Index: Doc/library/unittest.rst
===================================================================
--- Doc/library/unittest.rst	(revision 83976)
+++ Doc/library/unittest.rst	(working copy)
@@ -1036,7 +1036,8 @@
       :meth:`assertRaises`.  The test passes if *exception* is raised, is an
       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*.
+      classes may be passed as *exception*.  If the test passes then the raised
+      exception is returned.
 
       If only the *exception* argument is given, returns a context manager so
       that the code under test can be written inline rather than as a function::
@@ -1058,7 +1059,7 @@
          Added the ability to use :meth:`assertRaises` as a context manager.
 
       .. versionchanged:: 3.2
-         Added the :attr:`exception` attribute.
+         Added the :attr:`exception` attribute and raised exception return value.
 
       .. deprecated:: 3.1
          :meth:`failUnlessRaises`; use :meth:`assertRaises`.
Index: Lib/unittest/test/test_assertions.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/unittest/test/test_assertions.py	(revision 83976)
+++ Lib/unittest/test/test_assertions.py	(working copy)
@@ -92,6 +92,10 @@
         else:
             self.fail("assertRaises() didn't let exception pass through")
 
+        e = IndexError()
+        ex = self.assertRaises(type(e), _raise, e)
+        self.assertIs(ex, e)
+
     def testAssertNotRegexpMatches(self):
         self.assertNotRegexpMatches('Ala ma kota', r'r+')
         try:
Index: Lib/unittest/case.py
===================================================================
--- Lib/unittest/case.py	(revision 83976)
+++ Lib/unittest/case.py	(working copy)
@@ -441,7 +441,9 @@
            arguments kwargs. If a different type of exception is
            thrown, it will not be caught, and the test case will be
            deemed to have suffered an error, exactly as for an
-           unexpected exception.
+           unexpected exception.  If an expected exception is raised
+           then the exception object is returned for inspection by the
+           caller.
 
            If called with callableObj omitted or None, will return a
            context object used like this::
@@ -463,6 +465,7 @@
             return context
         with context:
             callableObj(*args, **kwargs)
+        return context.exception
 
     def _getAssertEqualityFunc(self, first, second):
         """Get a detailed comparison function for the types of the two args.