Courts have historically wrestled with who qualifies as an “Officer of the United States”— a term that is used five times in the Constitution and its amendments. Considering that the federal government employs nearly 3 million people, some of the confusion is warranted. But not all. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court faced the question of whether the president qualified as an officer of the United States. The Court ultimately decided the case on different grounds without clarification on this point.
A federal district court in Florida ruled three weeks ago that any individual who files a qui tam lawsuit under the False Claims Act is an officer of the U.S. and that the FCA’s qui tam provisions are unconstitutional because whistleblowers are not appointed by the executive branch.