For employers, the Supreme Court’s June 20 ruling in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores was a decisive win. The decision in the closely watched sex discrimination case makes it substantially harder to certify a big class under Title VII, making it particularly important for large, nationwide employers.
The plaintiffs contended that Wal-Mart’s policies and practices resulted in discrimination in compensation and promotion against its women employees nationwide. But the high court found that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 2004 improperly certified the class estimated at 1.5 million current and former female Wal-Mart employees. That district court certification was upheld by a 9th Circuit panel in 2005 and a 6-5 en banc decision in 2010.
