Two SCOTUS Denials Mean No False Claims Silver Bullet Defense

The U.S. Supreme Court Jan. 7 declined to hear two petitions that could have provided litigants with clarity as to what a False Claims Act case must allege to advance.

The high court’s decision to reject the petitions ends defendants’ long-shot hopes to see the court adopt a rule clarifying that FCA cases in which the government continued to pay a contractor despite knowledge of misconduct must fail for lack of materiality.

Materiality concerns whether the government would have withheld payment to a contractor had it known about allegations of noncompliance. Both petitions concerned the impact of continued payments to ...