joining me today daily beast correspondent, columnist ali cohn, and distinguished senior fellow bob herbert. that you all for being here. and joining us now from washington is nbc news justice correspondent pete williams who has been tracking this supreme court case here. pete, put this in context for us. there was what they call a circuit split, different rulings in the lower courts. how does that affect our understanding fl the significance of the supreme court hearing this case? >> reporter: well, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion the court would take this case for two reasons. whenever the lower courts strike down part of a federal law, that makes it very important for the supreme court to hear the case. now the court today agreed to hear two cases, hobby lobby, in which the hobby lobby, the company, won the tenth circuit court of appeals said yes corporations do have and can exercise freedom of religion. and then another case, the third circuit said another company, which is in pennsylvania owned by a family of five menonites, the court ruled against them and said not only can t

officer chris marvin, sergeant rebecca ambrilla and bob herbert, thank you so much. in" for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, chris. that was a really stupendous discussion. thanks. and thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. happy veterans day. >>> something weird is going on in virginia. the iconic visual memory from the recount of the presidential vote in florida in the 2000 election is probably this guy? remember him? his amazing, bulgy eyeballs, staring at those postcard ballots from florida? this poor guy, trying to discern voter intent in those punchcards. he was kind of the iconic visual memory of florida 2000, right? well, this is the commonwealth of virginia today. ringing any bells? in virginia right now, the election is not over, despite the calendar. no

officer chris marvin, sergeant rebecca ambrilla and bob herbert, thank you so much. that is "all in" for this evening. "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, chris. that was a really stupendous discussion. thanks. and thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. happy veterans day. >>> something weird is going on in virginia. the iconic visual memory from the recount of the presidential vote in florida in the 2000 election is probably this guy? remember him? his amazing, bulgy eyeballs, staring at those postcard ballots from florida? this poor guy, trying to discern voter intent in those punchcards. he was kind of the iconic visual memory of florida 2000, right? well, this is the commonwealth of virginia today. ringing any bells? in virginia right now, the election is not over, despite the calendar. we know that bishop e.w. jackson is not going to be lieutenant governor in virginia. we know that ken cuccinelli is not going to be governor in virginia, but you know what? ken cuccinelli is still the attorney general of that

. >> i want to bring in our company bob herbert. amanda turkle and senior reporter for "the huffington post." marco rubio was going to sponsor this bill and instead it's lindsay graham who has taken the lead. why go back to social issues in general and abortion in particular. >> lindsay graham is often called a republican in name only. he's often seen as a moderate by the more conservative wing of the republican party and he's facing reelection. so this bill is really a political move to shore up his base and try to get a lot of conservative support. the risk is that when republicans have run on these social issues dealing with women's health and sort of saying that gays shouldn't have equal rights in marriage, in the workplace, republicans have not done well and you don't have to look very far. just look to the 2012 elections when you had people like todd aiken. so this is a risky strategy for lindsay graham. it could play well with his base and it could alienate independents and women. >> it seems to be that the democrats are not

philip bump is staff writer at the wire, attorney faith jenkins and bob herbert. good to see all of you. let's start with the legal issues first. so zimmerman has his first court appearance today. the charges are aggravated assault with a weapon, which is a felony, battery, domestic violence and criminal mischief. how serious could this be? >> it's very serious. we're talking about felony charges here. and because it's florida, they have these bump-ups because a gun is involved so you're going to see the prosecutors go before the judge today. they're going to present the facts that they believe support their bail recommendation that they're going to ask the judge for and the case is going to go from there, i expect, and george zimmerman will enter a not guilty plea and then the judge is going set some sort of bail. i suspect especially because there's a gun involved and because at this point there's a pattern of behavior here that's emerging. >> and that pattern of behavior being? >> well, as a prosecutor, one of the first things we're taught when we look at someo

bob. >> good morning. i have to tell you, president kennedy would not put on a hat at any ceremony. the reason he wouldn't is because he once sent a picture of herberth out loud so he made sure he never put on a hat at a gathering like that. being from ft. worth, when you wore a hat or not, they always gave you one just like that. my wife said the place just howled when he said i'm not going to wear it this morning, but i will wear it if you come to the white house. it was quite a moment. >> i know that well but i want to ask you about the move in dallas. a lot of people don't realize there was anxiety around this time when he first landed. >> you know there had been anxiety in the weeks before he got to dallas. there had been some hate groups here that promised not to give him a good welcome. when he landed in ft. worth the night before, 10,000 people were on hand at the air force base to cheer him. when he got to dallas the next morning, it was raining and the skies cleared. the crowds were overwhelmingly friendly at love field and the downtown area and when they turned on to that street that's when lee harvey ozswald fired those shots. >> we talk