Post Hoc Explanation Inadequate To Save Unreasonable Price Evaluation
Client Alert | 1 min read | 07.15.08
In Joint Venture Penauille/BMAR & Associates, LLC (May 12, 2008, http://www.gao.gov/decisions/bidpro/311200.pdf), GAO sustained a challenge to the Navy's price evaluation, when, in a fixed-procurement, the agency unreasonably rejected the protester's proposal on the grounds that it offered low indefinite quantity pricing for certain minor work and the record contained no evidence that the pricing actually presented any risk to performance. GAO rejected the agency's post hoc justification that the low pricing presented performance risk because the contractor allegedly had the option to reject work if not sufficiently profitable, finding no support for this assertion in the record and nothing in the RFP that permitted the winning contractor to reject orders for the subject indefinite quantity work.
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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
