A Big Ruling for Wal-Mart in Sex-Discrimination Case

23 June 2011

Demonstrators gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Tuesday, June 21, 2011, to protest the court's Wal-Mart sex discrimination class action lawsuit decision

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

In the American legal system, people generally bring civil claims as individuals. But if a lot of people have similar claims, they may try to bring a class action lawsuit.

Michael Dorf is a law professor at Cornell University.

MICHAEL DORF: "A class action is a procedural device under US law that allows a large group of people to bring their individual claims together as a group."

But groups need permission to bring a class action, and that can be denied. That happened this week to a million and a half current and former employees of America's largest private employer. The women accuse Wal-Mart of discriminating against female employees in its stores. But the United States Supreme Court voted to block a huge class action against Wal-Mart in federal court.

The women were seeking billions of dollars. They say men were offered more jobs and more chances to move up in the company. They accuse Wal-Mart of violating part of a federal law, the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty-four.

The case started about ten years ago. A federal district court in California agreed that the case could go forward as a class action. Wal-Mart again lost in a federal appeals court. But on Monday Wal-Mart won its appeal in the nation's highest court.