Tony Mauro

June 06, 2005 | Texas Lawyer

In-house lawyers trying to figure out when it's OK to ask employees to follow a document-retention policy, and when it's too risky, received some guidance on that question from the U.S. Supreme Court on May 31. It may be cold comfort for decimated Arthur Andersen, but the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the accounting firm had been wrongly convicted for advising employees to abide by its document-retention policies in the face of impending investigations into its role in the Enron scandal.

By Tony Mauro

9 minute read

June 23, 2006 | National Law Journal

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a closely watched patent case on whether a naturally occurring scientific relationship can be patented. The Court's surprise action came in Laboratory Corp. v. Metabolite Laboratories, a dispute over the patentability of a correlation between blood composition and a vitamin deficiency. But an unusual dissent by Justice Stephen Breyer hinted that the case was dismissed because the patentability issue was not squarely raised before the Federal Circuit.

By Tony Mauro

4 minute read

January 16, 2007 | Law.com

At age 40, Paul Clement is one of the youngest solicitors general of the United States in history. As the Bush administration's top advocate at the Supreme Court, he manages much of the government's courtroom war on terror. His has been a stunningly quick rise -- and so far, unimpeded by the political grenades lobbed his way. At the end of Bush's term, Clement may be looking toward a career as a top tier member of the private Supreme Court bar, perhaps a judgeship, even a spot on the high court itself.

By Tony Mauro

20 minute read

June 28, 2000 | Law.com

The strong emotions running through all four of the Supreme Court decisions released Wednesday led justices to stage what seemed at times like a point-counterpoint panel discussion on hot-button issues of the day, from abortion to homosexuality to church-state separation. Three justices read from their dissents, surely a modern-day record. It was a dramatic end to a landmark term.

By Tony Mauro

9 minute read

December 04, 2003 | Law.com

Details of the death 10 years ago of Clinton administration lawyer Vincent Foster were aired in an unlikely forum Wednesday: the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices heard oral arguments in Office of Independent Counsel v. Favish. The high court is being asked to decide whether death scene photos of Foster, deputy White House counsel in the Clinton administration, must be released under the Freedom of Information Act.

By Tony Mauro

4 minute read

October 10, 2006 | National Law Journal

In his financial disclosure form for the year 2005, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer reported that he owned up to $50,000 of common stock in the Duke Energy Corp. Duke Energy is also the respondent in a major environmental case set for argument Nov. 1 at the high court. As federal law requires justices and judges to recuse in cases in which they hold a financial interest, "however small," how is it that Breyer has not yet recused in the case?

By Tony Mauro

5 minute read

May 12, 2005 | Law.com

As a law student, Sarah Shullman observed 10 Supreme Court arguments and tallied the number and tenor of justices' questions. In a new study, she reports her system to be a surprisingly simple and accurate way of predicting high court outcomes. In all the cases, the justices in aggregate asked more questions, and more hostile questions, of the party that ultimately lost. Though Shullman's sample was small, her methodology has already been tested since the study -- and found accurate in 86 percent of cases.

By Tony Mauro

7 minute read

June 21, 2010 | The Recorder

By Tony MauroThe National Law Journal

8 minute read

October 07, 2002 | National Law Journal

By Tony Mauro

4 minute read

June 29, 2010 | Corporate Counsel

In a major separation-of-powers ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said that members of an accounting oversight board created as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act were too insulated from presidential authority to be part of an accountable executive branch.

By Tony Mauro and Marcia Coyle

3 minute read