Alternative Holding News Today

are inherent in marbury versus madison are like delivering a seal when requested, because there is a separate statute, and the secretary of the state had two of the hats on and he was on one hand the direct agent of the president, and that could never be examinable by the courts, but on the other hand, the original statute had imposed all of the purely ministerial duties that had to do with the recordkeeping and delivering of documents and if you had a land deed that had a seal on it, ...

along with analysts chuck rosenberg and lisa rubin. what can we expect based on arguments put forward in advance by both sides? >> reporter: to set the scene, because donald trump is here in person the security has really been ramped up. theres a much greater police presence. in terms of in the courtroom, this is a long shot for donald trump, this idea that a former president cant be prosecuted for any acts whited while serving in offense, its belied by the fact that gerald ford pardon...

Jurisdiction is allowed by the law to reach to the merits. >> isnt that a hypothetical decision and hypothetical opinion. the supreme court has said that. >> no, the steelco is the hypothetical jurisdiction doctrine, and if this court were to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, and then say, nonetheless, as an alternative holding, here is how we would come out on the merits, that i think that is improper, and i think that is what i understand the oversight brief to be on the footnote on page 20 of...

Different alternative holding would have been insane. it would have been soviet. >> carol, i want to ask you about another -- i thought it was a revelation in the letter. chairman thompson writes this, the committee has information suggesting that president trumps white house counsel may have concluded that the actions president trump directed vice president pence to take would violate the constitution or would be otherwise illegal. did you discuss those issues with any member of the white house...