reporter: day 3. march 28. the justices considered what will happen to the overall health care law if the court decides to strike down the mandate. justice ginsburg was concerned about the affordable care act. why shouldn t we say that the choice between a wrecking operation, which is which you are requesting, or a salvage job and the more conservative approach would be salvage, rather than throwing out everything? reporter: justice scalia struggled to see how there could be any other solution if the mandate false. most of our severability cases, you know, involve one little aspect of the act, and the question is whether the reft when have we ever struck down what was the main purpose of the act and left the rest in effect? reporter: the justices also heard from 26 states that argued they cannot afford to add millions to their medicaid roles
in a very fund alexander way. reporter: justices repeatedly said those who decide not to get verdict are having an economic impact on an existing stream of economic activity. here s justice cagan. the aggregate of all of these uninsured people are increasing the normal family premium, congress says by $1,000 a year. those people are in commerce. they are making decisions reporter: equally unconvinced, justice scalia. everybody has to buy food. so you define the market as food. everybody s in the market. therefore you can make people buy broccoli. reporter: at the end of day 2, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle seemed encouraged. i would say the government had a tough day. very obvious that this law is unconstitutional, tomorrow somebody can come in and attack social security for the same reason. that would be unconstitutional. reporter: day 3.