Enough Is Enough! Supreme Court Puts an End to 18-Year FCA Litigation
Client Alert | 1 min read | 01.17.17
More than 18 years since the original qui tam complaint was filed, one of the longest-running FCA cases in history, U.S. ex rel. Purcell v. MWI Corp., came to an end in favor of defendant MWI, represented by C&M, when the Supreme Court on January 9, 2017, denied the relator’s petition for certiorari. The Supreme Court’s order caps MWI’s success on appeal, with the D.C. Circuit overturning a jury verdict against MWI on the grounds that the FCA’s scienter/knowledge element cannot be established when a defendant reasonably interprets an ambiguous regulation.
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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
