The Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) May 19, 2025 “Civil Rights Fraud Initiative” memorandum, issued by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche (the “Initiative”), marks a consequential policy shift for False Claims Act (“FCA”) enforcement. The Initiative instructs every U.S. Attorney’s Office to “aggressively pursue” compliance with federal civil rights laws, as those laws have been interpreted by the Supreme Court under the 2023 Harvard admissions decision. The effect of this order is to treat a recipient’s knowing violation of federal civil rights laws as a “false claim” whenever that recipient has certified, impliedly or expressly, that it would comply with those laws as a condition of receiving federal dollars.