Administration: Health law can survive without individual mandate

The Hill reports:

Obama administration officials this week told a federal judge that even if the healthcare reform law's individual mandate is ruled unconstitutional, other parts of the law should be allowed to stand.

That argument, known as severability, is crucial to the law's survival should a judge rule that the mandate is unconstitutional. The administration made the argument Tuesday in a filing in Florida's multi-state lawsuit. The individual mandate is also being challenged in Virginia and Ohio.