Gonzalez v. Department of Transportation

*1370BRYSON, Circuit Judge,

with whom MICHEL, Chief Judge, and LOURIE, RADER, PROST, and MOORE, Circuit Judges, join, concurring in the order denying rehearing en banc.

The Supreme Court has instructed us that a “waiver of the Federal Government’s sovereign immunity must be unequivocally expressed in statutory text, and will not be implied.” Lane v. Peña, 518 U.S. 187, 192, 116 S.Ct. 2092, 135 L.Ed.2d 486 (1996). The Back Pay Act, 5 U.S.C. § 5596, is clearly sufficient under that standard to waive the government’s sovereign immunity for back pay awards to employees who have been improperly removed…