In the case of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes (2011), the Supreme Court ruled against a group of women who wanted to file a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart. The women claimed that Wal-Mart had discriminated against them in pay and promotions. However, the Court found that they could not proceed as a class because they did not meet the legal standard of “commonality.” he Supreme Court decided that the women did not show enough commonality to be treated as a single group in the lawsuit. Commonality means that the members of a group must have the same legal or factual issue that can be resolved in one court case. The Court said the women did not show that all of them were affected by the same discriminatory policy. The Court explained that the women’s claims were based on the decisions of many different managers at Wal-Mart stores across the country. These decisions were made individually by each manager, not because of a single company-wide policy. Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, said that without proof of a common policy that affected all women in the same way, the group could not meet the requirement for commonality.
Module 12
Court case
Discussion 12-Marissa Ramos Torres
In the Wal-Mart v. Dukes case, the Supreme Court denied the magnificence movement primarily because the plaintiffs did not meet the commonality requirement. The Court held that the plaintiff’s claims have been too numerous and individualized to continue as a magnificence, mainly given the decentralized nature of Wal-Mart policies. This ruling bolstered the significance of demonstrating that there was no unusual place in prison or genuine problems while searching for magnificence certification, and it drastically impacted destiny magnificence-movement lawsuits, particularly those geared toward complex, large, complicated companies.
Discussion Board 12.1
These questions are based on the “Sex Class Action” article:
- What did the Supreme Court decide in the Wal-Mart case? And more importantly, how did it justify its decision? (HINT: the key word here is “commonality” (and how it related to “class-action lawsuit”). Try to understand what this legal terms means, as it is key to the court’s decision).
