This morning the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to address two questions raised by the Ninth Circuit’s decision affirming certification of a nationwide class of more than a million current and former Wal-Mart employees, Dukes v. Wal-Mart, 603 F.3d 571 (9th Cir. 2010).
The Court agreed to review the first of two questions presented in Wal-Mart’s petition for certiorari: “Whether claims for monetary relief can be certified under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(b)(2) – which by its terms is limited to injunctive or corresponding declaratory relief – and, if so, under what circumstances.” The Court did not grant Wal-Mart’s petition as to the second question presented – “Whether the certification order conforms to the requirements of Title VII, the Due Process Clause, the Seventh Amendment, the Rules Enabling Act, and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23” – but directed the parties to brief and argue a more narrow question: “Whether the class certification ordered under Rule 23(b)(2) was consistent with Rule 23(a).”
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