Supreme Court Grants Whistleblowers More Time To Bring Cases Against Health Care Companies
Until now, circuit courts' interpretations of the False Claim Act statute of limitations has varied across the country in cases where the federal government has not intervened. The Supreme Court justices said whistleblowers are not considered to be U.S. officials and are not limited by the original six-year statute of limitations that starts at the time of the alleged violation. The justices also released unusual explanatory statements about their death penalty decisions.
Modern Healthcare:
Supreme Court Gives Whistleblowers More Time To Bring False Claims Suits
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that whistleblowers across the country will have up to four years of additional time to bring False Claims Act cases in healthcare and other industries. The justices unanimously held in Cochise Consultancy v. U.S. ex rel. Hunt that FCA claimants can sue up to three years after the responsible federal official knew or should have known the relevant facts, but not more than 10 years after the alleged violation. (Meyer, 5/13)
NPR:
Supreme Court's Conservatives Defend Their Handling Of Death Penalty Cases
The bitter battle over the death penalty continued Monday at the U.S. Supreme Court with the highly unusual release of explanatory statements from the court's conservatives as to why they reached such apparently contradictory decisions in two death cases in February and March. On Feb. 7, the court ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that Alabama could go ahead with its execution of a Muslim prisoner convicted of murder. The newly energized five-man conservative majority overruled the temporary stay put in place by the lower court because Alabama only allowed a Christian minister in the execution room and refused to allow the condemned man's Imam to be present. (Totenberg, 5/14)
CNN:
Stephen Breyer's Warning And Other Things We Learned At The Supreme Court Monday
As the Supreme Court rounds the final turns of the term, Justice Stephen Breyer seemed to launch a warning towards his conservative colleagues in an opinion released Monday. Be very careful before you overturn precedent, he said. Breyer's warnings, coupled with two unusual death penalty opinions and a rare vote from Brett Kavanaugh siding with the liberals on the bench, gave fodder to court watchers waiting anxiously to see how the court is interacting, and where the newly conservative majority is headed. (de Vogue, 5/13)
