A federal choose upheld the Naval Academy’s race-conscious admissions coverage Friday, rejecting a problem from the group that succeeded on the Supreme Court docket in gutting affirmative motion at civilian greater schooling establishments.
That Supreme Court docket choice didn’t apply to the nation’s army academies, so the most recent lawsuit from College students for Honest Admissions (SFFA) sought to increase it to the academy situated in Annapolis, Md.
“In this case, SFFA has challenged any consideration of race by the Naval Academy in its admissions process,” U.S. Senior District Choose Richard Bennett wrote in his 175-page ruling.
“After an intense one-year period of discovery and a nine-day bench trial, this Court has found that the Academy’s admissions program withstands the strict scrutiny mandated by the Harvard case,” Bennett continued, referring to the current Supreme Court docket choice.
SFFA sued the Naval Academy in October 2023, a number of months after the Supreme Court docket successfully ended race-conscious admissions insurance policies at civilian faculties and universities nationwide by ruling they don’t adjust to the 14th Modification’s assure of equal safety.
Bennett’s ruling sides with the federal authorities’s argument that army academies, not like civilian universities, have a “compelling national security interest in a diverse officer corps.”
“Specifically, the Academy has tied its use of race to the realization of an officer corps that represents the country it protects and the people it leads. The Academy has proven that this national security interest is indeed measurable and that its admissions program is narrowly tailored to meet that interest,” wrote Bennett, an appointee of former President George W. Bush.
“Quite simply, this Court defers to the executive branch with respect to military personnel decisions,” he added.
Led by conservative authorized strategist Edward Blum, SFFA has recruited plaintiffs to file challenges in opposition to colleges’ admissions insurance policies for years.
“This group is upset by the Court docket’s opinion. However simply as we did in our profitable lawsuits in opposition to Harvard and the College of North Carolina, SFFA will attraction this to the appellate court docket. If we’re unsuccessful there, then we are going to attraction to the U.S. Supreme Court docket,” Blum stated in a press release.
“It’s our hope that the U.S. army academies finally can be compelled to observe the Supreme Court docket’s prohibition of race in faculty admissions,” he added.
The group has equally sued the U.S. Army Academy at West Level.
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