'No Prejudice' Response to Protest of Past Performance Evaluation Tantamount to Concession of Error
Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 07.31.14
In a recent decision, GAO sustained Native Resource Dev. Co.'s protest that its past performance should have been rated Outstanding given the undisputed record of the agency's superlative written findings. GAO held that the agency's response, which was solely that if the protester's past performance merited a higher rating, then so did the awardee's, was "tantamount to a concession" that it could not defend its assignment of a Satisfactory rating and dismissed the agency's findings about the essential equivalency of protester's and awardee's past performance as merely a post hoc argument to be given little weight.
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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
