Supreme Court hears arguments on EEOC, False Claims Act News
Supreme Court hears arguments on EEOC, False Claims Act

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] heard oral arguments [day call, PDF] in two cases Tuesday. In Mach Mining, LLC v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [transcript, PDF; JURIST report] the court has been asked to settle a circuit split [SCOTUSblog backgrounder] regarding whether and to what extent courts can enforce the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) [official website] statutory obligation to try to negotiate an end to an employer’s unlawful employment practices before suing for a judicial remedy. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 directs the EEOC to try to negotiate [42 USC § 2000e-5(b)] an end to an employer’s unlawful employment practices before suing for a judicial remedy. Mach Mining sought dismissal of the EEOC’s suit on the ground that the agency failed to engage in good-faith conciliation before filing. The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled [opinion] that “an alleged failure to conciliate is not an affirmative defense to the merits of a discrimination suit.”

In Kellogg Brown & Root Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Carter [transcript, PDF; JURIST report] the court heard arguments on the “mechanics of qui tam litigation under the False Claims Act.” The False Claims Act [31 USC § 3729] imposes liability on persons and companies who defraud governmental programs. Benjamin Carter filed a qui tam action [Cornell LII backgrounder] alleging that former Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root Services [corporate website] fraudulently billed the US for services provided to military forces in Iraq. The district court concluded that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over Carter’s claims because of the first-to-file bar and that Carter’s complaint had been filed beyond the six-year statute of limitations, which was not tolled by the Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act. The Fourth Circuit reversed [opinion].