MONDAY’S Supreme Court decision in Dukes v Walmart (PDF) looks tailor-made to worry those who think the court has become too business-friendly. On one side was a mammoth corporation, little loved on the left. On the other, 1.5m women (personified in the case by one Walmart greeter, Betty Dukes, pictured above) suing Walmart for alleged discrimination in pay and promotion. The court sent them home unhappy, ruling unanimously against them on one procedural question and 5-4 on the legal heart of the matter.Although two statisticians gave evidence that Walmart promoted fewer women than men, and fewer women than its competitors did, the question before the Supreme Court judges was not, in fact, whether the giant retailer discriminated against women. It was whether the women had suffered a single wrong that allowed them to sue Walmart as a block.
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