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Supreme Court Issues Quick Opinion in Wal-Mart Class Action Case

In perhaps the quickest decision in its history, the United States Supreme Court ruled on April Fools Day that the free market could not withstand compensating victims of sex discrimination and that the nationwide class action case brought against Wal-Mart – for which oral arguments were heard March 29 – must be reversed. According to the 5-4 opinion written by Justice Alioto, class action suits for discrimination are not available “absent a written statement promoting a purely discriminatory hiring policy.” Alito had signaled his view that sex discrimination should not be actionable during oral argument, when he stated that if a company’s pay and promotion is “typical of the entire American work force,” then it should be immune from a Title 7 claim. Women and labor activists denounced the ruling, saying that the nation’s highest court has overturned fifty years of legal precedents in order to promote discriminatory hiring practices against women, racial minorities, and other groups covered by Title 7. Click here to read more.
 
 



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