In the 2023 case Students for Fair Admissions v. the President and Fellows of Harvard College, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the consideration of race in college and university admission decisions. Affirmative action had passed legal scrutiny in the 1978 Bakke case and was later reaffirmed but scaled back in the 2003 Grutter case involving the law school at the University of Michigan.
A footnote in the 2023 Students for Fair Admissions noted that “the United States contends that race-based admissions programs further compelling interests at our Nation’s military academies. No military academy is a party to these cases, however, and none of the courts below addressed the propriety of race-based admissions systems in that context. This opinion also does not address the issue, in light of the potentially distinct interests that military academies may present.”
As a result, the nation’s military academies were exempt from the ban on the consideration of race in admissions decisions.
Of course, this was before the election of Donald Trump as president. The new administration promptly filed litigation challenging race-based admissions practices at the military academies. In June, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, agreed to end its consideration of race in admissions. On August 12, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs agreed to do the same.
“The settlement includes agreed-upon terms that help ensure that admission to these prestigious institutions is based exclusively on merit, not race or ethnicity,” according to a statement by the Justice Department.
“This Department is committed to eliminating DEI practices throughout the federal government,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “We are proud to partner with the Department of Defense to permanently end race-based admissions at West Point and the Air Force Academy — admission to these prestigious military institutions should be based exclusively on merit.”
In 2022, more than 20 percent of all enlisted men and women in the U.S. Army were Black. Only 11 percent of all officers were Black. Some 15 percent of all Air Force personnel were Black, but only 6 percent of officers.
A sad day. Without race-based AA, black students have little chance of acceptance since at every socioeconomic tier they perform the worst of all groups in the tier. Adjusting for opportunity or economics does not help. We must have race-based AA!