Page:Ohio Adjutant General's Department v. FLRA.pdf/18

4 to federal civil-service requirements, and are employed under federal law. ,, . The Court posits that “it would be passing strange if dual-status technicians, who qualify as employees under the Statute, were supervised by an entity not required to safeguard the rights guaranteed employees under the Statute.” But the question on which this case turns is not whether the technicians are federal employees or whether they have civil service or bargaining rights. It is not even whether petitioners are obligated to “safeguard” the technicians’ bargaining rights. The question is whether any such obligations can be enforced by means of an order from the FLRA.

In the context of our own remedial authority, we regularly acknowledge many potential impediments to granting a judicial remedy, even to a litigant that might be able to prove that another party has breached its rights. For instance, we might lack subject-matter jurisdiction over a particular claim, see, e.g., Steel Co. v. Citizens for Better Environment, 523 U. S. 83, 94–95 (1998), or lack personal jurisdiction over a particular defendant, see, e.g., Daimler AG v. Bauman, 571 U. S. 117, 121–122 (2014). The plaintiff may lack a private right of action, see, e.g., Alexander v. Sandoval, 532 U. S. 275, 293 (2001), or the defendant may have a valid immunity defense, see, e.g., Wilson v. Layne, 526 U. S. 603, 605–606 (1999). The fact that litigants with meritorious claims may not be able to obtain a particular remedy from a particular source is not “strange,” but perfectly ordinary.

It is no more strange to say in this case that, regardless of whatever rights and duties the parties may have, the particular remedy of an FLRA order is unavailable. “Administrative agencies are creatures of statute,” National Federation of Independent Business v. OSHA, 595 U. S. ___, ___ (2022) (per curiam) (slip op., at 5), and accordingly “have only those powers given to them by Congress,” West Virginia v. EPA, 597 U. S. ___, ___ (2022) (slip op., at 19). If