ACLU v. Fernando Galindo, No. 09-2086 (4th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs filed a complaint seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against defendants alleging that the seal provisions of 31 U.S.C. § 3730(b)(2)-(3) of the False Claims Act ("FCA") were unconstitutional. At issue was whether the FCA seal provisions violated the public's First Amendment right of access to judicial proceedings, violated the First Amendment by gagging qui tam relators from speaking about their qui tam complaints, and infringed on a court's inherent authority to decide on a case-by-base basis whether a particular qui tam complaint should be sealed and thereby violate the separation of powers. The court held that plaintiffs' claims were properly dismissed where the FCA's seal provisions did not violate the First Amendment when the United States has a compelling interest in protecting the integrity of ongoing fraud investigations and the seal provisions were narrowly tailored. The court held that plaintiffs' claims were properly dismissed for lack of standing where plaintiffs failed to identify any particular qui tam relator who was willing to speak with plaintiffs. The court also held that the seal provisions do not violate the separation of powers where the seal provisions are a proper subject of congressional legislation and do not intrude on "the zone of the judicial self-administration to such a degree as to prevent the judiciary from accomplishing its constitutionally assigned functions."
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