said, justice scalia was like, congress will fix it. justice alito said the states will go ahead and create state exchanges, or we could just push the pause buttton until they do. nobody seemed to dispute this was going to have unbelievable consequences on the ground. the only real question was, sort of getting out of the reading the statute, which is what we're supposed to be doing, is how easy it is to fix it. >> in terms of the obama administration and political strategy around this, a lot of people are talking about the obama administration not coming up with a plan b, if the supreme court strikes down this law, if they rule the way the conservative justices seem inclined here, the obama administration said we have no contingency in place. we don't expect that to happen. it would be bad law and we're not doing it. essentially, it's been described that we'r

justice antonin scalia would not sit idly by in a crisis. they could fix the problem. don verrilli said, well, this congress, your honor? his comment drew laughter in the chamber and a smile from nancy pelosi who was sitting in the front row. i can also tell you after today's oral arguments, a lot of people are openly wondering if the swing vote might not be justice roberts but anthony kennedy. at one point during the oral arguments today, justice kennedy asked a question in which he seemed very worried about the prospect of the supreme court effectively destroying the health care system in more than three dozen states with this one ruling. he said to the plaintiffs' attorneys today, quote, there is a serious constitutional problem if we adopt your argument. this is my favorite data point from the whole day today. after justice kennedy said that, in the oral arguments on this case, look what happened in the outside world. hospital stocks surge after justice kennedy criticizes obama care. hospitals rose more than all other stocks on the s&p 500 index. we must be humble

when it's the governor's turn don was hit by questions from justices antonin scalia and talked about subsidies established by the state. justice alito even suggested it might be to give the federal government time to act. for much of today's 90 minute oral argument, chief justi roberts was silent. when it was hanging in the balance, it was the chief justice who cast the deciding vote. the latest challenge is expected in late june. for "nightly business report," i'm hampton pearson at the supreme court. >>> president obama signed a bill today to the department of homeland security officially ending the standoff. republicans tried to use the legislation to repeal the president's executive actions on immigration. >>> the senate's attempt to override president obama's veto of keystone pipeline legislation today. tally came up five votes shy of the 67 needed to reverse the veto. needed the bill not the pipeline i.t.tself because bill interfered with the branch review of the state project. it's in the final stages. a no-go decision could come from the white house. >>> to energy now. exxonm

justice antonin scalia said it was, "certainly a plausible explanation," that congress wrote them asincentive for states to establish their own exchanges. the outcome is impossible to predict. swing vote justice anthony kennedy seemed skeptical of arguments on both sides. chief justice john roberts didn't show his hand. the obama administration said it has no contingency plan if it loses this case and charlie that will put the pressure on congress and the state legislatures to try to fix it. >> rose: indeed, thanks, jan. a potentially deadly superbug linked to contaminated medical devices turned up in california. four patients were infected with c.r.e., and 64 others may have been exposed. a similar outbreak at ronald reagan ucla medical center is linked to two deaths. in a moment, celebrating the centennial of the chairman of the board. alright, so this tylenol arthritis lasts 8 hours but aleve can last 12 hours. and aleve is proven to work better on pain than tylenol arthritis. so why am i still thinking about this? how are ya? good. aleve. proven better on pain. the garden is the

justice antonin scalia saw it differently saying to solicitor general donald varrely quote -- potential swing vote justice anthony kennedy had tough words for both sides telling the plaintiff's attorney, quote -- later saying, if the phrase in question is truly ambiguous, it would be, quote, a drastic step to say the irs could make a single call worth billions of dollars worth of subsidies. striking the subsidies could have on the overall law, a sentiment echoed at the white house. >> there's not a whole lot that the government could do about it other than congress passing legislation to fix it. but i think we're all pretty realistic about the likelihood that's going to happen. >> reporter: the administration has no backup plan if the government loses this case but a number of gop lawmakers say they do, if they win here they will do everything possible to make sure no one goes without coverage for any period of time. we'll have a decision by late june. lou back to you. >> shannon bream. much more on the obamacare arguments with the a-team steven and lisa join us later in the broadcast.

on the other side you had folks like justice antonin scalia who said, listen, it doesn't matter how itmpacts the rest of the law. if there is a reasonable unambiguous way to read that phrase, it doesn't matter how it impacts the rest of the law. we have to interpret it the way that it's to be interpreted, which is the plain language. so there were those who are very important to this vote. probably the chief justice, john roberts, and swing vote, justice kennedy, but we won't know until june. >> this affects 7 million people, if i'm not mistaken, is that right? >> reporter: yeah, and that is something that came up today because there were justices who talked about, well, what do we do? we know that this is going to have a big impact. and that's the one thing that both sides agree on. it could really have a bad impact on individuals and on the law as a whole. but there were others on the bench who said listen that's not our problem. if congress rushed this through, didn't write it well, didn't draft it correctly, that's not our problem. they are going to have to fix it, and there are th

on friday, supreme court justice antonin scalia, or an actor playing him, takes center stage but this time in a play. i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you on-line, and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >>> this is "nightly business report" with tyler mat sue herera. >>> game on. dow component nike beats wall street earnings expectations on strong demand but there are a couple of numbers in the report investors should watch. >>> lifting the ban?

