(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday wrestled with whether and how the U.S. Justice Department can dismiss lawsuits brought by whistleblowers on the government's behalf over their objections as it weighed reviving a fraud case against a UnitedHealth Group Inc unit.
The justices appeared unlikely to prevent the Justice Department from dismissing whistleblower lawsuits filed under the False Claims Act in instances in which the government initially declines to exercise its right to take over the cases.
But some of the justices asked whether the department must first give a reason before tossing a case without a whistleblower's consent and whether a statutory provision requiring it to provide "good cause" when it belatedly joins a case covers dismissals too.
Justice Samuel Alito asked whether it would be enough for the government to say "we move to dismiss because we feel like it or we move to dismiss because we consulted an astrologist or there's political pressure to dismiss this case."
The court was reviewing a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision upholding the dismissal of a lawsuit alleging UnitedHealth's Executive Health Resources unit defrauded Medicare by falsely certifying hospital admissions as medically necessary.
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