The Justice Insiders: The Administrative State is Not Your Friend - A Conversation with Professor Richard Epstein
Judge Kenney of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in Jonathan Meyer v ADS Clinics, LLC, No. 21-cv-5303, on February 10, 2026, rejected a most recent attempt to gut the qui tam provisions from the federal False Claims Act...more
Key Takeaways: Sixth Circuit FCA precedent remains intact. The Sixth Circuit declined to entertain constitutional challenges to the FCA’s qui tam provisions, emphasizing that binding circuit precedent forecloses arguments...more
On December 12, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit heard argument in United States ex rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Association, LLC (Zafirov), which involves a challenge to the constitutionality of...more
On a path that likely leads to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held oral argument last week in United States ex rel Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, LLC, et al. Judges Elizabeth L. Branch,...more
On December 12, 2025, the Eleventh Circuit heard oral arguments in United States ex rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, an appeal challenging relators’ authority to bring claims under the qui tam provisions of the...more
On Friday, the Eleventh Circuit heard oral arguments in United States ex rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, LLC regarding the constitutionality of the qui tam provisions in the False Claims Act, which allow private...more
Friday, the Eleventh Circuit heard oral argument in a closely watched appeal concerning whether the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act (“FCA”) are constitutional....more
Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle’s ground-breaking decision in Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates LLC and Justice Clarence Thomas’ solo dissent in US ex rel. Polansky v. Executive Health Resources Inc. have revived what many...more
Last fall, U.S. District Court Judge Kathryn Mizelle of the Middle District of Florida ruled that the False Claims Act’s (FCA) qui tam provision is unconstitutional in United States ex rel Zafirov v. Florida Medical...more
In May 2023, in the wake of a ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States that U.S. district courts have jurisdiction to consider structural constitutional claims against administrative agencies, we predicted that the...more
On September 30, 2024, a federal district court in Florida held the qui tam enforcement provision of the False Claims Act (“FCA”), which permits private citizens to pursue actions in the name of and on behalf of the...more
A federal judge in Florida issued a ruling this week holding that the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act (FCA) are unconstitutional. In the lawsuit, a relator named Clarissa Zafirov accused the defendants of violating...more
On September 30, 2024, Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida issued an order in United States ex rel. Clarissa Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, LLC, holding that the...more
The Constitution requires judicial independence in Article III. As Hamilton observed in “Federalist 78”: “The standard of good behavior for the continuance in office of the judicial magistracy . . . . is the best expedient...more
This July, we detailed the Supreme Court’s surprising revival in United States ex rel. Polansky v. Exec. Health Resources, No. 21-1052 (S. Ct. June 16, 2023) of the question of whether the qui tam provisions of the False...more
In this episode of The Justice Insiders, we welcome Richard A. Epstein, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at NYU School of Law. Host Gregg Sofer and co-host Steve Renau explore with Professor Epstein the implications...more
In a landmark decision, the Fifth Circuit struck down the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) primary mechanism for enforcing the nation’s securities laws. In Jarkesy v. Securities and Exchange Commission, a...more
Two recent judicial developments create questions about the constitutionality of the SEC’s in-house judicial system. First, on May 16, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of Michelle Cochran, an accountant facing...more
Key Points On May 18, 2022, in Jarkesy v. SEC, No. 20-61007 (5th Cir. May 18, 2022), a split panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit identified three independent constitutional flaws in the administrative...more
On May 18, 2022, the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion vacating a Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Administrative Law Judge’s (“ALJ”) decision that George Jarkesy, Jr. (“Jarkesy”) and his investment adviser Patriot28,...more
On March 4th, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland struck down four provisions of the Trump Administration’s Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2019, 83 Fed. Reg. 16930 (April 17, 2018) (the “Rule”),...more
2020 saw the courts continuing to play an important role in health policy with several notable lawsuits related to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Several other Trump administration policies were challenged, including Medicare...more
The CFPB has filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s lawsuit against Navient Corp. The PA AG’s lawsuit includes claims that Navient violated the...more
On April 10, 2019, the Department of Justice filed notices appealing two District Court rulings that struck down Medicaid work requirements in both Kentucky and Arkansas to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of...more
The Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, and Animal Legal Defense Fund (collectively “CBD”) filed an October 17th Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief (“Complaint”) challenging the issuance of...more