[1] Mayer was appointed to the United States Military Academy by Representative William E. Miller, and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1963.

Mayer served as special assistant to the Chief Justice of the United States, Warren E. Burger, for three years, and as law clerk to Judge John D. Butzner Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

He was Deputy and Acting Special Counsel at the United States Merit Systems Protection Board from 1981 to 1982.

Mayer was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on February 3, 1987, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated by Judge Marion T. Bennett.

[1] Mayer wrote a concurring opinion in Intellectual Ventures v. Symantec,[6] that controversially argues that "(1) patents constricting the essential channels of online communication run afoul of the First Amendment; and (2) claims directed to software implemented on a generic computer are categorically not eligible for patent.