August 16, 2004

Last Friday, as I'd predicted, the Ninth Circuit accepted an interlocutory appeal of San Francisco District Judge Martin Jenkins's decision to certify a 1.6 million-member employment discrimination class action suit against the company. I continue to expect that the Ninth Circuit will reverse the ill-considered class action certification. For my thoughts on the problems underlying the class certification, see here. See also our editor's comments here, and Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Steve Malanga's Wall Street Journal column on the case here. (via Howard Bashman)

UPDATE: The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has a thorough article on the dueling statistics each side will use in the case here.