An appellate court has shut the door on reviewing the constitutionality of the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act (FCA), although two other appellate courts are reviewing this issue, with one poised to rule soon.
On January 9, 2026, a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit rejected two petitions for permission to file an interlocutory appeal, which would have asked the Sixth Circuit to decide whether the qui tam provisions of the FCA violate Article II of the United States Constitution.
Had the Sixth Circuit accepted the interlocutory appeal, it would have been the third federal Court of Appeals –– joining the Eleventh and Third Circuits –– to take up the issue since a district court in Florida first held the qui tam provisions are unconstitutional in September 2024.
We previewed the petitions for interlocutory appeal and the forthcoming decision from the Sixth Circuit in an earlier blog post. Today, we discuss the Sixth Circuit’s reasoning for not taking up the interlocutory appeal and what lies ahead for FCA practitioners and health care companies.
These petitions for appeal relate to two separate actions against multiple defendants—one brought on behalf of the United States by a health system’s prior Chief Financial Officer and another filed nearly a year later by a neurosurgeon, who also sued the defendants for age discrimination. The consolidated case involves allegations that the defendants—...
An appellate court has shut the door on reviewing the constitutionality of the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act (FCA), although two other appellate courts are reviewing this issue, with ...