leak at a u.s. government lab. is an agency that's supposed to protect us from disease putting people at risk? we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." all eyes on the u.s. supreme court this coming week as the justices are expected to hand out a ruling that will impact every american and shape the future of the country. the long-awaited decision on president obama's health care reform law. and coming just months before the election, the stakes, politically speaking, could not be higher. cnn's kate balduan is joining us now. she's got a little preview of what we could expect. set the scene for us, kate. >> hey, there, wolf. well, it is the biggest secret in washington and really only the justices and their law clerks know how this drama will end. but one thing is certain. we will know in a matter of days if the affordable care act stays or goes. an unprecedented decision affecting, as you said, nearly every person in this country. >> and ask that the affordable care act in its entirety be upheld. >> that is a direct threat to our federalism. thank you. >> from the minute arguments were over -- >> the case is submitted. >> reporter: court watchers were searching for any clue as to how the justices might vote. >> obviously, everybody in a case of this magnitude is trying to read tea leaves. >> reporter: for the high court, it's no small feat. deciding four separate issues impacting nearly every american, and the fate of the president's number one domestic achievement. here are the court's options. the centerpiece -- will the individual mandate stand or fall? does the rest or any of the law survive if the mandate is struck down? or will the court call for a legal time-out until the main provisions go into effect, though this option is unlikely. key to the decision, it may be these two men, chief justice john roberts and the traditional swing vote, justice anthony kennedy. >> more so than in most cases, justice kennedy seemed visibly to be struggling here. he thought that this statute does fundamentally change the relationship between the federal government and the citizens, which really worried him. on the other hand, he understands the special nature of the insurance market. >> can you create commerce in order to regulate it? >> while kennedy and chief justice roberts are part of the conservative majority, they asked hard-hitting questions to both sides. >> i don't think you're addressing their main point, which is that they're not creating commerce in health care. it's already there. and we're all going to need some kind of health care, most of us will, at some point. >> reporter: there's skepticism of the government's case leaves the mandate in doubt. however, court watchers say they left themselves some wiggle room to side with the government, although barely. >> whoever wins this case, they will barely, because it's so close. if the individual mandate is held, it's most certainly to be an opinion by five or six justices saying, congress can go this far, but no further. >> reporter: even paul clement cautioned that such a high-profile case is impossible to predict. >> i would never get in the business of being a prognosticator. i think the one thing that's pretty secure is that the justices are taking this case very seriously. >> now, after the decision is handed down, the big question quickly becomes, what now? house republican leaders have made clear if the law isn't completely thrown out, they'll vote to repeal whatever's left. and for weeks, wolf, both the white house and congressional republicans have been quietly strategizing their message, so they're very much ready as soon as the decision comes down. >> i'm going to talk to candy crowly about the political fallout in a moment, but there's another major case that the supreme court is going to decide on this coming week as well, involving immigration. >> yeah. another blockbuster that we'll get a decision on this week. this involves arizona's controversial illegal immigration law known as sb-1070. part of the law's been blocked, as it's being challenged in working its way through the federal courts. the federal government is fighting back saying that the state is stepping on what is exclusively federal authority over immigration policy. americans across the country are going to be watching this. this is a big election year issue. states also, wolf, are watching this very closely, as many states in this country are also considering similar laws. >> kate balduan's going to be busy this coming week. thanks very much. let's dig a little bit deeper now with our chief political correspondent, host of "state of the union," candy crowley. i had a chance to speak to debbie wasserman schultz this week, the chair of the dnc, t let's listen to this exchange. >> are you ready to deal with that? >> i'm confident, as is president obama, that the supreme court is going to uphold the constitutionality -- >> what if they don't? have you thought about that? >> well, we can't really deal in what ifs. i'm confident they're going to uphold it. if if for some reason they don't, we are committed and we need to make sure that with we can continue to cover the americans that would be left twisting in the wind. >> health care reform law, you know, this is the signature achievement of the obama administration so far. if the supreme court rules all or some of it being unconstitutional, that's a huge embarrassment? >> it is. and its initial blow, the question is, two months out, three months out, how does it fit into the political discussion? and what debbie wasserman schultz was saying, which is basically nothing, i'm not going to give you contingency plans, have been asked at the white house repeatedly, and they say the same things, we