The following is a letter that Frontiers of Freedom President, George Landrith, sent to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on October 26, 2021, stating our opposition to the destruction of due process, the rule of law, and constitutional principles:
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It is our understanding the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a markup to discuss S. 2428, the “False Claims Amendments Act of 2021.” On behalf of the millions of members and supporters of Frontiers of Freedom, we ask that you oppose this counterproductive bill as it does great violence to the rule of law. This bill would actually weaken the False Claims Act (FCA) and it would undermine due process and foundational rule of law principles that have made our nation a shinning city on the hill. A vote in favor of this bill is a vote to send us into a lawless abyss where government power will be regularly abused by imposing criminal sanctions using ever lower standards of proof and eroding due process.
It is worth remembering that on June 16, 2016 the US Supreme Court unanmously held in Universal Health Services v. United States, ex rel. Escobar, that the materiality element is “demanding” and “rigorous” and the FCA “is not ‘an all-purpose antifraud statute’ or a vehicle for punishing garden-variety breaches of contract or regulatory violations.” S. 2428 would undermine several important elements of our nation’s long standing legal foundations by lowering the burden of proof for the government and the evidentiary standards for materiality to the point where a defendant could be considered guilty until proven innocent and where a defendant could be convicted of criminal voilations of the law based not on a beyond a reasonable doubt standard, but on a perpondernace of the evience standard. Additionally, this legislation would apply retroactively — violating yet another important constitutional standard.
We ask you to vigorouly oppose S. 2428, the False Claims Amendments Act of 2021, during committee consideration. Given the rather grotesque constitutional violations contained in this bill, it should die in committee. However, if the committee reports the bill to the full Senate, we also strongly urge you to continue to oppose this bill. We will be scoring any vote on bill, including procedural votes, because it is too important to ignore. Our millions of members and supporters all across the nation will want to know who voted to support the rule of law and who voted to turn the Constitution on its head.
It is also worth noting that we support Sen. Cotton’s proposed amendment to remove all language from S.2428 except the Sec. 6 portion that provides for a GAO study of the benefits and challenges of the FCA and the effectiveness of the FCA.
Sincerely,
George Landrith
President
Frontiers of Freedom