Walmart Petitions Supreme Court in Class Action Discrimination Case
This case will impact New Jersey employment lawyers as well employment lawyers practicing in other states. The nearly decade long legal fight over the class action suit alleging sex discrimination at Wal-Mart stores is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. In Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes, Wal-Mart's petition challenges the class certification of more than one (1 ) million female former and current workers. The petition as filed Wednesday by Theodore Boutrous Jr., a chair of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's appellate and constitutional law practice.
In April, the U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit ruled in favor of class certification. The Court agreed with the district court that "it would be better to handle some parts of this case as a class action instead of clogging the federal courts with innumerable individual suits litigating the same issues repeatedly." Boutrous says the certification and the claims for monetary damages violate due process and federal rules of civil procedure, and conflict with other circuits and Supreme Court precedents.
Employment lawyers in New Jersey and other parts of the country will be following this case closely. Sex discrimination suits are actionable in both federal and state courts. In New Jersey these claims are actionable under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination.
