Judge says military academy’s racial considerations are based on ‘national security interest’
The U.S. Naval Academy, unlike civilian higher education institutions, may continue to consider the race of applicants seeking admission, a federal judge ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett sided with President Joe Biden’s administration in the case brought by Students for Fair Admissions, Reuters reports.
“Over many years, military and civilian leaders have determined that a racially diverse officer corps is a national security interest,” the judge wrote.
However, Edward Blum, an attorney for Students for Fair Admissions, told Reuters in a statement that his organization plans to appeal the decision.
“It is our hope that the U.S. military academies ultimately will be compelled to follow the Supreme Court’s prohibition of race in college admissions,” Blum stated.
In the ruling Friday, Bennett disagreed with the organization’s argument that the military academy’s racial considerations in its admissions policies are unconstitutional.
The judge wrote the U.S. Naval Academy was “specifically exempted” in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which determined race-based college admissions policies violate students’ equal opportunities.
Although more than half of Navy and Marine Corps volunteers are racial minorities, “minority officers constitute only 31 percent of the entire officer corps,” the judge wrote, citing recent data.
The judge also wrote that the military academy does not have racial quotas or admit candidates solely based on their race.
“The Naval Academy has established a compelling national security interest in a diverse officer corps in the Navy and Marine Corps,” he wrote.
Reuters noted the significance of the ruling:
The decision marked a victory for outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, which had argued that senior military leaders had long recognized that a scarcity of minority officers could create distrust within the armed forces, which were racially segregated until 1948. …
Whether the federal government will continue to defend the admissions policy against appeals or in other challenges is now in doubt with Republican President-elect Donald Trump poised to take office on Jan. 20. His first administration supported lawsuits challenging affirmative action policies in civilian higher education institutions.
Students for Fair Admissions also is suing the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in a separate but related case that challenges “the use of race and ethnicity as admissions factors,” according to a news release.
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IMAGE: United States Naval Academy/Facebook
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