I was scared to tell people i had just gotten out of the military because i didnt know if that was the reason why they werent hiring me because they thought i probably had ptsd or something. It was so hard. Ifill those are some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. At lincoln financial, we believe youre in charge. Youre the chief life officer and this is your annual shareholders meeting. Youre overseeing presentations on research and development and welcoming new members of the team. Youre in charge of it all. Lincoln financial is committed to helping you take charge of your future. Life, income, retirement, Group Benefits and advice. Lincoln financial. Youre in charge. Supported by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information at macfound. Org and with the ongoing support of these institutions 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. Woodruff president obamas Health Care Law hung in the balance today, before the Supreme Court. At issue whether tax subsidies to help pay premiums, apply nationwide. Most states rely on a federally run Insurance Exchange, but plaintiffs attorney Michael Carvin said congress meant to limit subsidies to states with their own exchanges. I obviously believe our case is very compelling so im hopeful and confident that the court will recognize the merits of our statutory interpretation and not let the irs rewrite the plain language of the statute. Now that its the law of the land, we need it to be neutrally and fairly interpreted and thats exactly why were here to vindicate the rule of law. Woodruff u. S. Solicitor general Donald Verrilli argued the governments case, with former acting solicitor general neal katyal in support. When the federal government runs an exchange it is such an exchange, just like a state one, and should be eligible for the subsidies. And when mr. Verrilli took the podium i think you saw that heavily hammered. The idea that this isnt an ambiguous provision. This is a provision that everyone understood at the time to provide subsidies to both federal and state exchanges. Woodruff the high court is expected to decide the case in late june. Well look at todays arguments in detail, after the news summary. Ifill theres new confusion over samesex marriage in alabama. Last night, the states highest Court Ordered probate judges to uphold a ban on gay marriage, despite a federal court ruling that its unconstitutional. Today, some counties stopped issuing licenses to gay couples. Woodruff the Justice Department confirmed today it will not file civil rights charges in the killing of michael brown. His death, last summer in ferguson, missouri, touched off national protests. Thenpolice officer Darren Wilson said he feared for his own life when he shot brown, and todays report backed that account. Attorney general eric holder. I recognize that the findings in our report may leave some to wonder how the departments findings can differ so sharply from some of the initial, widely reported accounts of what transpired. I want to emphasize that the strength and integrity of americas Justice System has always rested on its ability to deliver impartial results. Woodruff the Department Also officially released a scathing report that found systemic racial bias in the Ferguson Police department and courts. Ifill the head of mexicos notorious Zetas Drug Cartel omar trevino morales, is behind bars tonight. Police and soldiers arrested him early today at his home outside monterrey. Morales is wanted in the u. S. And mexico on charges of drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder. Its the second arrest of a Mexican Cartel leader in less than a week. Woodruff the latest negotiations over Irans Nuclear future have wrapped up, with no breakthrough. Secretary of state john kerry said today there are still significant gaps. And, a senior u. S. Official dialed back hopes for a Framework Agreement by months end. Ifill russian president Vladimir Putin weighed in publicly today, for the first time, on the murder of Boris Nemtsov. The Opposition Leader was gunned down near the kremlin on friday night, hours after he denounced putins policies in ukraine. In televised remarks to interior ministry employees, putin condemned the killing. translated the most serious attention must be paid to highprofile crimes, including those with a political motive. We must finally rid russia of the disgrace and tragedy of the kinds of things we recently saw and experienced. I mean the audacious murder of Boris Nemtsov in the very center of the capital. Ifill there have been no arrests in the case. Woodruff back in this country, the senate failed to override president obamas veto of the Keystone Pipeline bill. Supporters of the project fell five votes short. Meanwhile, the president signed the Homeland Security funding bill. It passed after republicans gave up on rolling back his immigration policies. Ifill wall street gave ground today, on profittaking. