In the case of Mitchell, Secretary of Labor v. H.B. Zachry Co., the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favor of James P. Mitchell, then Secretary of Labor, who argued that a construction company violated labor laws by not paying overtime to employees working on public projects funded by federal and state governments. The defendant was H.B Zachry Company, a Texas-based firm involved in heavy construction work such as dams and highways across several states. The court held that under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), workers were entitled to receive one-and-a-half times their regular pay rate for any hours worked beyond 40 per week regardless if they were employed on federally-funded projects or not.

In the dissenting opinion for Mitchell v. H.B. Zachry Co., Justice Frankfurter argued that the majority's interpretation of "public work" in the Davis-Bacon Act was too broad and inconsistent with Congressional intent. He contended that Congress intended to limit coverage under this act to construction workers directly employed on public works projects, not those indirectly involved such as employees at an off-site fabrication plant like Zachry Co.'s facility. The justice believed that extending coverage beyond direct employment would lead to administrative difficulties in determining wage rates and could potentially cover all manufacturing industries supplying materials for public works, which he felt was clearly not within Congress' original intention when passing the law.