Supreme Court will Announced the Judgment on President Obama's Healthcare Law
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: You're in the SITUATION ROOM. A huge week ahead for the United States Supreme Court as the country awaits judgment day for President Obama's controversial health care law. Ahead, a closer look at how the court might rule and what it could mean for the White House. Senator Marco Rubio defends Mitt Romney as the Republican presidential candidate changes his tone on illegal immigration. I'll talk to senator Rubio about an issue that hits him close to home and about his chances of becoming Romney's running mate. And a new investigation into a potentially dangerous germ 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 Bolduan is joining us now. She's got a little preview of what we could expect. Set the scene for us -- Kate.</s>KATE BOLDUAN, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 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 and unprecedented decision affecting, as you said, nearly every person in this country.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And ask that the affordable care act in its entirety be upheld.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is a direct threat to our federalism. Thank you.</s>BOLDUAN (voice-over): From the minute arguments were over --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The case is submitted.</s>BOLDUAN: Court watchers were searching for any clue as to how the justices might vote.</s>THOMAS GOLDSTEIN, SCOTUSBLOG.COM: Obviously, everybody in a case of this magnitude is trying to read tea leaves.</s>BOLDUAN: 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.</s>GOLDSTEIN: 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.</s>ANTHONY KENNEDY, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: Can you create commerce in order to regulate it?</s>BOLDUAN: While Kennedy and chief justice Roberts are part of the conservative majority, they asked hard-hitting questions to both sides.</s>JOHN ROBERTS, SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: 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.</s>BOLDUAN: 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, albeit narrowly.</s>GOLDSTEIN: No matter what side wins this case, it is going to win 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.</s>BOLDUAN: Even Paul Clement, the attorney challenging the law cautioned that such a high-profile case is impossible to predict.</s>PAUL CLEMENT, ATTORNEY: 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.</s>BOLDUAN: 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.</s>BLITZER: I'm going to talk to Candy Crowley 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.</s>BOLDUAN: Yes, another blockbuster that we'll get a decision on this week. This involves Arizona's controversial illegal immigration law known as sb-1070. It is part of the law's been blocked, as it's being challenged inviting -- working its way through the federal courts and made its way to the Supreme Court. Basically, the bottom line here is the state of Arizona argues that it is stepping where the government as so far failed. And 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.</s>BLITZER: Kate Bolduan's going to be busy this coming week. Thanks very, very much. Let's dig a little bit deeper now with our chief political correspondent, host of "state of the union," Candy Crowley. You know, I had a chance to speak to Debbie Wasserman Schultz this past week, the chair of the DNC, the Democratic Party and asked her about options depending on what the Supreme Court does. Listen to this little exchange.</s>BLITZER: Are you ready to deal with that?</s>DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, DNC CHAIRMAN: I'm confident, as is President Obama, that the Supreme Court is going to uphold the constitutionality --</s>BLITZER: What if they don't? Have you thought about that?</s>SCHULTZ: Well, we can't really deal in what ifs. I'm confident they're going to uphold it. 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.</s>BLITZER: 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?</s>CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: 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 there was saying, which is basically nothing, like 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 argument 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, you know, 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, OK, now what? So they each have to play this carefully and I could see it going either way in terms on who benefits from it politically?</s>BLITZER: The political fallout.</s>CROWLEY: Yes.</s>BLITZER: Because certainly, 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.</s>CROWLEY: That's exactly what Republicans believe. We've talked to a couple of people, as I'm sure you have, that if said, you know I think the right thing to do is, 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, OK, the health care thing is over. They are thinking what we need is a change in president and it keeps them energized.</s>BLITZER: And there's one other option out there. They could punt these nine justices and say, you know what, this since the mandate and 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.</s>CROWLEY: I don't either. It would be fun if they did, but I don't see it happening.</s>BLITZER: Well, we'll know soon enough. And "STATE OF THE UNION," Sunday morning, 9:00 a.m. Eastern/noon Eastern, we'll be watching.</s>CROWLEY: I will be back.</s>BLITZER: Thank you.</s>CROWLEY: Thanks.</s>BLITZER: 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. 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