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 106 points, ending below 18100. The nasdaq fell 12 points, and the s p 500 slipped nine. Woodruff and, finally, the wreck of the giant japanese battleship musashi has been found, 70 years after it was sunk. Microsoft cofounder paul allen and his Research Team say they located whats left of the vessel, off the philippines. U. S. Planes sank the musashi in october 1944. Ifill still to come on the newshour. The Supreme Court weighs the future of obamacare. The boston bombing trial begins. General john allen on the coalition to stop isis. Female vets, back home, but overlooked. And, the controversy over secretary clintons emails. Woodruff a major challenge to the Health Care Law at the Supreme Court. Newshour contributor marcia coyle of the National Law Journal was there. This is the day everyones been waiting for. Big case judy. Marcia, we know the court has weighed in on the constitutionality of the healthcare law. Reminds us who brought this complaint and what is it about . This is what we call a statutory interpretation case involves the justices looking at a provision in the Affordable Care act and deciding what it means, what congress intended and the context and text of the law itself. This challenge to it was brought by four virginia residents who claim that there is a provision in the law that says federal subsidies or tax credits for low and middle income americans are available only on exchanges established by the state. They claim that does not include subsidies for purchaseons exchanges that the federal government creates. The act allows the federal government to step in and create exchanges when a date opts not to. As you probably know, only 16 states have created their own exchanges. 34 states opted for the federal government to come in and set up an exchange. Woodruff so it sounds like the justices just jumped right in and started asking questions right away. Im going to boil down the very lengthy argument with apologies to say he made basically two arguments here. First, the language, exchanges established by the state. The plain language dictates a result in favor of his client. His second argument was congress intended to limit the subsidies to state exchanges in order to induce the states to create their own exchanges. Basically, you dont create the exchange, you dont get the federal money. His plain language argument immediately drew fire from justices breyer, kagan and sotomayor. Kagan said its not fair you focus on just a few words in the phrase. The court looks at the phrase in the context of the entire statute to see if its harmonious, if it makes sense. Justice sotomayor claimed under the act there would have been Consequences Congress could not have intended and, in fact, the law was designed to avoid. Would federal subsidies on federal exchanges those exchanges would have no customers. There would be a death spiemplet Healthy People wouldnt buy insurance and insurance costs would skyrocket. Woodruff what was the governments response . The government represented by solicitor general vonl varilli and he agreed with the more liberal justices that the traditional way to interpret a statute is to look alt the phrase at issue in the context of the entire statute. He said the consequences that Justice Sotomayor enunciated clearly show that this was that the challenges interpretation was not the statute congress intended, but he faced his toughest questioning from justices scalia and alito. Justice scalia said it may not have been the statute congress intended but the question is the the statute the congress wrote and where the language is clear and unambiguous, he said the court does not rewrite the statute. Woodruff you were just telling me, marsia it looks as if two justices, in particular will be the ones to determine. At the end of the argument, it looked like the decision might well rest with chief Justice Roberts who said virtually nothing during the argument, was very quiet, and Justice Anthony kennedy who raised with the challenges what he called a serious constitutional problem with their argument that the congress intended to induce the states to create exchanges by limiting subsidies to state exchanges. This, he said, could be coercion, the kind of coercion of the states that violates the constitution. So i think those two justices are the ones that may well hold the balance here. Woodruff marcia coyle at the court. Thank you. My pleasure, judy. Ifill we take a broader look at the case now with michael cannon, director of Health Policy studies at the cato institute. And, neera tanden, president of the center for american progress. She is a former Senior Advisor to president obama and helped write the Affordable Care act. Lets go for a little context here. Was the administration the four words marcia was just talking about putting them into the acts was it intentionally trying to conceal or was it an unintentional loophole . I actually think its neither if you look at what we were deliberating. There were hundreds of hours of hearings, thousands of hours of discussion in congress on this issue. The debate we were having at the time was about where the exchanges, the parameters of the ex changes would be, and we were discussing regional exchanges and National Exchange and state exchanges, and this is very clear. The concept was state exchange and the reason there was the creation of the federal fallback was to have subsidies available to everyone regardless of whether a state chose to establish its own exchange or not. Ifill but michael what is your argument. That by imposing the laws mandates, taxes on 57 Million People who are by law exempt and by issuing the dispute subsidies in states with federally established exchanges. The