West Point, the US’s academy for army officers, can still consider race in its admission process for now after the federal supreme court refused to immediately force a change to the school’s policies.
The supreme court’s decision on Friday rebuffed a request by a conservative group to alter West Point’s admissions process, which takes race – as well as a host of other factors – when selecting students who aspire to be future army officers.
The group, Students for Fair Admissions, argued that the selection process was unconstitutional. It has previously found success in challenging selection criteria, with the supreme court agreeing to end affirmative action in higher education last year by striking down the race-conscious admissions policies at the universities of Harvard and North Carolina.
However, while the latest ruling by a supreme court dominated by conservative justices did not fully resolve whether institutions like West Point could use race-based criteria for admissions, it refused to immediately accede to the complaint.
“The record before this court is underdeveloped, and this order should not be construed as expressing any view on the merits of the constitutional question,” the supreme court’s order said.
The US military’s academies – including West Point, the Naval Academy, the Air Force Academy and the Coast Guard Academy – have used race as a factor in choosing cadets for several years. Their goal is to reflect in officer positions the diversity of rank-and-file members of the military, as well as to reflect the diversity of the US itself.
“Our nation’s military leaders have determined that a diverse army officer corps is a national security imperative and that achieving that diversity requires limited consideration of race in selecting those who join the army as cadets,” Elizabeth Prelogar, the solicitor general, told the supreme court justices in a hearing that followed a decision by a lower court to not block West Point’s admissions process.
Students for Fair Admissions, which has also challenged the admissions process for the Naval Academy, criticized the court’s decision.
“It is disappointing that the young men and women who apply to West Point for the foreseeable future will have their race used as a factor to admit or reject them,” said Edward Blum, president of the group.
“Every year this case languishes in discovery, trial and appeals means that our nation’s best and brightest young men and women will be classified, sorted and preferred based on their skin color rather than just on their abilities.”
