Alex Sarria commented on this year's U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rulings in CACI Inc. v. United States and M.R. Pittman Grp. v. United States, which clarified when the government can raise a "Blue & Gold" waiver defense in bid protests. Under these decisions, "the government waives nonjurisdictional defenses like interested party status, prejudice, and waiver under Blue & Gold if it waits too long to raise the defense," Sarria said. These decisions "do put the onus on the government to assert these kinds of defenses early in a case, but the government typically does that anyway, so the decisions may only make a difference in protests involving a complex record requiring further development."