On September 30, 2024, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida ruled that filing claims on behalf of the government under qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act (FCA) is unconstitutional in United States of America ex rel. Clarissa Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, LLC, et al. The ruling, made by Judge Kathryn Mizelle, a 33-year-old Trump-appointee, declares that False Claims Act whistleblowers undermine executive power by filing qui tam lawsuits.
The Zafirov decision follows a recent dissent by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in which he questioned the constitutionality of the FCA’s qui tam provisions. It also follows a political movement pushing the Unitary Executive Theory in the United States judicial courts.
This controversial decision mischaracterizes the qui tam provisions of the FCA and will likely be appealed to the Eleventh Circuit. Should the ruling stand, however, it and other similar challenges to the constitutionality of the FCA’s qui tam provisions will cripple what has been America’s number 1 anti-fraud law. Since the False Claims Act was modernized in 1986, qui tam whistleblower cases have allowed the government to recover more than $52 billion from fraudsters, over $5 billion of which came in cases where the government chose not to intervene.
Applying the ‘Unitary Executive’ Theory to Paint Whistleblowers as ‘Self-Selected Private Bounty Hunters’
Originally passed during the Civil War, the False Claims Act contains qui tam provisions enabling whistleblowers, also known as ‘relators’, to report government contracting fraud and work directly with government investigators. Once the whistleblower brings forward the suit, the government may intervene and continue to prosecute the litigation as the plaintiff. However, in the interest of accountability, the qui tam provision of the FCA permits the whistleblower to pursue a case even if the United States declines prosecution. Whistleblowers who file successful qui tam lawsuits are eligible to receive up to 30% of recovered damages.
The question of the constitutionality of the False Claims Act’s qui tam provisions was notably raised in a dissent by Justice Clarence Thomas in the 2023 Supreme Court case U.S., ex rel. Polansky v. Executive Health Resources. While Polansky discussed the issue of a relator pursuing a lawsuit after the government declines to intervene, Thomas raised a separate issue of constitutionality in his dissent. He stated that “there are substantial arguments that the qui tam device is inconsistent with Article II and that private relators may not represent the interests of the United States in litigation.” In a one-paragraph concurrence, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, invited challenges to the constitutionality of the FCA’s qui tam provisions, writing that “In my view, the Court should consider the competing arguments on the Article II issue in an appropriate case.”
Judge Mizelle, a former clerk of Justice Thomas, drew heavily upon Justice Thomas’ dissent in her decision. Echoing Thomas’ dissent in Polansky, JudgeMizelle concluded that the qui tam provision “directly defies the Appointments Clause by permitting unaccountable, unsworn, private actors to exercise core executive power [litigating on behalf of the government] with substantial consequences to members of the public.” The District Court thus agreed with the defendants that the FCA’s qui tam provisions indeed violates the Appointments Clause of Article II of the Constitution.
The Zafirov ruling relies upon the ‘unitary executive theory,’ a constitutional law theory that states the President of the United States has sole authority over the executive branch and that power cannot be limited by Congress.
According to then-Assistant Attorney General William Barr’s 1989 Memo Constitutionality of the Qui TamProvision of the False Claims Act, which repeatedly cited by both the judgment and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce amicus brief, the move to enable private citizens to file on behalf of the government represents a breach of the separation of powers allowing “Congress to circumvent the Executive’s check.” Barr rebrands whistleblowers as “private bounty hunters” and claims that the 1986 amendments which reincorporated the FCA’s qui tam provisions was a tactic by Congress to override presidential powers. Barr maintains that “only a unitary executive” that is, “only the President” can “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
In a dissent in the 1988 Supreme Court case Morrison v Olsen, Justice Antonin Scalia interpreted the ‘Unitary Executive’ to have unchecked authority to appoint and remove executive officials, claiming that the firing of an independent counsel without cause falls within the limitless power of the President over the executive.
The Middle District of Florida ruling draws on Scalia’s rationale arguing that the right to pursue a qui tam case denies the President the executive authority of appointment of the relator. Under the FCA, however, whistleblowers are granted certain rights. For example, the executive must guarantee a whistleblower the “right to continue as a party” with or without the United States intervening and wait for the relator’s approval before settling the action.
