Justice Dept. To Ask Supreme Court To Hear Microsoft Case

Attorneys for the Justice Department on Tuesday will ask the
Supreme Court to handle an appeal to the government's landmark antitrust
case against Microsoft Corp. The DOJ is expected to argue that the case is
so important for the American consumer that it cannot be held up in a
lengthy
appeals court process.

The DOJ will file its brief with the Supreme Court pursuant to a briefing
schedule agreed upon by the federal government and Microsoft Corp., wherein both parties are given time to try to
convince the court to accept or reject jurisdiction in the case.

In June, US District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson sided with
the government, ordering Microsoft to split itself into separate companies
and abide by a strict set of conduct remedies. Microsoft promptly won the
right to have its appeal heard in an appellate court, only to have Jackson
grant the government's request to punt the case directly up to the Supreme
Court

On July 26, Microsoft filed its "jurisdictional statement," arguing that
the
"complexity of the technologies" related to the case and its accompanying
reams of documents would place too great a burden on the high court.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant would prefer that the case
remained in the appeals court, which has overturned decisions against
Microsoft in previous cases.

Robert Lande, director of the American Antitrust Institute and a professor
of law at University of Baltimore, said there is no telling whether the
Supreme
Court will accept or reject the case, because there have been only two
prior
occasions when the government has used its expediting rights. Both were
related to the government's antitrust case against AT&T, and both were
granted by the Supreme Court.

Lande said the government probably will argue that the case is virtually
guaranteed to end up in the Supreme Court anyway, and that delaying the
inevitable will only hurt consumers and the economy.

"I think they'll argue that this case is so important to the economy and
the
high-tech sector that if they could save a year-and-a-half through
bypassing
the appeals court, by gosh, they should do that," Lande said.

Lande added that Microsoft will need to walk a fine in suggesting that
the appeal is simply too complicated for the high court justices to grasp.

"The way they have to frame it is that this case is such a mess right now
that
(the justices) would have to spend a great deal of their valuable time
pouring
through these mundane details," Lande said.

On Aug. 22, Microsoft will be allowed to file a reply brief, if it so
chooses.
Following the briefings, it will be up to the Supreme Court to decide
whether
it wishes to accept jurisdiction or remand the case back to the Court of
Appeals.

Reported by Newsbytes, http://www.newsbytes.com.