The U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis can continue to use race-based “affirmative action” policies in their admissions, as challenges to such admissions policies wind their way through the federal court system.
Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), a nonprofit legal advocacy group opposed to the use of racial considerations in college admissions, had sought to overturn the use of such race-based admissions policies at the West Point and Annapolis service academies. SFFA had sought preliminary injunctions that would have forced the two service academies to halt any affirmative action-based admissions decisions as the case proceeds
The decisions in the West Point and Annapolis cases come after SFFA successfully challenged similar race-based admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in SFFA v. Harvard that race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions processes violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Writing in his opinion denying SFFA’s request for a preliminary injunction against West Point, Judge Halpern—an appointee of President Donald Trump—wrote that he wished to get the “full factual record” to determine whether West Point’s use of race-based admissions policies “furthers compelling governmental interests” and is narrowly tailored to achieve those interests.
In his Dec. 20 opinion, Judge Bennett—an appointee of President George W. Bush—said he also would like to see “a factual record be developed” to determine what “potentially distinct interests” the Naval Academy may have, as Chief Justice Roberts alluded to in his opinion in SFFA v. Harvard.
Judge Bennett and Judge Halpern also both declined to grant SFFA’s request for a preliminary injunction on the grounds that the respective military academies were in the middle of their admissions cycles. Judge Halpern wrote that the timing of the requested preliminary injunction would require “a new policy be applied to the current applicant pool midstream” and could require West Point to withdraw some appointment offers that had already been sent out.
SFFA has filed a notice of appeal in its request for a preliminary injunction against West Point’s race-based admissions policies. The organization’s founder, Edward Blum, told NTD News that they will ask “the Second Circuit—and, if necessary, the Supreme Court—for emergency relief before West Point’s application deadline on January 31.”