In one of the most closely watched cases of the term, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a nationwide Title VII class action filed on behalf of more than 1.5 million current and former female Wal-Mart employees. Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes, 11 C.D.O.S. 7485. In a 5-4 ruling, the court held that plaintiffs failed to provide proof of a common company-wide policy of discrimination necessary to certify a class under Rule 23(a)(2). Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, concluded that the necessary “glue holding the alleged reasons” for all of the individual employment decisions at issue together was missing. A separate unanimous ruling by the court held that the plaintiffs’ claims for back pay were also improperly certified.
While decided in the context of a Title VII claim, the Wal-Mart holding applies with equal force to other types of class actions. It also provides important guidelines for companies defending against class actions, bases for decertifying federal class actions that might run afoul of the standards set by the case, and signals the move of the class action battlefront to state courts.
Case Overview
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