With the Department of Justice (DOJ) pushing into novel enforcement areas and courts wrestling with core legal doctrines, the False Claims Act (FCA) stands at a defining inflection point.
“The FCA today bears little resemblance to the law President Lincoln signed 154 years ago to stop con artists from selling the U.S. Army gun powder barrels filled with sawdust,” we opined in the opening paragraph of False Claims Act: A year in review 2016 – the first edition of this Guide. Ten years later, the divide between Lincoln’s Law and the modern FCA has grown even more pronounced.
When we first launched this publication, President Trump had just taken office for the first time. We predicted – accurately – that very little would change about FCA enforcement under the new administration. The same cannot be said for President Trump’s second term. Historically known as the government’s primary “tool” to combat fraud on its programs, a May 2025 memorandum announcing the launch of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative described the FCA as the DOJ’s “primary weapon” in the fight against fraud, waste, and abuse. As that and other announcements have made clear, this framing of the FCA – as a sword, not a tool – isn’t just a re-branding exercise. Initiatives and investigations launched in 2025 show that the Trump Administration plans to use the FCA aggressively, in ways that support its policy goals.
In this year’s Guide, we reflect on a year of shifting enforcement priorities and discuss how the current Administration is harnessing the power of the FCA to target Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); gender-affirming care; cyberfraud; and trade. State attorneys general are also playing a greater role – alone and in collaboration with other states and the federal government – to enforce state FCAs in both novel and more traditional ways.
While the Administration’s enforcement priorities occupied the spotlight last year, the courts, more quietly, tackled their share of thorny issues. Circuit splits are emerging over key elements of FCA claims, and questions of causation and falsity may make their way to the Supreme Court in the coming years. If the question of 2025 was “What will the new Administration do?,” the question for 2026 and the years ahead is “How will the courts respond?” We discuss what that response might look like in our Looking ahead article.
As the FCA has evolved, so too has this publication. We launched the Guide with the goal of “bring[ing] clarity to the chaos of FCA jurisprudence.” In increasingly chaotic times, that goal persists. But as we move into our second decade, we are shifting our perspective. With this year’s Guide, our aim is both to clarify what’s come before and to illuminate the path forward. We hope this Guide can serve as a resource for companies and practitioners finding their way in the ever-changing landscape of the FCA.
When we first launched this publication, President Trump had just taken office for the first time. We predicted – accurately – that very little would change about FCA enforcement under the new administration. The same cannot be said for President Trump’s second term.