Federal Judge Tosses Challenge to Use of Race in Admissions at US Naval Academy

Members of the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 2023 complete squad combat course training as part of a program to transition the candidates from civilian to military life, in Annapolis, Md., on Aug. 1, 2019. ENS Marion Bautista/Released/U.S. Navy

A federal judge in Maryland threw out a challenge on Dec. 6 to the U.S. Naval Academy’s policy of considering race in admissions.

The new decision came after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2023 that Harvard College’s use of affirmative action violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

But in that decision, the nation’s highest court carved out an exception for military academies because none of the lower courts in the case “addressed the propriety of race-based admissions systems in that context.”

There are “potentially distinct interests that military academies may present,” the Supreme Court noted.

In the new ruling, U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett noted that the mission of the Annapolis, Maryland-based Academy is to prepare students to serve as Navy and Marine Corps officers.

“The Academy does not set any racial quotas nor engage in racial balancing, and no candidate is admitted based solely on his or her race,” he wrote. In the admissions procedure, “race or ethnicity may be one of several non-determinative factors considered,” he said.

For years, “military and civilian leaders have determined that a racially diverse officer corps is a national security interest,” and earlier this year, a congressional committee “noted the continuing problem of underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities in the military service academies,” he wrote.

“Quite simply, this Court defers to the executive branch with respect to military personnel decisions,” the judge wrote.

Students for Fair Admissions, which brought the Supreme Court case, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Maryland in October 2023.

Students for Fair Admissions said in its legal complaint that in 1948 President Harry Truman signed an executive order providing that there should be “equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.”

Over the past decades, the school had strayed from that, it said.

The school “openly admits that ‘race’ is a ‘factor’ that it considers when making admissions decisions,” the complaint said.

In 2020, a diversity task force established by the chief of naval operations recommended that the Navy deemphasize standardized academic tests and instead prioritize subjective factors.

The goal was to improve the representation of minorities and make certain that the officer corps reflected demographic percentages, the complaint said, referencing a Navy report.

“The Academy stopped requiring applicants to submit standardized scores three years ago,” the complaint said.

Edward Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions, said his group was disappointed with the new ruling.

“But just as we did in our successful lawsuits against Harvard and the University of North Carolina, SFFA will appeal this to the appellate court. If we are unsuccessful there, then we will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court,” he said.  “It is our hope that the U.S. military academies ultimately will be compelled to follow the Supreme Court’s prohibition of race in college admissions.”

The Epoch Times reached out for comment to the U.S. Department of Justice but did not receive a reply by publication time.

Naveen Athrappully contributed to this report.