The AP reported on Wednesday that former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy, recently charged in an 85-count indictment by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Alabama for alleged conduct related to accounting fraud at the company, will challenge the constitutionality of the certification requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley, 18 U.S.C. 1350. Counts 48-50 of the Indictment charge that Scrushy certified, or attempted to get others to certify, certain periodic reports filed with the SEC while knowing that the reports "did not fairly present. in all material respects, the financial condition and results of operations of HealthSouth...." Scrushy is believed to be the first person to be prosecuted under Sarbanes-Oxley.

Abbe Lowell, who recently agreed to join Thomas V. Sjoblom, his partner at Chadbourne & Parke LLP, "in this historic endeavor of service to [Scrushy], one which will prove to be of unprecedented magnitude" (for more on the historic endeavor and unprecedented magnitude, see this post from the hardly obscure Corp Law Blog), reportedly told the Court that the parties were in agreement that the trial needed to be moved from the current Feb. 2 trial date, preferably to August 2004, and that he needed time to study the 1 million documents the government was prepared to produce to his client.