The court agrees with the defendants’ argument that the FCA therefore “den[ies] the President necessary removal authority and sufficient supervisory control over [the relator].”
The court contends that the physician-turned-whistleblower Zafirov was “an improperly appointed officer” in violation of the Appointments Clause and the Take Care and Vest Clause of the Article. According to the ruling, by filing a qui tam against Medicare fraud, Zafirov was granted “core executive power” without any “proper appointment under the Constitution.”
A Mischaracterization of Qui Tam Whistleblowing
Judge Mizelle’s decision in United States ex rel. Zafirov v. Fla. Med. Assocs. first mischaracterizes the FCA’s qui tam as a breach of presidential power instead of as a provision that strengthens checks and balances. Second, the court ignores case law outlining government prerogatives over relators such that they are not menacing to the core Executive powers.
The revived qui tam provision of 1986 was a legislative move to improve government accountability over fraud—neither expanding Congressional oversight nor the size of government—by mobilizing private citizens rather than public agents. The Florida court wrongfully elevates the status of a relator to an ‘officer’ responsible to the government. A citizen pursuing a claim on behalf of the government is not and does not pretend to be an extension of the Executive Office and, therefore not subject to administrative appointment procedure. Rather the relator is a private person, and the government is a third party to the case. The Vt. Agency of Natural Res. v. United States ex rel. Stevens majority opinion also written by Justice Scalia discussing whether relators have judicial standing under Article III, qualifies that the relator is on “partial assignment of the Government’s damages claim.” A ‘partial assignee’—to which only some rights are transferred—may “assert the injury suffered by the assignor” (the U.S.) so long as the harm done is sufficient. Scalia reiterates the ‘representational standing’ of relators and makes no remarks on its challenge to the Unitary Executive. Judge Mizelle’s reliance on Morrison v Olsen to claim that like an independent counsel, a relator should also qualify as an officer ignores the Stevens Supreme Court ruling distinguishing relators as a type of assignee.
Mizelle also raises that relators seem to enjoy unbridled authority over the Executive by initiating a qui tam suit without government intervention. While Mizelle points to 31 U.S.C. § 3730 (c) to demonstrate the unchecked power of the relator, she neglects the numerous limitations specified in § 3730 (c)(2), including the broad power of the government to dismiss the qui tam action after intervening notwithstanding any objections from the relator. She frames the government intervention as “the government’s ability to pursue a parallel action and to exert limited control [which] does not lessen a relator’s unchecked civil enforcement authority to initiate.” In truth, the statute and years of judicial history maintain the government’s absolute discretion over whether to intervene in or completely stop the case by dismissing the action.
Contrary to Judge Mizelle’s belief, relators are not free from potential government intervention even when independently pursuing the case. On the contrary, relators are not able to independently pursue any binding action on the government unimpeded by the government. While Zafirov independently pursued the claim for five years, the government could have intervened and then dismissed the claim at any time. If the government intervenes, underlined in 31 U.S.C. § 3730 (c)(2), the government is empowered to settle the action with the defendant notwithstanding any objections from the relator and to restrict their participation in the course of the litigation. The fact that the government may choose not to intervene at one point does not divest them of their ability to intervene later and exercise significant authority over the relator.
Implications: Crippling the False Claims Act
Judge Mizelle’s decision seeks to end the historic success of the qui tam provision of the FCA by declaring the government’s most effective mechanism of detecting fraud as unconstitutional. While the decision does not invalidate the FCA nationally, this case could be the first step in a series of appeals that may elevate the issue to the Supreme Court.
The government’s largest obstacle to fighting white-collar crime such as fraud is detection. The diffuse and indirect nature of fraud requires those with insider knowledge to assist the government in pursuing corruption. In terms of the effectiveness of the qui tam provision, between 1987 and 2022, the Department of Justice Civil Fraud Division recovered $22.1 billion without the help of whistleblowers versus $50.3 billion with the help of whistleblower lawsuits. Since the 1986 amendments to the FCA, whistleblowers have been the direct source of approximately 70% of civil fraud recoveries by the federal government. From the Medicare billing fraud committed in Florida Medical Associates to Russian money laundering, the United States may lose its most effective tool to fight fraud fraud if the qui tam provisions of the FCA are ruled unconstitutional.
