Despite an earlier declination of intervention in United States ex rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, LLC, Case No. 8:19-cv-01236-KKM-SPF (M.D. Fla. Sept. 30, 2024), yesterday, the United States filed a notice of appeal of the Zafirov Court’s September 30, 2024 decision to dismiss the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The district court held in the underlying dismissal order that the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act (FCA) are unconstitutional, echoing arguments made by certain justices in a recent FCA case before the U.S. Supreme Court. The relator, Dr. Clarissa Zafirov, filed suit in 2019 against her employer, Florida Medical Associates, LLC, alleging that the physician practice group violated the FCA by misrepresenting patient medical conditions to Medicare. Like most relators, Zafirov did not assert that any of the alleged illegality harmed her personally; rather, she brought suit on behalf of the “real party of interest,” the United States of America. The government had declined to intervene, leaving Zafirov to pursue the litigation on her own over the past five years. But yesterday, the United States filed its Notice of Appeal, opening the door for further review of the constitutionality of the FCA's qui tam provisions – including by the U.S. Supreme Court should there be a circuit split.

A recent decision by the Supreme Court of the United States—to deny requests from states and industry groups to stay enforcement of the EPA’s rulemaking on methane and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions—was deemed a success by the EPA in its efforts to curb emissions from the oil and gas industry.