The Constitutionality of Qui Tam Actions

The Constitutionality of Qui Tam ActionsEvan Caminkerl-The qui tam action offers an unconventional means by which Congress may enlist the aid of private citizens in enforcing Federal statutory schemes.'In such an action, a private person maintains a civil proceeding on behalf of both herself and the United States to recover damages and/or to enforce penalties available under a statute prohibiting specified conduct.The private plaintiff shares any monetary recovery with the United States.Despite its relative obscurity today, the qui tam enforcement framework is familiar to our legal tradition."Statutes providing for actions by a common informer, who himself has no interest whatever in the controversy other than that given by statute, have been in existence for hundreds of t Law Clerk to the Honorable