closed doors. we'll tell you what's happening right now and what happens next. also, $640 million up for grabs. the largest lottery jackpot in history could be yours if you got the lucky ticket. i'm wolf blitzer. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com we've got breaking news coming into the situation room right now. president obama has just stepped up his re-election campaign. we have the information that is just coming in, stepped up pressure on iran. huge new pressure. the white house has decided to go ahead with what will be the toughest sanctions yet against the iranian regime. bottom line, get this, any country getting oil from iran won't be doing business with the united states any longer. let's go straight to our chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin. tell our viewers what the president decided to do just now. >> well, if the news is that 12 countries that get oil from iran will have to make a decision by june 28th. either stop taking that oil or stop doing business with the u.s. now this should take a lot of oil off of the world market because iran is the third largest oil exporter in the world, but in a letter released today the president>> if you cr 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. >> the skepticism of the government's case leaves the mandate in doubt, however, court watchers say they've left some wiggle room to side with the government albeit narrowly. >> no matter what side wins this case, it will win barely because it's so close. if the individual mandate is upheld, it is almost certain to be an opinion by five, maybe six justices, by saying congress can go this far, but no further, it cautioned such a high-profile case is impossible to predict. >> i would never get in the business of being a prognosticator. i do think the one thing that's pretty secure is that the justices are taking this case very seriously, the deliberations and process for them has just begun, really. >> reporter: so what happens now? the justices have certainly already voted on where they stand, this happens all in private and no press releases and no leaks and then begins the ever-important process of writing the opinion which needs to start almost immediately because they have four issues to decide and have very little time to finish up, wolf. >> they have basically until the end of june to let us all know the historic outcome of this decision. thanks very much, kate, for that. let's turn to jeffrey toobin, senior legal analyst and one of the best court watchers out there. so they meet informally, the chief justice convenes, this group, all nine justices together and we ask them for a straw vote and how they feel on these respective four issues. >> it's not a straw vote. it's a real vote. they go around the table and it's very much done by tradition. the chief justice casts the first vote and then they go in order of seniority starting with the senior associate justice antonin scalia all of the way down to the newest justice elena kagan. if the chief justice is in the majority and he a signs the opinion, usually a few days later to one of the justices in the majority. if the chief justice is not in the majority, the senior associate justice in the majority assigns the opinion and then they start exchanging drafts. >> do the justices ever change their minds after this additional vote? >> they do, not often, but it does happen. no decision of the court is official until the day it's announced. so these votes that they take around the table are by definition, tentative votes because once the justices see the arguments laid out by their colleague, sometimes they change their minds. it doesn't happen a lot, maybe a couple of times a year, very rarely do the votes switch in a way that changes the outcome of the case, but it does happen now and then. >> are you still convinced, as you were this earlier in the week that the obama administration, as you said on tuesday faced a train wreck with, on wednesday, a plain wreck. you've had a few days now to think about it. >> i sure do. i just think i was responding to what i saw. i thought the arguments went very, very well for paul clement. the question from the justices seemed to indicate they were more sympathetic to him, but this is just a prediction, and i've tried to make that clear that, you know, it's a projection and prediction and not a statement of fact, but i'm sticking with what i saw. >> other court watchers have a different assessment and dalia lithmic of slate.com. after tuesday it appeared that kennedy and roberts were both hostile to the bill, but attempting to keep an open find. kennedy implied he saw how the insurance market differed from other markets. i think most people believe if kennedy gets cold feet on striking down the mandate, roberts will go with him to write the opinion as narrowly as possible. what do you think about what dahlia lithwick. >> i think she walks on water, but i think they had a different reaction and we'll see what happened. >> just to be precise you think they will strike down the mandates and then go further and say the whole bill has got to go and congress has to start from scratch? >> no, that i'm not sure about. i do think they'll strike down the mandate. that's the part i'm more confident about. as for what that means for the rest of the opinion, i am not convinced that -- that there's a clear answer out there at this point. so i think it's a possibility that they strike down the whole law and going into the argument that seemed like an option that was almost outlandish, but clearly you had justices embracing that idea in the oral argument, but whether they're five votes for that is far from clear to me. >> jeffrey, thanks very much. good week for supreme court watches. >> it's been a really, really fun week. >> all right. thanks very much. rick santorum, he's dialing up his rhetoric. listen to this. >> we need a contrast, not a difference between tweedel dumb and tweedledee. >> key members of the republican establishment are rallying around mitt romney. and president obama all fired up today. he says he's been delivering on his promises of change and he's vowing there's more change to come. if there was a pill to help protect your eye health as you age... would you take it? 