Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/529bv.pdf
Page Number: 870.0

529US3

Unit: $U59

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Cite as: 529 U. S. 765 (2000)

795

Stevens, J., dissenting

of the word “person,” the National Association of Attorneys
General adopted a resolution urging Congress to make it
easier for States to be relators.6 When Congress amended
the FCA in 1986—and enacted the word “person” in § 3729
at issue here—it had all of this information before it, i. e.,
that federal judges had accepted States as relators (and
hence as “persons”); that the States considered themselves
to be statutory “persons” and wanted greater freedom to be
“persons” who could sue under the Act; and that the United
States had taken a like position. See S. Rep. No. 99–345,
at 12–13.

In sum, it is quite clear that when the 1986 amendments
were adopted, there was a general understanding that States
and state agencies were “persons” within the meaning of
the Act.

II

The text of the 1986 amendments conﬁrms the pre-existing
understanding. The most signiﬁcant part of the amend-
ments is the enactment of a new § 3733 granting authority
to the Attorney General to issue a civil investigative de-
mand (CID) before commencing a civil proceeding on be-
half of the United States. A series of interwoven deﬁni-
tions in § 3733 unambiguously demonstrates that a State is a
“person” who can violate § 3729.

Section 3733 authorizes the Attorney General to issue a
CID when she is conducting a “false claims law investi-
gation.”
§ 3733(a). A “false claims law investigation” is
deﬁned as an investigation conducted “for the purpose of as-
certaining whether any person is or has been engaged in
any violation of a false claims law.” § 3733(l)(2) (emphasis
added). And a “false claims law” includes § 3729—the pro-
vision at issue in this case. § 3733(l)(1)(A). Quite plainly,
these provisions contemplate that any “person” may be en-

6 Congress adopted the suggestion of the Attorneys General in

§ 3730(e)(4)(A).