Anti-Affirmative Action Group Sues Naval Academy Over Admissions Policy

BALTIMORE — A group that opposes race-conscious college admissions sued the U.S. Naval Academy last week.

The Virginia-based group, called Students for Fair Admissions, says the Naval Academy discriminates by allowing race to be a factor in deciding who is admitted to the Navy’s top institution for recruiting officers.

Students for Fair Admissions says the policy is an unconstitutional violation of the Fifth Amendment’s guarantees of equal protection under the law.

“Instead of admitting midshipmen solely on leadership potential and objective metrics — the academy stopped requiring applicants to submit standardized scores three years ago — the academy focuses on race,” says the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

“The academy has no justification for using race-based admissions,” says the lawsuit. “Those admissions are unconstitutional for all other public institutions of higher education.”

The lawsuit cites the Supreme Court ruling in June of Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College. In that case, and a companion lawsuit against the University of North Carolina, the court held that race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions violate equal protection.

Similar to Harvard, the Naval Academy claims it has a flexible goal that seeks “racial balancing.” Academy officials say they want to achieve equality among the Navy’s officers, who consist disproportionately of White men.

A 2020 Defense Department report showed Blacks made up 18% of active military personnel but 8% of officers. Similar figures are found for Hispanic service members and officers.

White service members are 53% of active military personnel but 73% of officers, the report said.

The Naval Academy and West Point argue they should be exempt from the Supreme Court ruling because it invokes 14th Amendment provisions that apply to states. The Naval Academy and West Point are federal military institutions that have different missions than most universities.

Students for Fair Admissions disagrees, saying equal protection applies to both state and federal institutions, regardless of where it is found in the Constitution.

The lawsuit is likely to close a loophole in the Supreme Court ruling against Harvard and the University of North Carolina. Military academies were not mentioned in the ruling.

The ruling said courts have not yet considered “the propriety of race-based admissions systems in that context.”

Officials from the Naval Academy in Maryland, West Point in New York and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado said they examine several factors among applicants with the heaviest emphasis on academic performance and leadership qualities.

Although they say they are analyzing how the Supreme Court ruling will affect them, the Biden administration already has hinted at its preferences when the Justice Department intervened in the lawsuit against Harvard.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar told the Supreme Court ethnic diversity helps to maintain readiness to avoid racial tension that might detract from any military mission. 

It is “a critical national security imperative to attain diversity within the officer corps,” Prelogar told the court last fall. “And, at present, it’s not possible to achieve that diversity without race-conscious admissions, including at the nation’s service academies.”

You can reach us at [email protected] and follow us on Facebook and Twitter