In support of respondents in Tyson Foods, Inc. v. Bouaphakeo, et al. before the U.S. Supreme Court, CE Director Dr. Michael A. Williams and Professor Tilman Klumpp co-authored an amicus brief of economists and other social scientists in defense of the use of statistical evidence in matters of law.  One of the issues before the Court involved the extent to which statistical evidence may be used as common proof of liability in class and representative actions.   The brief was submitted to emphasize the extent to which modern empirical methods, including statistics, are reliable and in many cases valuable in class actions and other complex litigation settings.

 

On March 22, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case, and in its issued opinion it cited the previously mentioned amicus brief.  In the issued opinion, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the six-member majority, refused to bar the use of “representative evidence.”  Justice Kennedy wrote that “a representative or statistical sample, like all evidence, is a means to establish or defend against liability.”  The opinion went on to state that it “follows that the Court would reach too far were it to establish general rules governing the use of statistical evidence, or so-called representative evidence, in all class-action cases.”