Wal-Mart and a host of amici are urging to Supreme Court to grant cert in the appeal of a federal appeals court ruling that the largest employment discrimination case in U.S. history can proceed as a class action. (See Largest Class Action Suit Ever Approved). The sex discrimination lawsuit was brought by six female Wal-Mart employees in 2001. Although the appeals court reduced the size of the original class from 1.5 million to 500,000, it held that the remaining employees might be eligible for back pay under a separate class action. Wal-Mart had argued that the size of the class was too large to be manageable as a class action.
The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce calls the case, Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes, 10-277, the “800-pound gorilla” of the court’s 2010-11 docket.
Nineteen of Wal-Mart's fellow employers are weighing in on Wal-Mart's side with amicus briefs. They are Altria Group, Bank of America, Chrysler, Cigna, Del Monte Foods, Dole Food, Dollar General, DuPont, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Kimberly-Clark, McKesson, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Tyson Foods, UnitedHealth Group, United Parcel Service, and Williams Cos.
