No matter one’s views on the Trump administration’s priorities with respect to higher education, one thing has become clear: The administration has wielded the False Claims Act and its qui tam (whistleblower) provisions as a powerful weapon to advance its priorities on public and private university campuses across the country.
This has become apparent in many areas, including the Department of Justice’s recent Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, which aims to hold universities liable under the FCA if they have diversity, equity, and inclusion programs or transgender inclusion initiatives—or are considered antisemitic by the administration.
The threat of a federal investigation and sheer size of the monetary penalties that the FCA brings are undoubtedly intimidating. But for public universities, the FCA’s qui tam provisions aren’t as formidable a weapon as one might assume.
The FCA is a Civil War-era statute designed to prevent and punish fraud against the federal government. In relevant part, the FCA imposes civil liability on any person who “knowingly presents, or causes to be presented, a false or fraudulent claim for payment or approval” or “knowingly makes, uses, or causes to be made or used, a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim” to the government.
Violations of the FCA can result in significant liability, and the government must investigate allegations of FCA violations. When the government declines to file its own direct action, the FCA...
A Supreme Court judge has criticised Brittany Higgins over false and misleading claims she made during media interviews about a political cover up. A WA Supreme Court judge has found Brittany Higgi...