Duane Morris Class Action Review - 2023 - Report - Page 98
CHAPTER 6
Civil Rights Class Actions
I.
Executive Summary
For over more than seven decades, class actions have been among the most powerful
tools to secure civil rights in America.
Brown, et al. v. Board Of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), which declared school
segregation unlawful and arguably set the stage for the civil rights movement, was a
class action. The class in Brown consisted of plaintiffs from five states who alleged that
preventing black students from attending white schools was a violation of the equal
protection clause, since – largely as a result of institutionalized racism – “separate”
facilities were inherently unequal.
In 1966, the Congress and judicial rule-making authorities crafted Rule 23 with the
express goal of empowering litigants challenging systemic discrimination - particularly
segregation - to force courts to order widespread injunctive relief that would protect
members of the class as a whole. Ever since, this provision remains as salient to the
enforcement of federal civil rights statutes and constitutional claims as at its inception.
For a multitude of reasons, class actions are often a tool of first resort by advocacy
groups to remedy civil rights violations.
Class actions in the civil rights context spanned numerous issues in 2022. Given this
breadth of subject area, there were well over one hundred decisions in this space. Amid
these far-ranging claims and groups of individuals, one common theme continues to be
whether litigants can meet the commonality and typicality requirements of Rule 23 to
establish class certification.
In combination with the relatively lenient standards favoring class certification as well as
the crafty engineering of pleadings that present common issues for resolution, 2022 saw
court rulings where numerous civil rights classes were certified, as well as grants of
class certification affirmed on appeal. Moreover, a growing trend is division of classes
into sub-classes to ensure the pertinent Rule 23 requirements are met, and improving
the plaintiffs’ chances of success at the certification stage.
One unique aspect of civil rights litigation is the fact that it lends itself to pro se plaintiffs
litigating various stator claims. Decisions in this context revealed a trend towards class
certification denials. Another issue unique to this arena is the challenge that certain
conduct is difficult to apply universally to claims and lack of evidence of alleged civil
rights abuses.
Given the volume of litigation in the civil rights area, as well as the frequency with which
classes are granted, and new burgeoning issues that percolate (e.g., claims regarding
COVID-19, claims regarding the increased issue with homelessness, and others), it is
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Duane Morris Class Action Review – 2023
