Pelosi: Wal-Mart ruling sets back gender equality

The Supreme Court's decision to block a class action lawsuit on gender discrimination against Wal-Mart sets back the fight for gender equality, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said.

“Today’s Supreme Court decision sets back the cause of equality for women and for all Americans in the workplace and in our society. And it will make it more difficult for workers to come together to fight claims of gender discrimination," Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement on Monday.

Pelosi's comments come in response to a ruling by the Supreme Court on Monday blocking a sexual discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart by a number of its women employees for allegedly paying male workers more money and promoting more male employees than women. On Monday, the court unanimously blocked the case from from moving forward as a class action lawsuit.

In her statement, Pelosi added that the ruling underscores the need to pass other anti-gender discrimination legislation.

"Today’s ruling underscores the need to act boldly and strongly on behalf of women’s rights: we must pass the Paycheck Fairness Act to ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work," Pelosi continued. "It is a matter of fundamental fairness in our nation, and we must work — in the courts and in Congress — to correct this injustice throughout our country."

The lawsuit could have possibly involved more than 1.5 million current and former women Wal-Mart employees.

Speaking for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia acknowledged that the lawsuit would have been one of the "most expansive" class action lawsuits in history. But the class action suit was dismissed because the court ruled it failed to prove that gender discrimination was a common and widespread policy of the retail giant.

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