Wal-Mart, the Supreme Court, and class actions

Now I know that I am no Supreme Court Justice. But, something in my gut tells me that allowing up to 1.5 million individuals to join together in a single suit can have messy and far reaching implications...implications that I frankly don't believe our judicial system has the capacity, nor power, to handle. Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard arguments on whether hundreds of thousands of female workers have enough in common to join in a suit against mega store Wal-Mart on allegations of gender discrimination. Now I'm not contesting the validity of these women's claims...I don't even know enough to have an opinion on these women's claim. What worries me is that allowing a class action of this size and caliber might warp the legal foundations that this very action itself relies upon...

Photo: Stephen Crowley, The New York Times