e Civil Rights Act of 1964 is often used by the Supreme Court when it comes to employment and workplace discrimination based on sex and/or gender. In 1976, in Chandler v. Roudebush, they used it to support a decision where discrimination appeared to be based on both sex and gender. Mrs. Jewell Chandler, a black female, was employed as a claims examiner for the Veterans’ Administration. She applied for a promotion to supervisory claims examiner, but the position was given to a Filipino-American male. Mrs. Chandler fled a lawsuit alleging that the promotion was denied her because of unlawful discrimination based on sex and race. Mrs. Chandler was not able to proceed with discovery, because the District Court determined that an absence of discrimination was established by the weight of administrative record. However, Section 717 ( C) of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as added by 11 of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, “provides that within a specified period after notice of final administrative action on a federal employee’s discrimination complaint, the employee may file a civil action against the agency head” (Chandler v. Roudebush, 1976, 1). Mrs. Chandler was permitted to further her civil action against the agency. As one of the justices wrote regarding the ability of Federal employees to file actions in U.S District Court for review of administrative proceedings, “Previously, there have been unrealistically high barriers which prevented or discouraged a Federal employee from taking a case to court. This will no longer be the case. There is no reason why a Federal employee should not have the same private right of action enjoyed by individuals in the private sector” (Chandler v. Roudebush, 1976, 12).
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