768
Opinion of the Court
liability provision—the precursor to today's § 3729(a)—bore no indication that States were subject to its penalties. Indeed, far from indicating that States were covered, it did not even make clear that private corporations were, since it applied only to "any person not in the military or naval forces of the United States, nor in the militia called into or actually employed in the service of the United States," and imposed criminal penalties that included imprisonment.11
Act of Mar. 2, 1863, ch. 67, § 3, 12 Stat. 698. We do not suggest that these features directed only at natural persons cast doubt upon the courts' assumption that § 3729(a) extends to corporations, see, e. g., United States ex rel. Woodard v. Country View Care Center, Inc., 797 F. 2d 888, 890 (CA10 1986)—but that is because the presumption with regard to corporations is just the opposite of the one governing here: they are presumptively covered by the term "person," see 1 U. S. C. § 1. But the text of the original statute does less than nothing to overcome the presumption that States are not covered.
Although the liability provision of the original FCA has undergone various changes, none of them suggests a broadening of the term "person" to include States. In 1982, Congress made a housekeeping change, replacing the phrase "any person not in the military or naval forces of the United States, nor in the militia called into or actually employed in the service of the United States" with the phrase "[a] person not a member of an armed force of the United States," thereby incorporating the term of art "member of an armed force" used throughout Title 10 of the United States Code. 31 U. S. C. § 3729 (1982 ed.). And in 1986, Congress eliminated the blanket exemption for members of the Armed Forces, replacing the phrase "[a] person not a member of an
11 The criminal provision remains on the books and is currently codified separately, as amended, at 18 U. S. C. § 287.
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