If a citizen chooses to sue under the FCA, the federal government can decide whether to investigate. If the government steps in and the case succeeds, the citizen can receive some of the recovered funding.
Planned Parenthood argued that the law allows private citizens to take the role of government officials enforcing the law, violating a US Constitutional provision that such officials be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
“In fact, FCA relators are not ‘appointed’ to their positions by anyone other than themselves,” Planned Parenthood said.
Planned Parenthood cited opinions by Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett in FCA-related cases.
In recent years, a whistleblower alleged that Planned Parenthood defrauded Texas's state Medicaid program of $10 million after Texas removed the abortion giant as a Medicaid provider. Planned Parenthood was released after the Center for Medical Progress exposed the organization for trafficking in body parts harvested from aborted children. Those funds are currently being pursued.
“It is unthinkable that Planned Parenthood would continue to take advantage of funding knowing they were not entitled to keep it,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said. “I will not allow them to benefit from this abhorrent conduct after they were caught violating medical standards and lying to law enforcement.”