here's the thing we heard from antonin scalia. he was talking directly to the auditor general.it not the case that if the only reasonable interpretation of a particular provision produces disastrous consequences in the rest of the statute, it nonetheless means what it says? he's taking it very literally and says, listen, if you don't like how the phrase interprets literally, we don't rewrite the whole law. there was a lot of discussion today as well about whether congress could clean up this mess if the court strikes down the subsidies. there were several members of congress sitting feet away from me. there was some wincing along that row of senators and house members when it said -- when the justices talked about kicking this back to them. that may happen. we'll know by the end of june. >> shannon broken, in washington. thank you. we'll be back with a look back on this day in history. and the story of major celebrities time in prison. this is my body of proof. proof of less joint pain. and clearer skin. this is my body of proof that i can fight psoriatic arthritis from the ins

more laughter especially when justice antonin scalia said to the defense perhaps congress make an ill-conceivedwouldn't do such a thing, justice scalia saying of course it could be ill-conceived to argue that such a thing were possible, congress couldn't do that, that is silly. that had plenty of laughter. stuart: how about justice kennedy? can you clarify if possible exactly what he said? rich: he tipped his hand in both direction. the whole idea of this is the law says you get a tax credit if you get it from an exchange established by the state. the government is arguing the federal exchanges that apply to 34 states can get subsidies, those challenging the law say that is not true. on the one hand kennedy is saying look, to create the law in a way to force states to create these exchanges would be unconstitutionally coercive. in that statement he is siding with the government but then he comes out and says later on if the irs is the one to decide what the definition is and who gets a tax credit that that doesn't seem -- that seems like a stretch so egos on the other side of the argument. we d

antonin scalia. this is something that he passionately believes in. laws should be interpreted according to the words used to write then, as opposed to the notion that you can divide the intent of the lawmakers. may be given the fact that this was recent history, that is not such a difficult thing to do but what about laws drafted decades ago, hundreds of years ago? either you stick to the principles or you don't. >> four words is why you have lawyers. stephanie: doesn't that make you sick, that no matter what people's good intentions are, let's just bring in some lawyers and they were looking to -- they will continue to argue. >> someone say that you should write a lot more carefully. when we did this in the last major supreme court challenge, a lot of the law was not implemented. people are not getting injured or subsidies. this year, the government is giving out $22 billion, about 7.5 million people would have subsidies potentially put at risk. further along the law goes, the more entrenched it is in national need, policy. it gets a little hard tak

joining in the discussion ruth ginsburg and antonin scalia. >> the idea that they're able to within six months when this decision comes out and the new year, will be able to set up exchanges to get them up and running to get the approving done i think is completely unrealistic. >> how long are you thinking? >> the current time line, justice ginsburg, in order to have an exchange approved and insurance policies on the exchange ready for the 2016 year, those approvals have to occur by may 2015. okay. so that gives you a sense of the time line that hhs is operating under. >> what about congress? do you really think congress just going to sit there while all of these disastrous consequences ensue? i mean how often have we come out with a decision, such as the bankrupt court decision, congress adjust enacts a statute that takes care of the problem. happens all the time. why is that not going to happen here? >> well, this congress you know -- >> theoretically -- >> i don't care which congress you're talking about. the consequences are as disastrous as you say so many million people sure i thi

but conservative justice antonin scheascheesal yah. scalia. chief justice john roberts who stayed mostly silent, playing his cards close to his chest and thont kennedyanthony kennedy who questioned both sides. create your own exchange or we'll send your shurnlings into insurance into a death spiral. argued today that the law is crystal-clear. >> this is not an ambiguous provision, this is a provision that provided subsidies to federal and state exchanges. >> state of virginia a state which relies on a federal exchange. doug hurst. his wife spoke out of the court. >> there are millions who like doug and i are forced by the internal revenues service to either buy insurance we don't want or face a tax penalty. >> reporter: this is just the latest in a series of legal challenges to the forecast. forecast. at one point justice kagan called it a liberal saga. (t) cato's michael kahn on, and cei is funding the suit. >> critics have argued this is just a way to pay down obamacare. >> i don't believe had a. more important what the irs is doing to take