Wal-Mart Stores Inc. can't be sued for discrimination on behalf of potentially a million female workers.
The justices, dividing 5-4, said the lawyers pressing the case failed to point to a common corporate policy that led to gender discrimination against workers at thousands of Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores across the country.
The workers “provide no convincing proof of a companywide discriminatory pay and promotion policy,” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority. The court was unanimous on another issue, with all nine justices saying a federal appeals court applied the wrong legal rules in approving the class action.
Wal-Mart rose after the Supreme Court issued its opinion, gaining 17 cents to $52.99 at 1:25 p.m. in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The company, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, said in a statement that the ruling “effectively ends this class-action lawsuit.”
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