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The U.S. Naval Academy can continue to consider race when evaluating applicants to the elite military higher education institution, a federal judge ruled Friday.
The decision comes in the wake of last year’s historic Supreme Court ruling, which barred civilian colleges from using affirmative action in admissions. The justices had exempted military institutions from the rule, but that decision was quickly challenged just four months later by Students for Fair Admissions—the same advocacy organization that filed the original lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.
Senior District Judge Richard D. Bennett struck down SFFA’s argument, saying that ensuring the development of a diverse officer corps is important to national security.
In the 179-page ruling, Bennett, who served over 20 years in the U.S. Army Reserve and Maryland National Guard, explained that the academy’s affirmative action program was narrowly tailored to rectify a “significant deficiency” in the number of people of color who are Navy and Marine officers. About 52 percent of enlisted Naval service members are racial minorities, but minority officers only constitute 31 percent of the corps.
“The U.S. Naval Academy as a military academy was specifically exempted by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Harvard opinion,” Bennett wrote. “The record in this case demonstrates the wisdom of that caution.”
For now, the court’s decision represents a victory for Democrats and the outgoing Biden administration, which defended the academy’s admissions policy. Edward Blum, founder of SFFA, said in a statement that the group plans to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
Republican president-elect Donald Trump, who has previously supported lawsuits challenging affirmative action, may also choose not to continue the admissions policy, which could render any appeal moot.
“As noted by Justice Kavanaugh,” Bennett wrote, “‘The President of the United States, not [this] federal judge’ ultimately makes such decisions.”
