Supreme Court Gives Wal-Mart a Pass on Gender Discrimination Case

Wal-Mart will not have to face a sexual discrimination class action that would have sought billions in damages on behalf of about 1.5 million women who have worked for the world's largest private employer, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.

Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia noted it was “one of the most expansive class actions ever,” seeking to represent about 1.5 million plaintiffs, all present and former Wal-Mart employees.

But Scalia said the workers “provide no convincing proof of a companywide discriminatory pay and promotion policy.”

The court basically held that there were so many employment and promotion decisions – literally millions of them – made by local managers that it was impossible to find the commonality necessary to sustain a class action.

By so doing, it overturned the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which had certified the case as a class action in August 2010, rejecting Wal-Mart's argument that the massive number of people involved rendered the case unmanageable.

The case was the largest employment class action ever certified, and advocates on both sides had predicted it could open the proverbial floodgates for similar actions.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation's primary lobbying group for businesses, filed an amicus brief on Wal-Mart's behalf, urging the high court to hear the case.

"This is the most important class action case facing the Court in over a decade," Robin Conrad, executive vice president of the Chamber's Litigation Center, said in a statement. "The Ninth Circuit radically lowered the standards for certifying blockbuster class actions. Unless the Court steps in to undo the mess created by the Ninth Circuit, the West Coast will become a haven for bet-the-business class actions."