The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government must honor its contractual promises about regulatory treatment, even when Congress later changes the law and makes those promises impossible to keep. The government cannot use new regulations as an excuse to break contracts—it must pay damages instead. For subcontractors, this means contracts that shift regulatory risk to the owner are enforceable, and owners cannot escape liability by claiming new laws made performance impossible.
Include explicit language in contracts assigning regulatory and legal change risks to the party best positioned to manage them (usually the owner/general contractor)