West Point has responded to a complaint about its practice of weighing in race during the admissions process.
The United States Supreme Court ruled in June that universities cannot use an applicant's race or ethnicity as a factor when deciding who to accept because to do so would violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision terminated affirmative action and, in turn, raised questions about admission at the national military academies including West Point.
While military academies were allowed to continue race-based admissions, the high court did not promise that the practice was protected entirely in its ruling.
“No military academy is a party to these cases, however, and none of the courts below addressed the propriety of race-based admissions systems in that context,” Roberts noted in the majority decision, per Time. “This opinion also does not address the issue, in light of the potentially distinct interests that military academies may present.”
The federal government is now defending its right to weigh a person’s race when reviewing their application after Students for Fair Admission – which brought the initial affirmative action lawsuits – appealed to the Supreme Court to intercede.
"For more than forty years, our Nation’s military leaders have determined that a diverse Army officer corps is a national-security imperative," stated U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar in a court filing on Jan. 30, per Fox News. "Achieving that diversity requires limited consideration of race in selecting those who join the Army as cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point."
Students for Fair Admission submitted an emergency application seeking an injunction to the Supreme Court on Jan. 26 arguing that West Point is not exempt from the court’s prior ruling. SFFA argued that if the academy is not ordered to abandon race-based admissions, every class of applicants will suffer and be discriminated against.
The group wrote:For now, the only question is what should happen as this case proceeds—who should bear the burden of the status quo. Every year this case languishes in discovery, trial, or appeals, West Point will label and sort thousands more applicants based on their skin color—including the class of 2028, which West Point will start choosing in earnest once the application deadline closes on January 31. Should these young Americans bear the burden of West Point’s unchecked racial discrimination? Or should West Point bear the burden of temporarily complying with the Constitution’s command of racial equality?
In its original lawsuit filed in September, the advocacy group asserts that “for most of its history, West Point has evaluated cadets based on merit and achievement.”
“For good reasons: America’s enemies do not fight differently based on the race of the commanding officer opposing them, soldiers must follow orders without regard to the skin color of those giving them, and battlefield realities apply equally to all soldiers regardless of race, ethnicity, or national origin,” the organization wrote.
Students for Fair Admission argues that West Point now focuses on race over “objective metrics and leadership potential” and that the school “openly publishes its racial composition ‘goals.’”
