(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) The carve-out that the U.S. Supreme Court allowed for race-based entry to military academies could be subject to further constitutional scrutiny.
Students for Fair Admissions, the nonprofit that convinced the high court to scrap affirmative action in the civilian college admission process, appeared to be gearing up for a lawsuit against the trio of the prestigious, highly competitive U.S. service academies.
In addition to the Army’s West Point school, the Navy’s Annapolis school and the Air Force’s Colorado Springs school, the Coast Guard and Merchant Marines also have highly selective federal academies for training commissioned officers.
In a footnote included its landmark June 29 decision against Harvard University, the court explained that “No military academy is a party to these cases…and none of the courts below addressed the propriety of race-based admissions systems in that context.”
The rationale was likely more procedural than substantive; the court wasy not necessarily saying it condoned racist admissions at the service academies but simply saw the need to distinguish them from non-federal higher-education institutions to avoid any unintended legal implications that may have arisen in other areas (such as, say, student-loan forgiveness).
“This opinion also does not address the issue, in light of the potentially distinct interests that military academies may present,” the footnote concluded.
Nonetheless, through a website called West Point Not Fair, SFFA seemed to be actively seeking potential plaintiffs for a new round of litigation to challenge the safe harbor, as it were, that the court tacitly accepted.
The website reaffirmed that admissions gatekeeping at the military academies based on an applicant’s race/ethnicity was “unfair and unconstitutional.”
SFFA was asking anybody subjected to this form of discrimination to provide contact information and describe what happened.
“Were you rejected from West Point? Or the Naval Academy or the Air Force Academy? It may be because you’re the wrong race. Or are you a high school senior and plan to apply to any of these service academies?” it asked. “Tell us your story.”
Assuming SFFA gets any takers from those who have the elements of a discrimination claim, it could likely take years for a case of this nature to work its way through the federal judiciary.
And there is no certainty that the Supreme Court, which gets to pick and choose which cases it wants to hear, would be inclined to accept an appeal from a lower-court ruling about service-academy policies.
The majority opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts did establish, however, a strong precedent by overturning racial preferences in higher education generally.
The litigation also may bringing more public attention to critical race theory material now embedded in military-academy curricula, which undermines national security preparedness even as China is actively seeking to infiltrate U.S. military bases in other ways.
In the meantime, a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner has stated that the recent Supreme Court decision could raise questions about the continued viability of corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
