GovCon News: Oracle Files Petition For A Writ Of Certiorari To The Supreme Court Over DoD JEDI Contract

On January 29, 2021, Oracle filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court over the Department of
Defense’s (“DoD”) Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (“JEDI”) contract. The DoD reaffirmed the estimated $10 billion JEDI contract award to Microsoft on September 4, 2020 after the Court of Federal Claims “CoFC” initially halted work on the project in response to an Amazon Web Service bid protest. As background, the DoD structured the JEDI contract as an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (“IDIQ”) contract. Oracle focuses on two major issues before the Supreme Court: 1) that the DoD was statutorily obligated under 10 U.S.C. § 2304a(d)(3)(A) to make multiple awards given the estimated size of the IDIQ contract (in excess of $112 million); and 2) that certain high-ranking DoD employees had conflicts of interest with corporations competing for the contract.

The Federal Circuit upheld a CoFC decision that determined the DoD’s violation of 10 U.S.C. § 2304a(d)(3)(A) was harmless as applied to Oracle, as Oracle did not meet the procurement requirement that the winning contractor should have three FedRAMP certified cloud computing facilities. The Federal Circuit also held that deferring to the DoD’s determination that conflicts of interest did not taint the procurement was reasonable. In its petition for certiorari, Oracle argues the DoD’s cloud computing facility requirement knocked all competitors out of the running for the contract, as only Microsoft and Amazon could meet those requirements. Oracle also argues that the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Mississippi Valley Generating Co., which would require the JEDI contract award to be set aside, should extend to all conflicts of interest involving government procurements. Amazon Web Service’s separate bid protest continues before CoFC.
The full petition for a writ of certiorari can be found here.