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[ male announcer ] try the new 360 investing dashboard oh yeah? at e-trade. big-name republicans are rushing to jump on mitt romney's bandwagon, but there's still a along road to the nomination. rick santorum is trying to throw some roadblocks in the process. our national political correspondent jim acosta has been watching this unfold. a very busy week of endorsements. mitt romney just gave a speech that sounded like a general election speech for the campaign. the romney campaign did not win primaries this week. they did something better by shaping a narrative that they've won. >> i'm excited. i'm encouraged. i'm enthused. >> reporter: another endorsement for mitt romney. this time it was paul ryan. more important than what was said on stage -- >> i believe americans face a very fundamental choice in this election. >> was what ryan said in this radio interview in milwaukee that time is running out for romney's rivals. >> if rick santorum loses, do you think it's time for him to get out of the race? >> yeah. i think most people would agree with that. >> it's been the romney campaign surrogate message all week best put by the first president bush quoting kenny rogers. >> there's a time when to hold them and a time when to fold them. >> his campaign's latest line of attack that one of president obama's top officials, gina mccarthy, once directed the romney policy in massachusetts. >> i played a pretty good role in trying to get governor romney to finally sign the massachusetts climate change action plan. >> we need a contrast, not a difference between tweedel dumb and tweedledee. >> santorum declined to speculate whether the -- >> talk to the political pundits. i'm running for office. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> democrats are talking up a love connection, noting romney has endorsed ryan's plan to reform medicare and the republican budget that just passed the house. it would end the current entitlement program in 2022, and replace it with a program that gives payments to future seniors to buy into medicare or prief sat insurance. he won't be another moderate nominee. >> you are convinced now that mitt romney is conservative enough? >> yes. i am. look, i was not a fan of bob dole being a nominee? '96. i did not support john mccain throughout the primary. i supported other people, un, last time. this is not the same kind of candidate. >> reporter: romney is not just lining up endorsements. he's mending fences and meeting behind closed doors with his old nemesis newt gingrich who sounds more pro-romney every day. >> i think mitt romney is clearly the front-runner. i think he will probably get the 1144, but i think he has to earn it. >> the romney campaign is only half way needed to clench the nomination and as a romney adviser told cnn, more and more republicans are recognizing the importance of unity for the real battle ahead and wolf, there's a good reason why the romney campaign wants this wrapped up in april and it's called may and look at the states in the calendar, north carolina, west virginia, texas, it doesn't sound like romney country. it sounds like santorum is ratcheting up against romney, comparing him and president obama and he's opened up this new line of attack on the environment and trying to say that mitt romney, like in the case with health care is following or is laying out a path for president obama on the issue of climate change. now the romney campaign had a response for that saying it's desperation that he's grasping at straws and rick santorum shows no signs that he's pulling out of the race any time soon. >> the house budget committee paul ryan would seem to be an important politician to have on your side. let's discuss what's going on with gloria borger and our chief congressional correspondent, dana bash. both of you have spent a lot of time with paul ryan and you spent a lot of time with him up in wisconsin. he's a significant player. >> i think this is an important endorsement in the sense that mitt romney likes the notion that there is a coalescing behind him, wolf, and it adds to the narrative. i would argue that the endorsements he ought to be looking for are the endorsements from evangelicals and those are the people within the republican party who remain the most skeptical about him, but if he can't get those these help. >> right. he'll get them eventually, but he needs them right now. democrats, though, some of them, correct me if i'm wrong, they seem to like the fact that paul ryan is looking for mitt romney. >> a web video that the democrats did that's amore. when you talk about paul ryan if you're a democrat the next thing that you say is he wants to do away with your medicare. whether that's fair or not it is the politics that democrats feel they've done pretty well on. this was the first time paul ryan passed the budget which many republicans were voting for, but were unsure of afterwards because democrats did such a good job of hitting republicans on it. i talked to a senior democrat who said when they make the argument that the republicans now romney and ryan want to do away with medicare at the expense of tax cuts for millionaires, they say that the polling is off the charts. so