Question: If the Supreme Court declares the individual mandate unconstitutional,

[muntrv]

does the entire ACA also go down?

[PoliticAverse]

1. Depends on the issue of 'severability'...

The Obama administration is arguing that the mandate isn't severable from the rest of the law.

See this discussion: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/opinion/the-severability-doctrine.html

[COLGATE4]

2. The Obama administration make the tactical decision

to not have a 'severability' clause in the law as passed. Having this permits the court to knock down given part(s) of the law while preserving the rest. Seeing as ACA does not have it, it would certainly permit the interpretation that striking one part of the law essentially strikes the entire law.

[former9thward]

3. That is the issue to be debated in Wednesday's oral arguments.