U.S. Naval Academy, Affirmative Action Foe Square Off at Baltimore Trial

The group that successfully convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to bar the consideration of race in college admissions is set to take the U.S. Naval Academy to trial on Monday in a challenge to an exemption that has allowed military academies to continue to employ affirmative action policies.

The two-week trial before a federal judge in Baltimore is the first to result from a pair of lawsuits filed last year against the Annapolis, Maryland-based school and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point by Students for Fair Admissions, a group founded by affirmative action foe Edward Blum.

His group is attempting to build on its June 2023 victory at the U.S. Supreme Court, when the court’s 6-3 conservative majority banned policies used by colleges and universities for decades to increase the number of Black, Hispanic and other minority students on American campuses.

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While the Supreme Court’s ruling affected much of U.S. higher education, it explicitly did not address the consideration of race as a factor in admissions at military academies, which conservative Chief Justice John Roberts said had “potentially distinct interests.”

Blum’s group is arguing that the Supreme Court’s ruling should be extended to those military academies, whose policies it claims are discriminatory and violate the principle of equal protection in the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment.

Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration in court papers has argued that the military has a legitimate need to consider race in admissions to foster a future generation of diverse officers to lead to an increasingly diverse fighting force.

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