Department of Education Files Appeal of Preliminary Injunction; Briefing Deadlines Set

Last Thursday the Department of Education (ED) filed a Notice of Appeal  to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the litigation originating in the Court of Federal Claims regarding the May 31st Preliminary Injunction issued in the litigation over the Department of Education (ED) RFP for private collection agency services.  

insideARM last wrote about this case on June 15th. At that time we reported that Alltran Education Services (Alltran) had filed its Notice of Appeal of Judge Braden’s Preliminary Injunction. Specifically, Alltran is appealing that aspect of the injunction that prohibits ED from allowing Alltran to perform under its award-term extension (“ATE”) contract (i.e., Task Order No. ED-FSA-17-O-0007 under Contract No. GS-23F-0291K). This appeal is docketed at the Federal Circuit as Continental Service Group Inc. v. United States, docket number 17-2155, and serves as the lead case for several directly related appeals. 

On June 20, 2017, the Court of Appeals issued a short Per Curiam (unanimous) Order. The Order states: 

IT IS ORDERED THAT: 

(1) The appeals are consolidated. The revised official caption is reflected above. Alltran’s opening brief is due no later than August 14, 2017. 

(2) Any responses to Alltran’s motions are due no later than June 27, 2017. Alltran’s reply to the responses is due no later than June 30, 2017. 

insideARM Perspective 

It is likely that the Appeal filed by ED will be similar, but broader in scope than the Alltran appeal.  As of now, ED has only filed its notice of appeal. The May 31, 2017 order has effectively prohibited ED from placing any accounts with any agencies (including the small business contractors) since it was issued. It is likely that ED would like some relief to begin placing accounts, at least to the small business contractors. 

It is also likely that many of the players involved in this litigation will be joining the appeal in some fashion. There have been either Entries of Appearances or Certificates of Interest already filed in the Court of Appeals by attorneys for many of the companies involved in the original litigation.  

insideARM will continue to monitor and report on the progress of this case. See here for a link to an insideARM page that provides a history of our ED-related articles. The page is automatically updated as new stories are written.