The retrial of former Jack Abramoff lobbying associate Kevin Ring has been postponed until July 26, after concerns about the Supreme Court's review of the honest services fraud statute delayed the retrial from its planned June 21 start date.

At a hearing today, Judge Ellen Huvelle suggested, as she has in the past, that the government may need to revise its case against Ring after the Supreme Court hands down its decision on honest services fraud. Legal experts expect the court to either throw out the statute altogether or provide clearer limitations on what it entails. Ring was tried on six counts of honest services fraud, along with one count of illegal gratuities and one count of conspiracy to commit both crimes, but his first trial ended in a mistrial after the jury hung on all counts in October.

"I'm assuming [the government] is going to lose their 'honest services'" and "cut back their case dramatically," Huvelle said. She has previously suggested that Ring could be charged with bribery, which is harder to prosecute than honest services fraud because it requires evidence of quid pro quo.

Justice Department attorney Nathaniel Edmonds responded that the government may "revise the indictment" based on the Court's ruling, but it does "not anticipate doing so."

The original retrial date was set for the summer with the expectation that the court would hand down a decision on three honest services fraud cases before then. But Ring's attorneys filed a motion last month requesting that the retrial be put off until October because the Court "is grappling with broad issues regarding the constitutionality" of the statute. Ring's attorneys wrote in the motion that they expect the Court will either "strike down" or "provide extensive guidance and much-needed definition to an often-criticized statute."

Ring's attorneys argued that the Court's decision on the cases may not arrive until the end of its term in June, which would not provide enough time to revise a case based on the decision.

While Huvelle seemed to agree at the hearing that the Court's decision will impact the Ring retrial, she did not concede that the decision would not arrive until the end of the Court's term, prompting her to postpone the retrial only until July. Two of the honest services-related cases, Black v. U.S. and Weyhrauch v. U.S., were heard in December. Oral arguments in the final related case to be reviewed, Skilling v. U.S., will be heard March 1. The Court often takes several months to release decisions.

At the oral arguments in December, the justices appeared eager to take up the question of whether the statute is unconstitutionally vague, which was not directly addressed in the Black and Weyhrauch cases, but is expected to be directly addressed in the Skilling case.

"Is that the system we have, that Congress can say, nobody shall do any bad things?" Justice Antonin Scalia said of the statute. "And if the Justice Department can't figure out what is embraced by this statute, I don't know how you expect the average citizen to figure it out."

Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to criticize the vagueness of "honest services," which he noted was not a "familiar common law term."

Sentencing dates and hearings for other Abramoff-related cases have also been postponed in light of the court's review of the statute. The sentencing date for Abramoff partner Michael Scanlon -- who pleaded guilty in 2005 for conspiracy to bribe public officials, commit honest services fraud and commit tax evasion -- was set last month for August. A hearing for John Albaugh, chief of staff to former Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla. -- who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services fraud in 2008 and has not yet been sentenced -- was postponed last month until July.

Christopher Snow Hopkins contributed to this story.