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).
In *Wal-Mart v. Dukes* (2011), the Supreme Court denied a nationwide class-action lawsuit by female employees claiming sex discrimination. The Court’s explanation focused on the **absence of “commonality”** – one of the requirements for class certification.
The Court’s decision began with its finding that the plaintiffs had not proved a **common question of law or fact** that applied to the entire class. The Court primarily relied on testimony that Wal-Mart’s decentralized management enabled local managers to make decisions about pay and promotion with discretion. As there was no actual discriminatory companywide policy tied to these reported employment decisions, the reasons related to the alleged discrimination would differ by respective employee and manager.
Thus, the Court found that the number of individual employment decisions denied the necessary commonality to be resolved in a single class-action lawsuit.