With two cases on its docket already addressing the federal law on “honest services” fraud, it’s fair to wonder why the Supreme Court added a third, but that’s what the justices did Tuesday morning, granting review of an appeal filed by one-time Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling.
The Court will hear arguments in December on what is needed to prove such a fraud in a case involving former media mogul Conrad Black (Black v. United States) and another where the defendant is a state official accused of mail fraud (Weyhrauch v. United States.) Skilling even filed an amicus brief in the Black case, and Solicitor General Elena Kagan urged the Court to hold Skilling’s appeal pending the outcome of Black. Skilling’s case addresses a slightly different aspect of the law, but Kagan said the outcome of the Black case could define the scope of the law in ways that would affect Skilling’s appeal.
