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UPDATE: [Close of Comments on Commerce Cyber Rule]

Client Alert | 1 min read | 01.20.22

On January 12, 2022 the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a federal register notice delaying the effective date of new controls on cybersecurity items and an accompanying new license exception. The rules are now set to take effect on March 7, 2022.

The new controls were published in an interim final rule on October 21, 2021, please see our earlier client alert on this. Broadly speaking, they cover (a) items, including software, for the generation, command and control, or delivery of intrusion software and (b) internet protocol (IP) network communication surveillance equipment. BIS delayed the implementation to give industry additional time to comply with the new restrictions as well as update internal compliance procedures, and to provide BIS itself time to provide additional guidance on the rule. BIS may also consider some modifications to the rule, but is not reopening the comment period and these modifications based on the latest comments will most likely be made, if at all, sometime after the new effective date for the interim final rule.

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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25

A Sign of What’s to Come? Court Dismisses FCA Retaliation Complaint Based on Alleged Discriminatory Use of Federal Funding

On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future....

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