Earlier this week , the two met in the U.S. Court of Appeals to argue before a panel of three justices whether a preliminary injunction made last December by U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson should stand. Jackson issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting Microsoft from forcing OEMs to bundle Internet Explorer with Windows 95. Jackson also appointed a special master, Lawrence Lessig, to further investigate allegations that Microsoft violated its 1995 consent decree. Microsoft appealed the injunction and the use of a special master in the case, arguing that since Jackson did not rule that Microsoft was in contempt of the consent decree, the case should have ended there. During the 90-minute hearing on Tuesday, the judges picked apart a number of legal procedural steps taken by the lower court and put the DOJ on the defensive, asking why the preliminary injunction should stand considering the DOJ never asked for one to be issued.
Observers expect the judges to rule on the appeal within two months.