The conservative-controlled Supreme Court appears ready to curtail the use of race in college admissions. But the federal government on Monday 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.
But the federal government, represented by Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, argued 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.
