U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is not a stranger to the False Claims Act. In her eight years as a U.S. district judge for the District of Columbia, before she was elevated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2021, she handled at least two FCA cases — one about a federal grant recipient and one about a government contractor.
Her decisions in these cases show a meticulous and thorough approach, with particular attention to pleading standards. This article will provide a summary of the two FCA cases and discuss whether they provide any insight as to how Jackson might lean when evaluating an FCA pleading standard case as a Supreme Court justice.
In 2013, Jackson issued her first opinion in declined qui tam action Pencheng Si v. Laogai Research Foundation.[1] Si, the relator, alleged that two nonprofits and their director fraudulently induced grant contracts by providing false information, used grant funding for personal expenses, and engaged in lobbying in violation of the contract.
Jackson found that the complaint — which incorporated by reference paragraphs of factual background to each claim — did not meet the plausibility standard for notice pleading under Rule 8. Regardless, she declined to grant the defendants' motion to dismiss and instead directed the relator to revise the complaint to make clear which legal theory applied to which facts.
The relator amended his complaint. Jackson ruled on the...
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