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# Time to Challenge Whistleblower Law?
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/time-to-challenge-whistleblower-law/
- Published: 2018-02-15T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T23:22:57.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, Devices, #legacy-id-D5140772

Writing for Washington Legal Foundation, two Fried, Frank attorneys [say](http://www.wlf.org/upload/legalstudies/workingpaper/1-18BoeseBaruchWP.pdf?ref=fdaweb.com) the time may be right to look again at constitutionality of the False Claims Act’s (FCA) *qui tam* (relator or whistleblower) provisions that allow a whistleblower to independently prosecute a False Claims Act case on behalf of the United States and to be awarded up to 30% of any government recovery based on the whistleblower’s claims. The attorneys say that interest in challenging the constitutionality of the provision waned following a 2000 Supreme Court decision in *Vermont Agency of Natural Resources v. United States ex rel. Stevens*. In that decision, the court unanimously held that whistleblowers have Article 3 standing, even though they suffer no injury themselves, because they are “assignees” of a portion of the government’s FCA claim, they say.

The attorneys note that in recent years, court decisions have questioned the wisdom of *qui tam* enforcement, at least in many circumstances where the interests of the *qui tam* relator conflict directly with the interests of the executive branch and the public interest. “These opinions may form a basis for courts to revisit the constitutionality of this private enforcement of the government’s rights and remedies …,” the attorneys write.