WASHINGTON, D.C.-The U.S Supreme Court has rejected a Microsoft appeal to have the case thrown out for judicial bias.
Microsoft had hoped to avoid facing a definitive remedy judgment as the case enters its final phase in the U.S. District Court of Appeals.
The Supreme Court made no comment in rejecting the appeal, which hinged on unprofessional conduct by Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who was the original trial judge. Jackson held private interviews with reporters and made critical comments about Microsoft before he handed down his monopoly ruling last year. Microsoft claimed the interviews proved Jackson was biased.
Jackson was replaced in August by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.
The Supreme Court rejection closes one of the few legal avenues that remain for Microsoft, which is currently in round-the-clock settlement talks with the Department of Justice. If no settlement is reached by Friday, Judge Kollar-Kotelly has ordered that a mediator will be imposed.
If no settlement emerges by Nov. 2, the case will move ahead with remedy hearings scheduled for next March.