The Supreme Court put the brakes on a massive job discrimination lawsuit against mega-retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc., saying the plaintiffs had not shown justification for sweeping class-action status that could have potentially involved hundreds of thousands of current and former female workers.
The 5-4 ruling Monday — which addressed the claims in the lawsuit only in terms of whether they supported such a huge a class action — was a big victory for the nation’s largest private employer, and the business community at large.
The high-profile case– perhaps the most closely watched of the high court’s term — is among the most important dealing with corporate versus worker rights that the justices have ever heard, and could eventually affect nearly every private employer, large and small.
“On the facts of the case,” wrote Justice Antonin Scalia for the majority, the plaintiffs had to show “significant proof that Wal-Mart operated under a general policy of discrimination. That is entirely absent here.”
He added, “In a company of Wal-Mart’s size and geographical scope, it is quite unbelievable that all managers would exercise their discretion in a common way without some common direction.”
While this particular class action has effectively ended, the individual plaintiffs could band together and file a series of smaller lawsuits aimed at individual stores or supervisors.
Four more liberal justices agreed this particular class should not proceed to trial, but criticized the majority for not allowing the female workers to move ahead with their claims under a different legal approach.
“The court, however, disqualifies the class from the starting gate,” wrote Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Via; CNN.com
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