The Supreme Court has denied a request to halt West Point from considering race as a factor in its admissions process — at least for now.
The court signaled Friday in its order denying a requested injunction that it isn’t weighing in on the merits at this early stage.
“The record before this Court is underdeveloped, and this order should not be construed as expressing any view on the merits of the constitutional question,” the order stated.
Students for Fair Admissions asked the justices to prevent West Point from considering race in its admissions process, saying military academies shouldn’t be exempt from the high court’s precedent.
The petition’s review came around the same time as the deadline for applications at West Point, the end of January.
“West Point awards preferences to only three races: Blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans,” the group’s 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.”
The Biden administration earlier in the week had asked the justices not to interfere with West Point’s applications review.
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, arguing on behalf of the federal government and West Point, told the justices that a “diverse officer corps is necessary for an effective fighting force.”
“For more than forty years, our Nation’s military leaders have determined that a diverse Army officer corps is a national-security imperative and that achieving that diversity requires limited consideration of race in selecting those who join the Army as cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point,” she wrote.
According to the filing by Students for Fair Admissions, West Point has applications from African American, Hispanic or Native Americans reviewed by their Diversity Outreach Office, but applicants of another race are reviewed by regional admissions officers. 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. But 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. On Monday, the 2nd Circuit denied the request.
The petition was presented to Justice Sonia Sotomayor and referred to the full court.
Students for Fair Admissions initially sued West Point in September. The lawsuit notes that the military is desegregated, but said 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, which requires the federal government to provide equal protection and treatment for all.
If it’s unlawful for civilian schools to use race as a consideration in admissions, the lawsuit argues, then 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 in the opinion noting that military academies were not part of the case.
“No military academy is a party to these cases, however, and 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 various ranks and race in the armed forces.
Justice Sotomayor said in her dissent in the 2023 affirmative action ruling that the military had 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.