The Supreme Court decided a case involving Walmart yesterday. Ann Althouse has a summary of the case which is clearer than what I've seen or heard elsewhere.
I thought of Pigford.
I wonder if it would have been recognized as a class action lawsuit if the Walmart case had been decided before Pigford. To me, though not a lawyer, the cases seem similar. In both a national organization is being sued for discrimination. In both cases there's some decision making done at the national level and some at the local (regional or store for Walmart, state or county for FSA).
If Walmart had been decided first, USDA/FSA could have argued that there was no national discriminatory policy in effect, therefore there was no "class" to file a class-action suit. That would have required the aggrieved parties to file suits at the state or county level.
Of course, Congress could have stepped in, I guess. They stepped in to extend the statute of limitations because Pigford hadn't been filed timely so I guess they could have waived their wand and said that black farmers/potential farmers were a class.
Of course, if Walmart had been raised back in the early 90's, Sandra Day O'Connor would have been on the Court and so the verdict likely would have been 5-4 the other way. Does the different result yesterday reflect 8 years of Republican Presidents or a change in the national climate of opinion, or maybe just chance?
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