On September 16, Dismas Locaria spoke with Bloomberg Tax on contract law and Trump's cost-cutting moves. The following is an excerpt:
Rather than continuing to battle challenges in federal district court, the Justice Department is arguing that efforts to undo some grant cuts belong in the US Court of Federal Claims. There, they can be decided under the Tucker Act as breach of contract claims—rather than as policy shifts that allegedly run afoul of the Constitution, the Administrative Procedure Act, or other federal laws.
The administration has invoked the 1887 law, which governs contract claims against the federal government, in cases challenging cuts to climate justice grants, humanities and arts projects, a rollback of federal agency programs, and slashed funding for counsel for unaccompanied immigrant children. If the litigation strategy proves successful, it would direct lawsuits to a court that lacks the authority to give challengers the relief they want: court orders broadly blocking those policy shifts.
Grant recipients can’t win “anything more than the cost of their efforts” if forced to pursue a remedy at the Claims Court, said Dismas Locaria of Venable LLP, who represents recipients and government contractors.
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