April Fool's: Two Notable Certiorari Denials, Two Different Takes On Materiality

It's no April Fool's trick—The Supreme Court once again declined to clear up confusion about the post- Escobar materiality standard by denying two petitions for writ of certiorari on April 1, 2019. The cases are U.S. ex rel. Rose v. Stephens Institute and United States ex rel. Berg v. Honeywell Int'l, Inc., but they are only the most recent to be passed on by the Court. The Supreme Court also denied certiorari in the last two cases asking it to address materiality (Gilead Sciences, Inc. v. U.S. ex rel. Campie and Brookdale Senior Living Communities, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Prather).

In Rose, a non-intervened qui tam, the relators alleged that the art school defendant violated the False Claims Act when it obtained funding from the US Department of Education by falsely certifying compliance with Title IV of the Higher Education Act, which prohibits universities that receive federal funding from providing incentive payments to staff for recruiting students. The