I’ve got a short Regulation Magazine piece on the notorious (or glorious, depending on your perspective) Dukes v. Wal-Mart case–a gender discrimination class action composed of as many as 2 million women, according to some estimates. You can read more about the case here and download my Regulation piece here.

Many believe the case is headed to the Supreme Court–if not this upcoming term, then the next. If it does, and if the Court takes up Wal-Mart’s constitutional arguments against certification, then, I argue, it might just set the stage for some far-reaching, and overdue, conceptual changes in the way we think about the constitutional rights of class action defendants. My piece uses Dukes as a springboard for sketching some of these defenses–admittedly quite adventurous–which just might become a bit less exotic if Wal-Mart succeeds.