The Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld the False Claims Act (FCA) that allows whistleblowers to bring claims for the government to recover damages for fraud committed by government contractors.
The American Civil Liberties Union, OMB Watch and the Government Accountability Project sued under the First Amendment and the public’s right to know to challenge the “seal” provision in the act that allows employees to file claims without exposing their identities to their employer. The seal helps prevent intimidation and coverups while the federal government investigates the claim.
Writing in the Whistleblowers Protection Blog, Richard Renner says, “If this ACLU lawsuit were successful in striking the seal period, it would have caused long-term permanent damage to the government’s ability to evaluate FCA claims filed by whistleblowers. Moreover, striking the whistleblower’s right to initially file the FCA claim under seal would have had a tremendous “chilling effect” on whistleblowers and would have strengthened the hand of already powerful corporate criminals to both cover-up the wrongdoing and retaliate against the whistleblowers who bring these claims.” -db
From a commentary in the Whistleblowers Protection Blog, March 28, 2011, by Richard Renner.