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Page Number: 4.0

Cite as:  571 U. S. ____ (2014) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington,  D. C.  20543,  of  any  typographical  or  other  formal  errors,  in  order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

_________________ 

No. 12–417 
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CLIFTON SANDIFER, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. UNITED 
STATES STEEL CORPORATION 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 

APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT
 

[January 27, 2014]

 JUSTICE SCALIA delivered the opinion of the Court.* 
The  question  before  us  is  the  meaning  of  the  phrase
“changing  clothes” as it appears in the Fair  Labor Stand-
ards  Act  of  1938,  52  Stat.  1060,  as  amended,  29  U. S. C. 
§201 et seq. (2006 ed. and Supp. V). 

I. Facts and Procedural History 
Petitioner  Clifton  Sandifer,  among  others,  filed  suit 
under  the  Fair  Labor  Standards  Act  against  respondent 
United  States  Steel  Corporation  in  the  District  Court  for
the  Northern  District  of  Indiana.    The  plaintiffs  in  this 
putative collective action are a group of current or former
employees  of  respondent’s  steelmaking  facilities.1    As  

—————— 

* JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR joins this opinion except as to footnote 7. 
1 Petitioners  filed  this  action  under  29  U. S. C.  §216(b),  which  estab-
lishes  a  cause  of  action  that  may  be  maintained  “by  any  one  or  more
employees for and in behalf of himself or themselves and other employ-
ees  similarly  situated.”    Pending  resolution  of  the  instant  summary-
judgment dispute, a Magistrate Judge set aside a motion to certify the 
suit as a collective action, see No. 2:07–CV–443 RM, 2009 WL 3430222, 
*1, n. 1 (ND Ind., Oct. 15, 2009), but petitioners assert that their ranks
are about 800 strong.