A slimmed-down version of the historic gender discrimination class action against Wal-Mart stores is still too unwieldy and "underwhelming" to merit Rule 23 class certification, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled Friday.

"Though plaintiffs insist that they have presented an entirely different case from the one the Supreme Court rejected, in fact it is essentially a scaled-down version of the same case with new labels on old arguments," Breyer wrote.