Supreme Court Allows West Point to Continue Race-Conscious Admissions

The U.S. Military Academy can consider race in its admissions decisions for the class entering in fall 2024, says the U.S. Supreme Court.

Last September, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) filed a lawsuit challenging West Point’s consideration of race and ethnicity as factors in admissions. Only a few months earlier, SFFA had won its case against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina (UNC), effectively ending race-conscious admissions across higher education.

But embedded in the court’s 6-3 opinion is a footnote stating that the nation’s military academies weren’t party to the cases against Harvard and UNC and that the lower courts didn’t address the propriety of race-based admissions systems in that context.

Therefore, the majority opinion doesn’t apply to military academies — West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy — in light of the potentially distinct interests [they] may present.

Chief Justice John Roberts didn’t specify what those distinct interests entail, but his footnote references an amicus brief filed by the United States arguing for the importance of maintaining diversity among military leadership.

The government,the brief contends, has a vital interest in drawing its personnel — many of whom will eventually become its civilian and military leaders — from a well-qualified and diverse pool of university and service academy graduates.

Nonetheless, SFFA petitioned the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for a preliminary and permanent injunction to forbid West Point from considering race in the admissions process, beginning with the current admissions cycle for the class entering in fall 2024.

Over the years, courts have been mindful of the military’s unique role in our nation’s life and the distinctive considerations that come with it, Edward Blum, president of SFFA, said in a statement. However, no level of deference justifies these polarizing and disliked racial classifications and preferences in admissions to West Point or any of our service academies.

In an order issued Feb. 2, the court denied the request, calling the record underdeveloped. Yet it added that this order should not be construed as expressing any view on the merits of the constitutional question.

This caveat means the court could reconsider the case in the future.

Last October, SFFA filed a similar lawsuit against the U.S. Naval Academy, claiming the academy’s admissions policies rely on racial classifications.

As it did with West Point, SFFA requested a preliminary injunction to prevent the Naval Academy from considering race in its admissions decisions for next fall’s class.

In December, U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett denied the request, calling it an extraordinary remedy.

According to Reuters, Bennett said SFFA had failed to show it would likely succeed in proving that … the Naval Academy’s consideration of race as an admissions factor was discriminatory and a violation of equal protection rights under the … Fifth Amendment.

At least for the time being, then, the military academies can continue to consider race, which has served to bolster diversity on those campuses in recent years. From 2000-2021, racial minorities increased from 20% to 36% at West Point and from 19% to 37% at the Naval Academy.

Diversity gains, however, don’t necessarily trickle upward. About 90% of generals and admirals today are white.