{"id":12154,"date":"2020-03-10T16:03:48","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T20:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/?p=12154"},"modified":"2020-03-10T17:08:31","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T21:08:31","slug":"ames-semi-final-round-march-10-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/ames-semi-final-round-march-10-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Ames Semi-Final Round \u2013 March 10, 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Welcome to CR-CL\u2019s Ames Live Blog!<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The Ames Competition is one of the most prestigious competitions for appellate brief writing and advocacy in the country. The students participating in the Semi-Final Round started the competition in fall of this year, and rose to the final four spots through their strong research abilities and excellent written and oral advocacy.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Case Summary (from the Board of Student Advisors):\u00a0<\/strong>Ezekiel Adams brought a lawsuit under the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a7\u00a03729-33, seeking to recover millions of dollars for the United States that a group of construction contractors allegedly stole through bid-rigging. As permitted by the statute, the United States government investigated Adams\u2019s claim and then declined to intervene and take over the lawsuit. This gave Adams \u201cthe right to conduct the action.\u201d 31 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a03730(b)(4)(B). If Adams succeeds against the defendants, the United States will recover triple the damages it suffered, plus monetary penalties, and Adams would keep a percentage of the recovery.<\/p>\n

Almost a year later, the government decided that, actually, it did not want the lawsuit to proceed at all, and so it filed a motion to dismiss the action under 31 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a03730(c)(2)(A), which provides that in a False Claims Act case, \u201c[t]he Government may dismiss the action notwithstanding the objections of the person initiating the action if the person has been notified by the Government of the filing of the motion and the court has provided the person with an opportunity for a hearing on the motion.\u201d In support of its motion, the United States argued that if the lawsuit were to proceed, the government would be subject to burdensome discovery. The government also argued that the lawsuit was not in the government\u2019s interests because the suit might undermine the government\u2019s relationships with important contractors. The government did not argue that the case lacked merit.<\/p>\n

The district court denied the government\u2019s motion for two reasons. First, it held that the government was required to intervene in the case before filing a motion to dismiss. Because the government had initially declined to intervene, it could only intervene \u201cupon a showing of good cause,\u201d which the district court held the government had not made. See<\/em> 31 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a03730(c)(3). Second, the court held that the government had not adequately justified its dismissal decision because it had not provided any non-speculative explanation for how the costs of the suit might outweigh the benefits.<\/p>\n

This decision was at odds with other cases involving similar motions. The government therefore asked the district court to certify its order for interlocutory appeal. The district court refused to do so because it was not of the opinion that there was a \u201csubstantial ground for difference of opinion\u201d about the controlling legal questions. 28 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a01292(b).<\/p>\n

The United States accordingly petitioned for mandamus relief from the Ames Circuit. The petition presents two questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Whether the district court was required to dismiss Adams\u2019s lawsuit under 31 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a03730(c)(2)(A).<\/li>\n
  2. Whether the district court was required to certify its order denying the government\u2019s motion for interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. \u00a7\u00a01292(b).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Presiding Judges
    \n<\/strong>The Honorable Leondra Kruger of the California Supreme Judicial Court
    \nThe Honorable Britt Grant of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit<\/p>\n

    The Marsha P. Johnson Memorial Team<\/strong> (Petitioner)
    \nGavriel Schreiber
    \nMatthew Summers*
    \nVanessa Rodriguez
    \nMackenzie Arnold*
    \nStephany Bai
    \nIzzy Jensen<\/p>\n

    The Lloyd Gaines Memorial Team<\/strong> (Respondent)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    Jason Bell*
    \nAmeze Belo-Osagie
    \nLauren Bilow
    \nDavis Campbell
    \nTravis Fife*
    \nMichael Torcello<\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    * Oralists<\/em><\/div>\n

    Please tune in starting at 6:15 EST!<\/strong><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Welcome to CR-CL\u2019s Ames Live Blog! The Ames Competition is one of the most prestigious competitions for appellate brief writing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10177,"featured_media":12155,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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