law is clear. It said in multiple stages during the legislative process that the subsidies and taxes they trigger occur only through an exchange established by the state. Theres no similar language authorizing those measures in the federal exchanges. The law is clear state establishes exchanges and when the federal government establishes the exchange its established by the secretary of health and Human Services which is not a state and so a clear bifurcation when it comes to the subsidies. Ifill justice kennedy, the one who made both sides nervous, in your case because he said he was concerned about the impact if suddenly the subsidies that they made available in a couple three dozen states suddenly went away. It doesnt make me nervous for a couple of reasons. One, he only gets to the analysis if he agreed with the plaintiffs that the text of the statute is clear, and it appeared he does agree and he had a lot of skepticism for the governments argument that the court should defer to the i. R. S. As interpretation and expansion to have the statute. But even if he finds the statute is clear and the playoffs are correct, if he says thats an unconstitutionally quoarsive condition that congress placed on the exchange subsidies, that would create new constitutional law, that would call into question the constitutionality of any number of programs including the medicaid program. Ifill obviously, you can respond to that but i also want you to respond to Justice Kennedys about i. R. S. Overreach. I was very heartened by Justice Kennedys arguments because i think he asked questions about the i. R. S. , the Surgeon General responded clearly, but he raised this issue that a number of justices followed up on which is the conception that the plaintiffs want us to believe is that the Congress Passed a law that basically said to every state, youre going to have all these requirements on insurance, if you dont set up an Insurance Exchange yourself you still have to have those requirements on your insurers, which will raise the cost of insurance in your state and could create death spirals and, according to insurers who have filed, will raise cost force people outside the exchanges and, at the same time, there will be no subsidy for them. So youre going to leave millions of people harmed in these states, and one of the most important points, i think, came out in the assistant generals arguments is not a single state during the rulemaking process noted, complained, said a word about this problem because they didnt see it because it has been, frankly, an argument made out offwhole cloth by jew durable activists who have not been able to get their congress to pass but they would like to have happened so they used the courts. Ifill is there a legislative remedy instead of the courts . Certainly. One of the benefits of ruling for the playoffs in the case is it will create an opportunity for better healthcare reforms than what weve seen in the past five years. Ifill you base id on the Action Congress has taken so far . What would happen if theres a ruling for the playoffs a lot of people would see the full cost the mandates that the Affordable Care act imposes on them and thats a lot of dissatisfaction for that, causing impetus for change. A lot of the people who supported passage of the law continue want the costs to be transparent a, they want the law to operate another way. They tell us theyre having buyers remorse, didnt know what was in the law when they passed it now they see that how it works they dont like it any more than nine one else, but now that theres public dissatisfaction, that causes an opportunity for reform. Ifill is this a political debate the Supreme Court about the worth itself of obamacare after the Supreme Court upheld it or is this Something Else . Could i briefly respond . Its not that someone else is doing this the Supreme Court would decide to take healthcare away for millions of people nearly 9 Million People would lose healthcare coverage, that is the result of what the Supreme Court would do. If you look at the congress in the last several months, its hard for me to believe they would do this its hard to see this as a political fight. If that happens thats how the Affordable Care act works and we should change it. Ifill Michael Canon of cato and neera tanden, center for american progress. Thank you both very much. Thank you. Woodruff after weeks of delays, the trial of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev got under way today in boston. Heres Hari Sreenivasan with more. Sreenivasan the trials start was delayed in part by a long jury selection process. 18 jurors and alternates were ultimately selected from a jury poll of more than 1,300. Despite numerous motions to change venues, Opening Statements were finally heard today and it was a dramatic opening day. Emily rooney of wgbh was in the courtroom and starts off with this report. Reporter early this morning victims and their families were bused to the courthouse on bostons waterfront, and escorted straight inside. They have waited almost two years, and today they first heard from the federal prosecutor attorney William Weinreb who said both Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother tamerlan were terrorists Whose Mission was to maim and kill. Weinreb said dzhokhars computer was full of terror schemes and instructions