WASHINGTON — The conservative-controlled Supreme Court appears ready to curtail the use of race in college admissions. But the federal government has offered an unexpected defense of the practice: national security.
The court is mulling whether to toss a 19-year-old precedent that has allowed schools to consider race as one of multiple factors in admissions, and justices are expected to issue a ruling before the end of the term in June that could upend admissions policies nationwide.
However, in Monday's arguments, the federal government, represented by Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, said that so-called affirmative action policies have an impact on military readiness and that ending them could have downstream effects on the cohesion of the nation’s armed forces.
