- In Betty Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiffs in the case: Betty Dukes and 1.5 Million other female War-Mart employees, were not considered a protected class. They decided that because the discrimination happened in multiple different stores and was perpetrated by “individuals” rather than Wal-Mart as a whole, there was no basis for a class-action lawsuit.