On June 20, in Dukes v. Wal-Mart, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a huge blow to plaintiffs seeking to certify employment discrimination class actions under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23, as well as consumer, antitrust, and other class actions. The heavily publicized case involved a proposed 1.5- million-person class of female Wal-Mart employees seeking to bring disparate impact and pattern or practice claims for discrimination in promotions and compensation. Justice Scalia wrote for the majority. In a 5-4 decision, the Court found that allegations that Wal-Mart had a “common” policy of permitting local managers to use discretion to make employment decisions based upon subjective factors did not satisfy the commonality requirement of Rule 23(a)(2). Significantly, the Court held that the commonality requirement is not met by “generalized questions” that do not meaningfully advance the litigation and is not met where named plaintiffs and members of the purported class have not suffered the “same injury.” In addition, in a unanimous decision, the Court found that claims for “individual monetary damages,” including back pay, could not be certified under Rule 23(b)(2). This decision provides defendants in class actions with a variety of tools to defeat efforts to certify large class actions involving disparately situated plaintiffs.

The Court Must Consider Certain Merits Issues in Deciding Class Certification Motions

The Court reached several conclusions that addressed, and rejected, arguments plaintiffs have made for years in support of certifying broad class actions in all contexts. For example, the Court put the final nail in the coffin of the argument that a district court must accept plaintiffs’ allegations as true and avoid any factual considerations of the “merits” in ruling upon class certification. The Court made it clear that a district judge must engage in a “rigorous analysis” before certifying a class action and must consider the merits of plaintiffs’ claims if they overlap with issues related to certification. The Court also suggested that a district court must scrutinize supposedly expert opinions offered in support of class certification. In making this ruling, the Court suggested that the standard set forth in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993) (the Daubert standard) likely applies to expert evidence used in the class certification process.