expect it to be upheld. but we are also hearing that they are talking about, quote, contingency plans. but politically, this could go either way. i honestly could make an argumented that this would help republicans. certainly, republicans think it will, as kate mentioned, they want to have vote after vote of whatever doesn't get thrown out, at least on the house side, where they have the vote. and they think when they look at the public polling that a majority does not like what the critics call obama care. but if you look at the parts of it that are now in place, there can be no lifetime cap on insurance benefits, children up to the age of 26 on their parents' health care, and no pre-existing condition can be used to deny insurance coverage, those are popular things. so i would watch for the democrats to say, so, now, how are we going to do this? now, do they each have to come up with a plan? i think the public's going to say, okay, so now what? so they each have to play this carefully and i could see it going either way as to who benefits from it politically? >> the political fallout. because if the supreme court justices say, it is constitutional, and lets the law stand, that will presumably really energize that republican base to try to change it. >> that's exactly what republicans believe. we've talked to a couple of people, as i'm sure you have, who said, i think the right thing to do, would be if they throw out this individual mandate, but for us if they let it stand, it keeps the base energized. they're not thinking, the health care thing is over. it keeps them thinking, they need a change in president. keeps them energized. >> and they could punt these nine justices, saying since the mandate, the penalty, the tax doesn't go into effect until 2014, we're not going to rule on it now. we have to wait for that provision to actually go into effect. i don't think they'll do that, but that's one option. >> i don't either. it would be fun if they did, but i don't see it happening. >> well, we'll know soon enough. and "state of the union," sunday morning, 9:00 a.m. eastern/noon eastern, we'll be watching. >> thanks. details of president obama's early life that we haven't heard before, some of them contradicting his own memoir. i'll talk to the author of a brand-new biography that's generating lots of buzz. and hidden fees, rate hikes, bad customer service. now complaints about credit cards go public in a big way. plus, the viral video of a grandmother and a school bus monitor being brutally bullied by students, and she is speaking out. and when you switch from another company to us, we even reward you for the time you spent there. genius. yeah, genius. you guys must have your own loyalty program, right? 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[ female announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astra zeneca may be able to help. it's arguably the most anticipated political book of the year. a new biography of president obama that reveals new details of his early life, which "the new york times" calls both s surprising and gripping. and the author, david maraniss is joining us right now, his new book is entitled "barack obama: the story." thank you very much for joining us. key elements of what the president himself wrote in his autobiographies you learned were not necessarily all that factual, were not necessarily based on reality. what was the biggest difference you found? >> well, he acknowledges in his memoir that there are composites and a compression of time in there. and it is true that there's a difference between memoir and rigorous factual biography. i would is a that what he was doing is trying to put everything through the lens of race. so that he creates characters, somewhat built on real people that i found, but sometimes the real person was white when he was making them black or vice versa, and it was all sort of for one purpose in mind, in his memoir, which was to write about his self-identity. and my purpose is far different. any biographer is trying to just get the real story. so i wasn't doing it to fact check or vet in that super official political sense. i was just trying to get the story right. >> if there was any doubt where he was born, you put that to rest. you studied that pretty closely, right? >> i don't think any serious biographer ever had any doubt, but the accumulation of documents is pretty overwhelming, as well as interviews with people who were in the hospital scene that week and were passing along the word of this oddity that stanley had a baby, that's the first name of barack obama's mother. furthermore, there were ins documents of barack obama senior, who was on a seesvisa f kenya, and who was sort of problematic for the ins. they were watching him every day. so i have the documents of the ins reporting where he was during the period before, during, and after that birth. >> so what do you say to all these birthers out there, to donald trump or others who still don't believe he was born in honolulu? >> i don't know what you can say. on one hand, i don't want to deal with it anymore, but on the other hand, i wonder, what drives them? why do they want to believe this fantasy? >> and there are others who still insist that he's a muslim? >> that part i found to be particularly delicious in doing the reporting. of the obamas in kenya, their rise -- his grandfather, it's true, converted to islam, although he did not practice it very devoutly. but when you study the rise of the obamas in kenya, it was conservative evangelical christians who are responsible for the rise all along the way. they came out to western kenya to the tribe and taught them english. president obama's father was educated at an anglecan school and mentored by