The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in the class-action lawsuit filed by a class of female employees against Wal-Mart stores.  The lawsuit was filed on behalf of all female employees who allegedly “have been or may be subjected to Wal-Mart’s challenged pay and management track promotions policies and practices.”  The issue before the high Court was whether all the female employees could bring one lawsuit together as a class-action, or whether they were required to file individual lawsuits.  Therefore, the Court addressed the question of whether there was discrimination based on a “single set of corporate policies” that affected all of the women included in the lawsuit.

Earlier in this case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the female employees could indeed bring this lawsuit as a class-action lawsuit.  In an en-banc decision (all of the judges participated), the Ninth Circuit was split 6-5 in favor of class certification.

During oral arguments before the Supreme Court, both Justices Kennedy and Scalia raised concerns about certifying the class of female employees into a single lawsuit.   Specifically, Justice Kennedy noted that the plaintiffs admitted that the “supervisors have too much discretion” in employment decisions.  Similarly, Justice Scalia also noted that if the managers were “on their own,” that would contradict the plaintiff’s arguments that there is a “strong corporate culture that tells them what to do.”

It will be interesting to see whether the Supreme Court reverses the decision from the Ninth Circuit.  It appears that at least a couple of justices are against class certification, but with these types of cases, you never know what the final decision will be.  If this lawsuit certified as a class-action, it will be the largest employment-related class-action lawsuit in history.

You can read the transcript from the oral arguments here.  You can read the earlier decision from the Ninth Circuit here.