We knew the decision was forthcoming and now, it has been announced. The Supreme Court WILL hear the case, being brought by 26 states, on Obamacare!

The High Court will hear arguments regarding the Individual Mandate as well as Severability.

Arguments will most likely be made in March of 2012, which would indicate a decision by the Court will be forthcoming in June of 2012.

By hearing arguments regarding Severability, the court will decide whether the Obamacare law would stand sans the Individual Mandate. Should they find the Mandate could be severed from the rest of the law, the rest would remain on the books and that could very well be the case but, should that happen, the Individual Mandate struck as unconstitutional while the rest kept intact, the problem for the Obama administration would be finding a way to fund the rest.

It is widely seen as the Mandate being the funding engine for the rest of Obamacare – and should that Mandate be removed from the bill, it would be on life support but not killed.

This is why it becomes so important for conservatives to retain control of the House while regaining control of the Senate. There are 23 Senate seats, currently occupied by liberals, which are up in the 2012 election. Republicans would need to retain the 10 seats they now control, and which are up in 2012, and gain at least 6 seats to hold a majority. Should conservatives hold 60 seats in the senate, the majority would be filibuster proof.

The House, however, is the key to conservatives becoming veto proof and potentially, that could not happen until 2014.

Regardless of the outcome in the Supreme Court, Republicans will need to take control of the Senate and the White House to fully repeal Obamacare.

The charge by the 26 states Attorneys General, taking their case to the Supreme Court next spring, will be led by the Attorney General from Florida, Pam Bondi, who has vowed to pick up directly where her predecessor, McCollum, left off.

The best possible outcome at the Supreme Court would be finding the Individual Mandate to be unconstitutional and that it could not be severed from the rest of the bill striking it down completely. The next best outcome would be striking down the Mandate only which would remove the engine of funding from the rest of the bill but that does pose something of a problem.

Obama could use the power of Executive Order in an attempt to fund portions of Obamacare.

Some are suggesting a downside for Republicans should the High Court strike part or all of Obamacare in that it could potentially erase a key plank of their campaigns.

I rather doubt this will be the case in that should the outcome be all or part of what conservatives are hoping for, the mere fact that Obama rammed an unconstitutional bill down the throats of the people without allowing it to be read before passage and the idea that he would then try a different tact if reelected will be enough to keep Republican and, I suspect, many independent voters engaged.

In what is being called groundbreaking, the Supreme Court will hear arguments regarding 4 key issues of Obamacare in 5.5 hours of testimony. The normal allotment of time for Supreme Court arguments is but 1 hour.

In any case, Obamacare is now officially ON the Supreme Court docket and the decision will come only 5 months before the election.