James Vicini
Reuters
6/27/2010
Washington–The Supreme Court could strike down a key part of a 2002 corporate reform law and extend gun rights in the United States on Monday when the justices issue their final rulings of the term.
In eagerly awaited rulings, the nation’s highest court is expected to decide the constitutionality of a national board that polices auditors of public companies and whether gun rights extend to every state and city in the nation.
The nine justices could also decide a dispute closely watched by some software, biotechnology and financial companies on whether business methods can be patented if they involve a machine or transformation.
Chief Justice John Roberts has already announced that Monday will be the last day of the 2009-10 term. It will also be the last time retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, the court’s leading liberal, takes the bench.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday starts confirmation hearings for Elena Kagan, who has been nominated by President Barack Obama to replace Stevens on the court, long been divided with five conservatives and four liberals.
Kagan, the solicitor general who represents the U.S. government before the Supreme Court, personally argued the accounting board case and defended the law as constitutional.
At issue is whether the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) violated the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers principle, because board members are not appointed by the president.
At stake in the case is how corporate America is audited and a key provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate reform law adopted in 2002 in response to the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals.
The article continues at Reuters.
