Business Without Borders – International Business and Tax Planning Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Wal-mart’

• The Los Angeles Times in its coverage of Wal-mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, Betty, et al., 10-277, ”Supreme Court hears arguments in Wal-Mart sex discrimination case,” calls the Supreme Court “skeptical.”
• Meanwhile, The New York Times in its story, “Justices Take Up Class-Action Issue in Wal-Mart Bias Suit,” says the Supreme Court “appeared closely divided on Tuesday during arguments over the theory put forth by the plaintiffs.”
• Bloomberg sees an emerging gender gap on the Supreme Court bench, “Wal-Mart Discrimination Case Reveals Gender Gap at High Court.”

The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in a case that could have an enormous impact on business in the United States.  In Wal-mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, Betty, et al., 10-277, plaintiffs seek to affirm certification of a “nationwide class action consisting of all current and former female employees of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., estimated at the time to comprise at least 1.5 million women.”  Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, 2010 WL 3355820, *1 (U.S. 2010). “The millions of class members collectively seek billions of dollars in monetary relief under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, claiming that tens of thousands of Wal-Mart managers inflicted monetary injury on each and every individual class member in the same manner by intentionally discriminating against them because of their sex, in violation of the company’s express anti-discrimination policy.” Id. at 3355820.  The lower courts certified and affirmed the enormous class.  Id.at *1.

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