Index: Doc/library/unittest.rst
===================================================================
--- Doc/library/unittest.rst	(revision 73271)
+++ Doc/library/unittest.rst	(working copy)
@@ -881,6 +881,7 @@
       error if another exception is raised, or fails if no exception is raised.
       To catch any of a group of exceptions, a tuple containing the exception
       classes may be passed as *exception*.
+      Returns the exception object caught so that it can be futher validated.
 
       If *callable* is omitted or None, returns a context manager so that the
       code under test can be written inline rather than as a function::
@@ -888,8 +889,12 @@
          with self.failUnlessRaises(some_error_class):
              do_something()
 
+      The context manager will store the caught exception object in its
+      :attr:`exc_value` attribute. 
+
       .. versionchanged:: 2.7
          Added the ability to use :meth:`assertRaises` as a context manager.
+         Made the method return the caught exception object
 
       .. deprecated:: 2.7
          :meth:`failUnlessRaises`.
Index: Lib/test/test_unittest.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/test/test_unittest.py	(revision 73271)
+++ Lib/test/test_unittest.py	(working copy)
@@ -2820,6 +2820,29 @@
                 self.assertRaisesRegexp, Exception,
                 re.compile('^Expected$'), Stub)
 
+    def testAssertRaisesReturn(self):
+        class ExceptionMock(Exception):
+            pass
+
+        def Stub(foo):
+            raise ExceptionMock(foo)
+        v = "particular value"
+
+        e = self.assertRaises(ExceptionMock, Stub, v)
+        self.assertTrue(isinstance(e, ExceptionMock))
+        self.assertEqual(e.args[0], v)
+
+        e = self.assertRaisesRegexp(ExceptionMock, re.compile(v), Stub, v)
+        self.assertTrue(isinstance(e, ExceptionMock))
+        self.assertEqual(e.args[0], v)
+
+        ctx = self.assertRaises(ExceptionMock)
+        with ctx:
+            Stub(v)
+        e = ctx.exc_value
+        self.assertTrue(isinstance(e, ExceptionMock))
+        self.assertEqual(e.args[0], v)
+
     def testSynonymAssertMethodNames(self):
         """Test undocumented method name synonyms.
 
Index: Lib/unittest.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/unittest.py	(revision 73271)
+++ Lib/unittest.py	(working copy)
@@ -291,6 +291,9 @@
         if not issubclass(exc_type, self.expected):
             # let unexpected exceptions pass through
             return False
+
+        self.exc_value = exc_value #store for later retrieval
+
         if self.expected_regex is None:
             return True
 
@@ -589,6 +592,7 @@
             return context
         with context:
             callableObj(*args, **kwargs)
+        return context.exc_value
 
     def _getAssertEqualityFunc(self, first, second):
         """Get a detailed comparison function for the types of the two args.
@@ -1009,6 +1013,7 @@
             return context
         with context:
             callable_obj(*args, **kwargs)
+        return context.exc_value
 
     def assertRegexpMatches(self, text, expected_regex, msg=None):
         if isinstance(expected_regex, basestring):