In a major victory for whistleblowers and the False Claims Act (FCA), the Eleventh Circuit yesterday reversed a district court decision that had declared the FCA’s qui tam provisions unconstitutional.
In United States ex rel. Zafirov v. Florida Medical Associates, the district court had held that False Claims Act relators are “Officers of the United States” who must be appointed under the Constitution’s Appointments Clause. The ruling—the first of its kind—threatened the basic structure Congress created to allow private whistleblowers to pursue fraud cases on the government’s behalf when the government declines to intervene.
The Eleventh Circuit emphatically rejected that conclusion. Relators, the court held, “are not officers of the United States because they do not occupy a continuing position established by law.” Their role is tied to an individual case. They receive no continuing compensation. And their responsibilities do not constitute a permanent government office. The appellate court therefore held that the FCA’s qui tam provisions do not violate the Appointments Clause and vacated the dismissal of Dr. Clarissa Zafirov’s case.
The case’s significance extends well beyond Dr. Zafirov’s case. Constitutional attacks on the FCA have proliferated since several Supreme Court Justices raised Article II questions in recent years. Zafirov became the first appellate test of those renewed challenges. The Eleventh Circuit has now joined the Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits in rejecting the argument that relators violate the Appointments Clause.
The constitutional litigation may not be over. Because the district court had not reached separate arguments under the Take Care and Vesting Clauses, the Eleventh Circuit sent those issues back for consideration. And Supreme Court review remains possible. But the central constitutional theory that succeeded below—and that FCA defendants have repeatedly invoked around the country—has now been rejected.
That matters enormously. Since Senator Chuck Grassley led the effort to strengthen the FCA in 1986, the statute has recovered approximately $85 billion for taxpayers. In fiscal year 2025 alone, whistleblowers helped recover more than $5.3 billion.
Congratulations to Dr. Zafirov and her appellate team, including Jennifer Verkamp and Jillian Estes of Morgan Verkamp and Tejinder Singh of Sparacino, as well as the Justice Department lawyers who defended the statute.
Whistleblower Partners was also proud to play a role. Our colleagues Eric Havian, Mike Ronickher, and Max Voldman represented Senator Grassley as amicus curiae, urging reversal and defending the history, constitutionality, and importance of qui tam enforcement.
As Senator Grassley put it yesterday, this is “a major win for whistleblowers and taxpayers alike.”
