A Federal Claims Court judge has issued a sealed order in the ongoing litigation between Department of Energy contractor Swift & Staley and the government over whether the company should effectively be stripped of a site services contract awarded less than two years ago at the Paducah Site in Kentucky.

The ruling was issued under seal by Judge Thompson Dietz on June 2 and a redacted version could be made public within weeks. A court entry online said parties in the case should propose deletions from the public version by June 16.

The case has been contested before the Small Business Administration and the Federal Claims Court since the DOE first awarded incumbent Swift & Staley a five-year, roughly $160-million follow-on deal for landlord services in December 2020.

Last month, Judge Dietz took the somewhat unusual move of staying his own order in favor of DOE and rival bidder Akima Intra-Data, which found Swift & Staley too big for the new small business set-aside contract, until the matter is ruled upon by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The government has filed motions seeking for a sunset date of March 31, 2023, barring a ruling by the appeals court before then. Swift & Staley has said even if it wins down the road before the appeals court, it could go out of business, if the business is taken away prior to an appeals court ruling.