Supreme Court Weighs King-Sized Discrimination Suits

Three women brought their case to the Supreme court today, arguing that Wal-Mart discriminated against them and potentially 1.5 million other women, paying them less and passing them over for promotions over a 10-year period. Wal-Mart has argued that the women’s situations are different enough that they should be brought as separate lawsuits.

The case is expected to have a large impact on civil rights litigation, since it presents an opportunity for the Supreme Court to largely rewrite rules on class-action cases.

The attorney for Betty Dukes, a Wal-Mart greeter who bought the first lawsuit, argues that Wal-Mart’s corporate policy gave individual managers too much discretion while simultaneously fostering gender stereotypes, leading to widespread discrimination within Wal-Mart as compared to their competitors. This argument that the corporate heads gave managers discretion while also pushing them to discriminate did not sit well with several Justices, who asked how it was possible to have it both ways.

Justice Antonin Scalia repeatedly pointed out that Wal-Mart had a written non-discrimination policy, and he suggested that the conflicts among a written policy, an unwritten policy, and an abundance of discrimination were indications that this case is too complicated to be heard at a single instance. Chief Justice John Roberts also expressed concern that, if the case were to go forward, that would prevent women from bringing individual lawsuits at a later time—perhaps as lawsuits against specific managers or stores.

Liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor expressed concern with statistics showing apparent widespread discrimination at Wal-Mart, but they seemed hesitant to endorse bringing all the claims in a single case.

The Justices seemed skeptical today that cases this large can effectively represent the interests of everyone involved.

The case is Wal-Mart v. Dukes, and it will likely be decided by early June.