Trial begins in the fight against positive discrimination at military academies

Students for Fair Admissions, the organization that led the landmark Supreme Court case banning race-conscious college admissions in 2023, is seeking to overturn an exemption that allows military academies to continue using affirmative action policies in their admissions processes.

The lawsuit stems from lawsuits filed last year by SFFA against both the Naval Academy at Annapolis and the United States Military Academy at West Point. The group, founded by Edward Blum, is seeking to extend its 2023 Supreme Court victory to military institutions. That 6-3 ruling prohibited colleges from considering race in their admissions policies, which for decades served to promote diversity on campus.

“Students for Fair Admissions looks forward to presenting our case to the district court,” Blum said in a statement to the Washington Examinerbut declined further comment because SFFA follows a policy of not discussing litigation before a trial begins.

The upcoming trial is likely to attract national attention because military academies were exempt from the Supreme Court's original ruling against policies used at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Chief Justice John Roberts noted in his decision that these institutions may have a “clear interest” in maintaining admissions policies that benefit disadvantaged groups.

In a footnote to the Harvard and UNC decision, the Supreme Court wrote that it could not procedurally influence the application of affirmative action, even though the SFFA asserts that the same rules should apply.

“However, no military academy is a party to these cases, and none of the lower courts addressed the appropriateness of race-based admissions systems in this context. This opinion also does not address the issue, given the potentially diverse interests that military academies may represent,” the 2023 decision's footnote states.

The trial comes after both Harvard and UNC reported declines in minority enrollment, particularly among black and Hispanic students, due to the 2023 decision. However, some schools, such as Yale and Princeton universities, showed little difference in enrollment numbers among those populations.

During the Harvard-UNC litigation before the Supreme Court, 35 former Pentagon officers filed a brief supporting the colleges' efforts to maintain affirmative action policies, arguing that removing race from admissions criteria at military academies “would undermine our military's ability to acquire essential leadership skills and training essential to cohesion.”

The Biden administration's Justice Department, which is challenging SFFA in the Baltimore trial, argues that diversity within the officer corps is critical to military readiness and cohesion. According to the DOJ, racial disparities between soldiers and officers persist, which could undermine trust and mission effectiveness.

Presiding over the case is U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett, who rejected a pretrial attempt to bar the Naval Academy's racial admissions system. Bennett stressed that military leadership requires different considerations than civilian educational institutions, writing, “People at Harvard and UNC don't necessarily lead people into combat.”

Blum's group has also sued West Point in New York to prevent the school from considering race in applications.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

After initial setbacks in a lower court, SFFA filed a petition in the Supreme Court earlier this year to take up the case against West Point.

The Supreme Court on February 2 rejected an attempt to immediately halt the racial considerations at West Point, writing that the lower courts' procedures were still “underdeveloped” and that its refusal at this time should not be construed as “an expression of any opinion on the substance of the constitutional question.”