Group asks Supreme Court to block West Point, military academies from using race in admissions

The same group that dismantled affirmative action has returned to the Supreme Court, asking the justices Friday to prevent West Point and other academies from considering race in its admissions process.

The petition comes as the application deadline at West Point is approaching next week. The group Students for Fair Admissions says the high court should decide by Wednesday the deadline for applications for the U.S. Military Academy’s class of 2028.

“West Point awards preferences to only three races: Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans,” the filing read. “They cannot use race as a negative, lack an endpoint, stereotype, deploy arbitrary categories or pursue interests that courts can’t reliably measure.”

According to the filing, West Point has applications from Blacks, Hispanics and American Indians reviewed by the school’s Diversity Outreach Office. Regional admissions officers review applicants of other races. The academy doesn’t consider Asian and Pacific Islander applicants under the Diversity Outreach Office because they are “overrepresented,” according to the brief.

A lower court denied the request, prompting Students for Fair Admissions to appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Before the circuit court ruled on the petition for an injunction halting the academy from considering race, the group asked the Supreme Court to step in.

Students for Fair Admissions sued West Point in September. The lawsuit notes the military was desegregated, but recent moves have set racial goals for hiring and diversifying the academy’s members.

The lawsuit claims the consideration of race runs afoul of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, which requires the federal government to provide equal protection and treatment for all.

If it’s unlawful for civilian schools to use race as an admissions factor, the lawsuit argues, it should also be unlawful for the military.

When the high court struck down affirmative action policies at private and state schools last summer in its 6-3 ruling, it provided a footnote noting that military academies were not part of the case.

“No military academy is a party to these cases, but none of the courts below addressed the propriety of race-based admissions systems in that context. This opinion also does not address the issue, in light of the potentially distinct interests that military academies may present,” the footnote read.

Advocates for affirmative action had told the justices that diversity in the military was a goal and that any ruling outlawing the use of race could lead to problems with ranks and races in the armed forces.

A spokesperson from the Justice Department and West Point didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted in her dissent in the 2023 affirmative action ruling that the military promoted the use of diversity for national security purposes.

“Based on ‘lessons from decades of battlefield experience,’ it has been the ‘longstanding military judgment’ across administrations that racial diversity ‘is essential to achieving a mission-ready’ military and to ensuring the nation’s ‘ability to compete, deter and win in today’s increasingly complex global security environment,” she wrote.