Self-Powered Lighting, Ltd. v. United States

In 1978, the United States Army Armament Material Readiness Command (the Army) solicited bids from manufacturers to produce light attachments for rifles. Among the bidders was Self-Powered Lighting, Ltd. (Self-Powered) (plaintiff), a New York corporation that manufactured armaments and military equipment. Self-Powered was outbid by a United Kingdom company, Saunders-Roe Developments, Ltd. (Saunders). In 1979, the Army and Saunders entered into a contract for the production of the light attachments. Self-Powered brought an action against the United States and various officers of the Army (defendants) seeking a declaratory judgment that the contract between the Army and Saunders was void because it violated the Buy American Act. In a memorandum of understanding (MOU), the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom agreed to a policy to foster greater standardization and interoperability of their weapons systems and to assure the maintenance of a long-term, equitable relationship in reciprocal purchasing of defense equipment. Both governments agreed to exempt procurement of military equipment from their respective buy-national laws. The secretary of defense concluded that it was in the public interest to exempt all defense equipment produced or manufactured by the United Kingdom, other than those excluded by the MOU, from the restrictions of the Buy American Act. Self-Powered argued that the exemption only applied to military equipment purchased outside of the country for use by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces stationed in Europe or for equipment intended to be interoperable with the use in NATO countries. The United States and the Army moved for summary judgment.