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Do the Exclusion Archives on SAM.gov Violate Contractors' Liberty Interest?

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 09.29.16

The suspension and debarment remedies are not meant to punish contractors for past misdeeds, yet information about past exclusions is stored indefinitely on the SAM.gov website, and this information is increasingly causing collateral consequences outside the government marketplace. In an article published in Bloomberg BNA, C&M attorneys discuss the evolution of the excluded parties list and explore how a contractor might challenge the exclusion archives as a violation of a contractor’s constitutional liberty interests.

Insights

Client Alert | 3 min read | 04.14.26

DOJ’s False Claims Act Resolution Against IBM Signals Heightened Risk for Federal Contractors with DEI Programs

On Friday, April 10, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has agreed to pay just over $17 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act (FCA) by failing to comply with federal anti-discrimination requirements incorporated into its federal contracts due to allegedly discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) employment practices. This resolution marks the first FCA settlement secured by the DOJ under its Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, created in May 2025, and announced by then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as part of the administration’s coordinated efforts to target allegedly unlawful DEI practices. Per the agreement, the settlement is neither an admission of liability by IBM nor a concession by the United States that its claims are not well founded....