United States Department of Homeland Security v. Federal Labor Relations Authority

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge TATEL.

TATEL, Circuit Judge:

Although the amount of money at issue in this dispute about overtime pay is small, the amount of energy that the parties have expended fighting over it is not. It has been the subject of arbitration, three Federal Labor Relations Authority decisions, and now this petition for review. It has taken three years and, according to the government, implicates the august constitutional principle of sovereign immunity. Notwithstanding all this time and effort, our task is easy.

We need not belabor the facts. The question presented…