The U.S. Supreme Court has set Dec. 8 as the date for oral arguments in the appeal of former Rep. Bruce Weyhrauch, who is seeking to reinstate a court order that sharply limited the federal government's mail fraud case against him.

Weyhrauch, a Juneau Republican, is the only defendant awaiting trial in the wide-ranging federal corruption investigation in Alaska. He was originally supposed to be tried in 2007 alongside former House speaker Pete Kott, but his case was separated over the mail-fraud issue.

Kott was convicted and had served about two years of a six-year sentence when he was released in June. His prison term is on hold while U.S. District Judge John Sedwick decides whether his trial was tainted by prosecutors who withheld favorable evidence from his attorneys.

Before the cases were separated, Sedwick had ruled against prosecutors on one count of a four-count indictment charging Weyhrauch with conspiracy, extortion, bribery and fraud.

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