Justices dismiss West Point admissions challenge.
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On Friday afternoon, the justices declined to temporarily prohibit the United States Military Academy from using race in its admissions process. In an unsigned judgment, the justices denied a request from the same group that led challenges to affirmative action in admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, and which now claims that West Point’s use of race violates the Constitution.
Friday’s judgment also featured an unusual comment that could provide insight into the justices’ reasons for refusing relief. The ruling stated that the factual evidence in the case is “underdeveloped,” and that the denial of relief “should not be construed as expressing any view on the merits of the constitutional question.”
In June, the Supreme Court overturned Harvard and UNC’s admissions processes, thereby ending the use of affirmative action in college admissions. In his opinion for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts stated that the court’s decision did not apply to the service academies, “in light of the potentially distinct interests that military academies may present.”
Less than three months later, Students for Fair Admission filed a federal lawsuit in New York challenging the use of race in the admissions process at West Point, which produces roughly one-third of all officers in the United States Army and nearly half of the country’s four-star generals.
In a ruling on Jan. 3, U.S. District Judge Philip Halpern denied the group’s request, stating that what the group truly wanted was an injunction requiring the institution to “affirmatively change and remodel” its longtime admissions process.
The organization then went to the Supreme Court, seeking the justices to intervene. It informed the court that the academy’s dependence on race is even more obnoxious than Harvard’s because the latter “awards preferences only to three races: blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans.” While the matter is being heard in court, the group underlined that the institution “will label and sort thousands more applicants based on their skin color.”
U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing West Point, urged the court to allow the academy to continue with its current admissions process. According to Prelogar, military authorities have long recognized the need for diversity in the Army’s officer corps for national security purposes. To do so, Prelogar explained, West Point must be able to consider race in a restricted fashion throughout the admissions process. Students for Fair Admissions, Prelogar contended, has not demonstrated that the courts should reject those findings, let alone “in a rushed preliminary posture on an incomplete record.”
The matter will now be sent to the lower courts, and the school will be free to continue using its current admissions criteria while the dispute proceeds. However, the matter may return to the Supreme Court in the future, and Friday’s judgment signals that the school cannot expect an equally favorable outcome.
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