Supreme Court denies Oracle appeal over JEDI protest
The Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition from Oracle to keep its protest of the Pentagon’s now-canceled Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) cloud contract alive.
It comes after the technology giant earlier this month called on the Supreme Court not to throw out its appeal, arguing that concerns over the award of the $10 billion cloud contract exist also with its replacement, the Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability.
Legal sources previously told FedScoop that Oracle’s appeal was unlikely to succeed because the court would consider the company’s arguments over JWCC to be separate from its prior JEDI lawsuit. Oracle was seeking certiorari, a writ or order by which a higher court reviews a decision of a lower court.
In a brief filed last Friday, the technology company argued its case should not be declared moot simply on the basis of the Department of Defense ending the contract. In its submission to the court, Oracle argued that cases do not become moot “simply because a defendant issues a press release claiming to have ceased its misconduct.”
When a federal court deems a case to be moot, the court no longer has the power to hear the legal claim and must dismiss the complaint.
Oracle’s protesting of the JEDI contract began in 2018 with a denied complaint sent to the Government Accountability Office. It has argued that the Department of Defense unlawfully structured the contract as a single-source award, rather than a multiple-award solicitation, which the new JWCC contract will be. Oracle also failed to convince the U.S. Court of Federal Claims the contract was illegal.
