The Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Naval Academy for its use of race in the admissions process, challenging affirmative action policies.
The 28-page lawsuit brought by SFFA aims to prevent the Naval Academy from considering race as a factor in its admission decisions. The group argues that race-based admissions provide an unfair advantage to Latino, African American, and Native American applicants, and that such practices are no longer justified now that they have been eliminated from other colleges across the nation.
SFFA previously filed a similar lawsuit against West Point, and recently won a lawsuit against Harvard over race-conscious admissions. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June deemed race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as unconstitutional.
This ruling has had a nationwide impact, effectively ending programs that aimed to provide opportunities for marginalized groups in higher education.
However, a footnote to the ruling indicated that race-based affirmative action is still permitted for military academies, as the courts have yet to address the appropriateness of such admissions systems in that context.
President Joe Biden disagreed with the Supreme Court’s decision, asserting that the U.S. military, which he described as “the finest fighting force in the history of the world,” is strengthened by diversity.
According to The Washington Post, in fall 2021, the Naval Academy had 13% Latino, 10% multiracial, 8% Asian, and 6% Black or African American midshipmen.
Military academy leaders have emphasized that their admissions process is holistic and takes various factors into consideration when evaluating applicants, as reported by The Washington Post.
SFFA argues that the Naval Academy’s admissions policy violates the Fifth Amendment, which grants equal protection. The group also cites a 2010 New York Times opinion piece by a Naval Academy professor, who wrote that non-white applicants have a lower bar for qualification.
The lawsuit demands that the Naval Academy’s admission policy based on race be declared unlawful and prohibited.
A spokesperson for the Naval Academy declined to comment on the pending litigation.