WASHINGTON -- An obscure law could move the Microsoft antitrust case to the Supreme Court quickly, possibly as soon as the fall of 1999.
Any US District judge who hears an antitrust case is empowered by federal law to circumvent the US Court of Appeals if the matter is of "general public importance in the administration of justice."
Microsoft went on trial last month in a federal court on allegations by the Justice Department and 20 states that the software giant violated the nation's antitrust laws. They accuse Microsoft of competing unfairly against Netscape Communications in the market for Internet browsers.
The trial is expected to last into the new year. If Microsoft is found to have violated antitrust law, a hearing to determine remedies could take months.
After that, either side could ask District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson to send the case to the Supreme Court, which would have the option of hearing it on an expedited basis or sending it back for ordinary consideration.
Until now, experts expected the case to reach the high court in 2000 at the earliest. But Jackson would have good reason to send the case directly to the high court, one expert said.
"The obvious reason would be that the market is changing quickly in high tech and that relief is meaningful only if given immediately," said Eleanor Fox, a law professor at New York University.
She said that Jackson "from the beginning made it clear that he did not want this case to be an IBM case procedurally...."
IBM was in an antitrust case that lasted more than a decade and was finally dropped by the government because it became irrelevant.
The government has won twice before in Jackson's court, only to see the decisions reversed by the US Court of Appeals -- another reason why it might wish to see the case move directly to the high court.
Copyright© 1998 Reuters Limited.
