US Court To Review Anti-fraud Law

MARCY GORDON

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the validity of a landmark anti-fraud law that served as Congress' response to the wave of corporate scandals starting with Enron.

The justices said Monday they will consider a constitutional challenge to the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law from pro-business conservatives, who complained that the board established to oversee the accounting industry violates the constitutionally mandated separation of powers.

The law reshaped corporate governance after the accounting scandals of 2001-2002 at Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc., Tyco International Ltd. and other major corporations exposed inadequate internal controls and auditors who had become too cozy with the companies whose books they examined. The law was upheld in a 2-1 ruling by a panel of a federal appeals court in Washington last August. ...