NAACP, Civil Groups Back Betty Dukes

This was actually a little nugget turned up by The Writing on the Wal - the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund has filed a friend of the court brief supporting the plaintiffs in a historic, nationwide sex-discrimination lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart Stores.

They filed their brief before the Ninth Circuit heard arguments in Wal-Mart’s en banc appeal last week. A snippet from the Wichita NAACP blog:

LDF argued in its friend-of-the-court brief that accepting Wal-Mart’s position is not only bad policy, but also would be a radical rewriting of civil rights law. “When Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the clear intent was to expand protections against workplace discrimination by extending the remedies available to victims of intentional discrimination to include money damages. Wal-Mart is attempting to undermine those protections,” said John Payton, LDF President and Director-Counsel.

LDF was joined on the brief by a broad coalition of civil rights non-profits, including the Asian American Justice Center, Latino Justice, PRLDEF, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Legal Momentum, NAACP, National Partnership for Women & Families, National Women’s Law Center, and Women Employed.

We’ll most likely be waiting for quite a bit of time while the Ninth Circuit decides whether to reverse its previous decision that allowed Dukes v. Wal-Mart to proceed as a class action. Still, it’s impressive to see such a broad group of civil rights groups stand up on the side of Betty Dukes.

Posted by Corey Himrod on Tuesday, March 31, 2009

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