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DoD's Proposed Counterfeit Electronic Parts Rules Are Short on Details

Client Alert | 1 min read | 05.22.13

Following up on its publication of an instruction on counterfeit parts on May 16, DoD issued a long-expected proposed rule on counterfeit electronic parts avoidance, detection, and liability, with comments due by July 15. As discussed on our blog, the rule -- which applies only to CAS-covered prime contractors but will have a much broader impact on subcontractors and suppliers -- requires that business systems include DoD-approved avoidance and detection systems, but leaves the details of the newly required systems to be fleshed out, it would seem, by DCAA and/or DCMA, and, while it imposes potentially unlimited liability for counterfeit parts, it has an exceedingly narrow "safe harbor." 


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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25

A Sign of What’s to Come? Court Dismisses FCA Retaliation Complaint Based on Alleged Discriminatory Use of Federal Funding

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....

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