NOTE TO STUDENTS:  This Supreme Court case might not seem very interesting to you, but its outcome will have a huge impact on your future.  Try to gain a general understanding of the case, and the role of judges, etc.  (Read the "Background" below before answering the questions.  If you haven't done so, read the previous articles on this case, including all "Background" and "Resource" information at: 
studentnewsdaily.com/daily-news-article/supreme-court-begins-hearing-arguments-in-obamacare-case and
studentnewsdaily.com/daily-news-article/health-care-law

1.  What is the individual mandate?

2.  What argument made by those challenging the health care law did justices appear to be favorably inclined to agree with?

3.  Consider the following:

• A judge is either a constitutionalist or an activist judge.
• Judicial activism is "the act of replacing an impartial interpretation of existing law with the judge's personal feelings about what the law should be" (wikipedia.org)
• A judge who is a constitutionalist does not make his court rulings based on his personal philosophies, but rather on what the constitution says.
• Constitutionalism is the belief that a judge's proper role is as neutral interpreter of established law, not as pioneer of new law or social policy through judicial activism. As former Sen. Sam Ervin said: "A judicial activist is a judge who interprets the Constitution to mean what it would have said if he, instead of the Founding Fathers, had written it." The constitutionalist philosophy...was the jurisprudential norm in American history, but has eroded substantially in recent decades.
• The justices nominated by Republican presidents are referred to by the media as conservatives:  more specifically, these judges are constitutionalists.  The justices nominated by Democratic presidents are referred to by the media as liberals:  more specifically, these judges are activist judges.

There are four "liberal" and four "conservative" justices on the court.  Which justice, labeled a "conservative" is usually the deciding vote, sometimes taking the constitutionalist side, sometimes taking the activist side?

4.  How is Chief Justice John Roberts likely to decide on the health care law?

5.  Which U.S. Court of Appeals is the only appellate court to have struck down the individual mandate?