Why doesn’t this surprise me?

In the massive sexual discrimination class action law suit brought against mega-retailer Wal-Mart alleging a endemic pattern of discrimination with respect to salaries and promotions, the Supreme Court has ruled that the case did not satisfy the rules of a class action suit.

Basically the court ruled that the plaintive could not demonstrate enough commonality across all of the issues nor was adequate evidence of a policy of discrimination presented.

The court didn’t rule on the merits of the accusations, but simply upon whether the case could proceed to trial as a class action. All five conservatives concurred; the four liberal judges partially concurred finding fault with the court’s blanket dismissal of the appropriateness of a class action suit.

This is another example of the law potentially trumping justice and I always thought it was supposed to be the other way around.

Why not let a jury of their peers decide on the evidence rather than turning the case on a point of law? Probably because Wal-Mart could lose and that would cause some of the privileged to lose money. Can’t have that happening. Better to deny low wage workers their day in court.