I haven’t followed or studied the case but it hardly surprises me that the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Wal*Mart and against the women it employs. Part of the ruling was unanimous, but the deadly part was another 5-4 conservative opinion. Antonin Scalia says that a failure to have a uniform employment policy which then results in systemic gender-bias cannot have standing because there is no policy. Perfect conservative logic. Imagine if you had a chain of department stores in the Deep South in the mid-sixties, and corporate headquarters had no official policy on the hiring and promotion of blacks. According to Scalia, there could be no discrimination because no one ever told the branch managers to be bigots. Is that brilliant?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Reminds me of the A Few Good Men movie, where it was argued that if Code Reds weren’t in the Marines manual, then they must not exist.
lols
The propositions we men or white folks commit ourselves to, in order to further our bigotries…. It’s kind of laughable.
Well, except for all the people it hurts.
Which is why the timing of the case had to be to bring it up during a recession.
There are a bunch of folks stuck with discrimination. Unfortunately under the logic of last week’s decision, the plaintiffs cannot sue the branch managers individually.
i didn’t expect them to win, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not disappointed.
So now even the SCOTUS Five are part of the Exxon Valdez defense strategy: keep roadblocking until the plaintiffs die out or give up. I think white male conservatives won’t be happy until all American women are outfitted in trailer trash burka chic – barefoot, in a terry cloth robe, slaving over the sink and stove, with a child in each arm, except when needed to service her man. We are all (male and female) effed by this blatant misogyny.
Re: the logic.
OK, so you can’t discriminate because you don’t have a policy that says: discriminate!
Lucky for Walmart that systemic bias is something they merely do rather than put in the policy handbook.