tonight, we look back at stevens' legacy, and ahead to possible candidates to replace him with marcia coyle of the "national law journal," plus law professors kathleen sullivan and john mcginness. >> lehrer: then, we return to the financial crisis commission. they heard more apologies, including from former executives of mortgage giant fannie mae. >> i want to be clear, i was the ceo of the company and i accept responsibility for everything that happened on my watch. >> brown: we continue our look at what members of congress are hearing about the new health care law. betty ann bowser follows democrat tom periello home to his virginia district. >> health care is not my fight t was about economic relief to working it in middle-class families. seniors who are struggling. if we can save them a little money, that's a really big deal for people. >> lehrer: and we get the analysis of david brooks and ruth marcus, filling in for mark shields. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour is provided by:

. >> suarez: marcia coyle, good to see you. >> my pleasure. >> woodruff: finally tonight, it was 35 years ago this week that the vietnam war came to an end. jeffrey brown talks to author tim o'brien about a book on the war that has stood the test of time. >> brown: what makes a war story ring true and what makes one last? "the things they carried," a fork of fiction about the experience of a group of soldiers in the vietnam warp was published in 1990. it sold more than two million copies and appears on numerous high school and college reading lists. one of the rare works of recent literature that helped define vietnam and the experience of war. marking the an vary rs author tim o'brien is talking to students and others, including this webcast conversation shot at a washington, d.c. high school. o'brien himself served in vietnam and has written a memoir

. >> brown: then, marcia coyle of the "national law journal" fills us in on arguments in two supreme court cases, one centered on freedom of speech, the other workplace privacy. >> woodruff: tom bearden reports on american catholics reacting to the sex abuse scandals plaguing the vatican. >> reporter: here in denver some catholics feel betrayed and have left the church entirely while others believe the pope is being unfairly targeted. >> brown: we look at the merits and the fallout from fraud charges filed against goldman sachs. >> woodruff: margaret warner talks to andrew kohut about his latest poll showing mounting distrust in the government. >> brown: and we mark the 15th anniversary of the oklahoma city bombing with excerpts from today's ceremony. >> we come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived, and those changed forever. >> brown: that's all ahead on

and newshour regular marcia coyle of the "national law journal." thank you all three for being here. i'm going to start with you,ing kathleen sullivan, what does it mean for the court to lose john paul stevens? >> well, judy, this is the end of one of the great tenures on the court. justice stevens served 35 years through seven presidents and three chief justices. and he's become really the liberal leader of the court. a statesman who perhaps moved left as the court moved right. but because he has been for 15 years the senior most justice on the liberal side of the court, he's been able to sometimes eke out five to four liberal victories on a conservative court. for instance, as you mentioned in ham dam versus rumsfeld, saying to the bush administration, no you cannot make up new military commission procedures that violate the geneva conventions to try the guantanamo detainees. or in another case he lead the court to a 5-4 ruling that said the bush administration had to against its will look at greenhouse gases, that maybe causing climate change. s

. >> brown: then, marcia coyle of the "national law journal" details today's supreme court ruling striking down a ban on videos of animal cruelty. >> warner: kwame holman covers the questioning at today's congressional hearing on last year's collapse of the investment firm lehman brothers. >> brown: paul solman tells the story of some homeowners who've stopped paying their mortgages, even though they can still afford them. >> warner: we look at community colleges' struggle to educate and graduate more students. >> brown: and gwen ifill remembers civil rights icon dorothy height, who died this morning at age 98. >> early in life, i learned it was important to have some goals, and i chose to put my life's work in the direction of equality and justice. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. 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. >> brown: the

. >> woodruff: ray suarez gets a supreme court update from marcia coyle of "the national law journal" on today's arguments over the right of privacy and a decision allowing a cross to stand in the mojave national preserve. >> ifill: and, jeffrey brown talks with author tim o'brien. 20 years after he penned "the things they carried." soldiers' stories from the vietnam war. >> for me, the way to approach a subject, such as vietnam, is through storytelling. my goal is to try to, so much as i can, capture the heart, the stomach, and the back of the throat of readers who can lie in bed at night and participate in the story. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> what the world needs now is energy. the energy to get the economy humming again. the energy to tackle challenges like climate change. what if that energy came from an energy company? everyday, chevron invests $62 million in people, in ideas-- seeking, teaching, building. fueling growth around the world to move us all ahead. this is the power of human energy