If any of the recent Supreme Court decisions offered up a cause for mourning, it would be yesterday's dismissal of the Wal-Mart sexual harassment suit, the largest employment class action in American history, and a critical development in the depressingly volatile field of women's rights.
There is nothing short of tragic irony in the Court's rationale for the decision - that the prosecution needed to prove a nationwide policy or practice on the part of Wal-Mart to discriminate against its female employees - when in fact discrimination against women either through hiring, promotion, or inappropriate conduct is not only national but near-universal, and not just by Wal-Mart. The critical factor is the Court's naive assumption (or not so naive) that said discrimination would be blatant and codified, and that the existence of an anti-discrimination policy was enough to preclude it, when of course the abuse of women is overwhelmingly under the radar.
Needless to say, the decision is not only a blow to women, but also to to ethnic and racial minorities, the LGBT community, persecuted religious groups, and any other routine target of abuse, in that it sends a message to all of the above that even a colossal articulation of resistance won't be enough to sway the tide of big-business.
That said, I know I'm joined by many in claiming with defiance that this won't be the end of it, though it's most certainly the end of my ever setting foot in a Wal-Mart store again.
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