Eleventh Circuit OK’s Suspension of Affiliates Beyond 18 Months
Client Alert | 1 min read | 01.08.14
In Agility Def. & Gov’t Servs. v. Dep’t of Def. (Dec. 31, 2013), the Eleventh Circuit reversed the judgment below and held that when an agency suspends a contractor it may suspend affiliates of that contractor for greater than 18 months based solely on their affiliation provided legal proceedings have been initiated during that period against the contractor. The district court had held that the regulations required affiliation-based suspensions to be lifted after 18 months unless legal proceedings had been initiated against the affiliates themselves, but the Eleventh Circuit held that affiliates are afforded sufficient due process and that no independent showing of wrongdoing by an affiliate is required for suspension or debarment.
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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
