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Supreme Court Appears Sympathetic to Wal-Mart in Class Action

BY Tony Mauro
March 30, 2011

The massive class action against retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ran into stiff resistance at the U.S. Supreme Court on March 29, after surviving lower court challenges ever since it was launched 10 years ago.

'It's not clear to me: What is the unlawful policy that Wal-Mart has adopted?' said Justice Anthony Kennedy, who as usual is the likely swing vote in the closely watched business case Wal-Mart v. Dukes. The outcome of the dispute, involving as many as 3 million female current and former workers, could cost Wal-Mart billions in back pay or limit the use of class actions as a civil rights remedy.

Picking up on a point made by Wal-Mart, Kennedy told the lawyer for the plaintiffs that his argument 'faces in two directions.' Plaintiffs claim that gender discrimination at Wal-Mart resulted from excess discretion given to local store managers on the one hand and a companywide 'corporate culture' that led to biased decisions on the other hand.

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