if they can continue to tie these two. >> which they will. >> in almost every interview, someone asked him about being a possible vice presidential running mate. is that realistic, do you think? >> well, he's got to be on the list and lo and behold, i also asked him that question, wolf. this was last sum wher i did a piece on paul ryan. take a listen to what he said back in august. >> who knows? i mean, i didn't plan on being a congressman in the first place. i thought i was going to go work in the field of economics. so i'm one of those people that cross bridges when we get to it. we had an open seat in the senate, and i decided against that because i thought i could make a bigger difference on the house budget commit impact. >> it doesn't sound leak a no way, no how. >> it's something that's out of my control and someone else's decision. >> there you are. not exactly shermanesque. the door is open. >> he's saying something similar. he's not ruling it out, necessarily, but it's not something anyone has spoken to him about seriously. >> that door is wide open and a clear difference with the way he answers the question and marco rubio who endorsed mitt romney yesterday who everyone is looking at as another potential vice presidential candidate. he's saying i don't think i want it. i talked to people close to paul ryan. >> he would take it? he would take it in a heartbeat. it would be a good pick, actually. wisconsin is a potential swing state. if you look at the history of it, presidential candidates who tend to be to pick people more like them, they look more comfortable, and if you're mitt romney you don't want anyone who will make you look less comfortable. >> my own personal guess is rob portman of ohio, the senator and budget director and former trade representative. i'm going to talk more about that, but i would put him at the top. >> and if you win ohio -- >> we greet him as mr. vice president. >> no republican has ever won the white house without capturing ohio first. >> and endorsed pretty early. just saying. >> i put him at the top of the list. thanks, guys, very much. >> thanks, wolf. marijuana is growing legally in the nation's capital. why officials insist it won't be abused. all fired up, president obama sounds a theme he made famous in the last race for the white house. >> in three years, because of what so many of you did in 2008, we've begun to see what change looks like. ♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from my bro ♪ ♪ and download the app that lets you know ♪ ♪ at free-credit-score-dot-com now let's go. ♪ vo: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. ♪ ♪ wow... ♪ [ female announcer ] sometimes, all you need is the smooth, creamy taste of werther's original caramel to remind you that you're someone very special. ♪ werther's original caramels. at liberty mutual, we know how much you count on your car, and how much the people in your life count on you. that's why we offer accident forgiveness, where your price won't increase due to your first accident. we also offer a hassle-free lifetime repair guarantee, where the repairs made on your car are guaranteed for life, or they're on us. these are just two of the valuable features you can expect from liberty mutual. plus, when you insure both your home and car with us, it could save you time and money. at liberty mutual, we help you move on with your life, so get the insurance responsible drivers like you deserve. call us at... or visit your local liberty mutual office, where an agent can help you find the policy that's right for you. liberty mutual insurance, responsibility -- what's your policy? >> i'm wolf blitzer. here are some of the stories we're working on in "the situation room" for the next hour. life on the run. new details on how and where osama bin laden lived in the years following the 9/11 attacks. plus, take a look at these live pictures from a helmet camera as an ohio clerk sells lottery tickets for the biggest jackpot in history. we'll tell you how to increase your odds. what one winner did to hit the jackpot. stand by. and the killing of trayvon martin. the shooter's brother speaking out to cnn in an exclusive interview with our own piers morgan. i'll speak to piers. stand by. you're in "the situation room." all of that coming up in our next hour, but let's get to our strategy session. joining us are cnn contributors and the democratic strategist donna brazile and david frum, he writes for the daily beast and "news week." guys thanks very much for coming in. let me touch on what i speaking on with dana and gloria. i thought rob portman, the senator from ohio. i think that's an interesting idea. i like another cnn contributor, john avalon and brian sandoval and david petraeus should be somebody who can bring some foreign policy gravity. here's the thing that romney, i hope will not do that use the vice presidency as one more opportunity to rally the hard base of the republican party. if they are still not rallied by the time the convention, there's nothing that can be done. he has to talk to the country, and he needs to talk to the whole country. >> who scares as a vice presidential running mate, the democrats the most? would it marco rubio, paul ryan, jeb bush who can appeal to hispanics out there. >> like mitt romney they will represent the same old economic policies of the previous administration, so i'm not really fearful of any of his picks, but here's what i believe he will do. i believe he will go back to the right and perhaps put bob mcdonald, the governor of virginia, marco rubio, the senator from florida and he needs to put several important battleground states into play. >> here's what with marco rubio told the daily caller and he said this, he said there are a lot of other people