DoD's Own Cyber Monday Deal: Releasing DFARS Cyber Enhancement Guidance
Client Alert | 1 min read | 11.27.18
Just in time for the holidays, the Defense Department published final guidance to the DoD acquisition community that details strategies to enhance existing cybersecurity requirements for Covered Defense Information (CDI) provided by the DFARS Safeguarding Clause 252.204-7012. The DoD’s guidance contains two documents that clarify how DoD will communicate their cybersecurity expectations to contractors, including where those expectations exceed what the DFARS Safeguarding Clause requires:
- Guidance for Reviewing System Security Plans (SSPs) outlines how the DoD expects to evaluate contractor SSPs, including the preferred method of meeting each NIST security control and the anticipated consequences of not yet having implemented those controls.
- Guidance for Assessing Compliance and Enhancing Protections provides objectives that requiring activities can tailor to assess contractors’ safeguarding of CDI, including how to incorporate compliance with NIST SP 800-171 and supply chain management as evaluation criteria in solicitations.
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Insights
Client Alert | 5 min read | 12.12.25
Eleventh Circuit Hears Argument on False Claims Act Qui Tam Constitutionality
On the morning of December 12, 2025, the Eleventh Circuit heard argument in United States ex rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, LLC, et al., No. 24-13581 (11th Cir. 2025). This case concerns the constitutionality of the False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam provisions and a groundbreaking September 2024 opinion in which the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida held that the FCA’s qui tam provisions were unconstitutional under Article II. See United States ex rel. Zafirov v. Fla. Med. Assocs., LLC, 751 F. Supp. 3d 1293 (M.D. Fla. 2024). That decision, penned by District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, was the first success story for a legal theory that has been gaining steam ever since Justices Thomas, Barrett, and Kavanaugh indicated they would be willing to consider arguments about the constitutionality of the qui tam provisions in U.S. ex rel. Polansky v. Exec. Health Res., 599 U.S. 419 (2023). In her opinion, Judge Mizelle held (1) qui tam relators are officers of the U.S. who must be appointed under the Appointments Clause; and (2) historical practice treating qui tam and similar relators as less than “officers” for constitutional purposes was not enough to save the qui tam provisions from the fundamental Article II infirmity the court identified. That ruling was appealed and, after full briefing, including by the government and a bevy of amici, the litigants stepped up to the plate this morning for oral argument.
Client Alert | 8 min read | 12.11.25
Director Squires Revamps the Workings of the U.S. Patent Office
Client Alert | 8 min read | 12.10.25
Creativity You Can Use: CJEU Clarifies Copyright for Applied Art
Client Alert | 4 min read | 12.10.25
Federal Court Strikes Down Interior Order Suspending Wind Energy Development
