One of the biggest business cases on the U.S. Supreme Court’s fall docket is to be argued today, reports CBS’s Steve Tawa. The issue is whether cable TV subscribers in the Philadelphia area could sue Comcast, as a group. The outcome is likely to have a far-reaching effect on class-action lawsuits.

The high court will consider what it calls the ‘narrow issue’ of whether a trial judge could grant class-action status, without resolving whether there was enough evidence to justify awarding damages to the class as a whole.

Anti-trust specialist Howard Langer is a senior partner with the Center City firm Langer, Grogan and Diver and a law professor at Penn.

“The key thing is to see the distinctions between this case and the Wal-Mart case that they decided previously.”