a woman who came to kenya from the united states to teach the gospel and spread literacy. she's the one who brought him to the united states. so it had nothing to do with muslims. >> and another compelling part of the book, and it's a sad story, you believe the president was better off not really knowing or having a life with his father. >> that's a difficult thing for me to say, but as trying to be an objective observer, historian, i think that's true. that -- >> why. tell our viewers. >> because his father was abusive. and he wasn't with obama's mother for more than a couple of months, but the next woman he married, another american, told me gruesome stories about being beaten by him, physically, with his hands, had a knife to her throat. just -- he was an alcoholic and very abusive. and that would have been difficult, of course, for any kid. >> and you also write, movingly, how he struggled with his own racial identity. give us an example. >> that is the last third of the book. he is trying to figure himself out. and his whole early adult life is an arc towards home. going from living with white grandparents, having a white mother, to finding himself in the south side of chicago, finally, as an african-american. and along the way, i have letters that he wrote where he's describing this struggle and how he's looking at other people with different niches and he's trying to figure out how he can be both everything, because he is both black and white, and also find a comfort level in the black community. >> you know, you've also written a great biography of bill clinton, now great biography of barack oma. two presidents, two guys who grew up really without a father, but emerged very different in terms of their social behavior. bill clinton, he could go schmooze, he could go socialize, he made everyone feel special. this president, very different, why? >> well, part of it is coming from hawaii. there's a said there, cool head made thing. he doesn't need people. he figured himself out. he was an introvert. he had the sensibility of a writer, which is sort of a participant/observer. and bill clinton needed people so badly that in high school, he would invite friends over just to watch him do a crossword puzzle. you know, he has a preternatural need to survive with other people, which barack obama never had. >> at one point, you write about how it's tough for him to make a serious decision, but he did decide to go ahead and give the order to kill bin laden, because there was no guarantee that that mission would succeed. is that in his character? >> it was. but when you see, going back to his days as a community organizer in chicago, his mentors and people who worked with him there said he was very cautious. he would deliberate and deliberate to the point of sort of driving them crazy. and then he would make a bold move. and you see that in his presidency. so not just with bin laden, but also with the don't ask, don't tell, decision. for the first two years of his presidency, the gay community was sort of pounding on him, why aren't you acting? he's trying to figure it out. his life is a study in how to avoid traps. so that's why he sometimes appears too deliberate. >> are you working on part ii right now? >> it will be a while, because i don't want it to be a quickie, i want to get the documents, but there will be a second volume, yes. >> we're looking forward to that. thanks for all the great work. the book is entitled "barack obama: the story." the author is david maraniss. a possible running mate for mitt romney accusing president obama of politicizing the immigration issue. stand by for my interview with senator marco rubio. and if you're fuming about surprise credit card fees or lousy service, there's now a place where you can share your complaints with the world. do you see it ? there it is ! there it is ! where ? where ? it's getting away ! where is it ? it's gone. we'll find it. any day can be an adventure. that's why we got a subaru. love wherever the road takes you. wow, there it is. i think we should see other people. in fact, i'm already seeing your best friend, justin. ♪ i would've appreciated a proactive update on the status of our relationship. who do you think i am, tim? 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>> hi, there, wolf. well, this is a site where consumers can go on and see how their credit card company measures up. have they logged a number of complaints? is there an issue that someone's facing that others are facing as well? the banking and credit card industrious, they don't like this a bit. >> usa prime credit. my name peggy. you got problem? >> peggy? third time i've called. it's time i speak with a supervisor. >> supervisor is genius. i transfer. transfer! transfer! >> reporter: it's such a stereotype that some credit card companies are even making fun of their own industry. hidden fees, lousy customer service. a surprise jump in interest rates. a lot of people have griped about credit card companies. >> i paid a couple of bills and they sent me more bills. >> i missed a payment by five days and they cut off my card. i went to charge something and i couldn't charge it because they had cut it off. >> reporter: now people have a new tool. the federal government has launched a new consumer complaint database. the consumer financial protection bureau unveiled the site, which includes a snapshot of the 45,000 complaints the bureau says it has collected from consumers on their mortgage, student loans, and credit cards. the bureau's director says, "we hope to improve the transparency and efficiency of this essential consumer market." the database, still in its beta version, includes 137 cases focused on credit cards and listed by type of complaint, zi