For “national security,” according to the doctors for the military, racial diversity is required.
A civil rights business is fighting in court to stop race-based admissions at American military schools.
President Edward Blum told The College Fix in an email this week that Students for Fair Admissions is currently appealing to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in a case challenging cultural aspects in admissions to the U.S. Naval Academy. He claimed that there hasn’t yet been a set argument.
The business filed a similar petition in December, challenging race-based admittance at the U. S. Air Force Academy. Also, a second complaint is challenging the U. S. Military Academy at West Point’s enrollment plans.
Students for Fair Admissions is challenging a national judge’s December ruling in the case involving the Naval Academy, which found the army had “established a powerful regional security interest in a different officer corps,” according to the Navy Times.
The judge cited the academy’s use of competition in particular as evidence of the discovery that its officers are elected to represent the people they lead and the country they protect. The Academy has demonstrated that this national surveillance interest can be quantified, and that its admissions software has been specifically designed to address that need.
Students for Fair Admissions contend that the U.S. Supreme Court in its 2023 racial action ruling against Harvard University in error carved out an exemption for military schools.
Blum provided their “finding of truth” quick to The Fix outlining their quarrels against the Naval Academy, noting that he is a plaintiff in the case.
Students for Fair Admissions makes the argument in the short that cultural diversity does not change military strength, and that recent admissions policies are in violation of the Fifth Amendment.
In a section titled” The Effect of the Academy’s use of Racial Admissions”, the organization cited research by Duke University Professor Peter Arcidiacono showing that “race plays a significant role throughout]the Naval Academy’s ] various admissions channels”.
The small state that Arcidiacono” conducted intensive statistical analysis of the Academy’s enrollment data using methods that have been approved by peer-reviewed economics journals for analyzing race in admissions decisions.”
He found” the Academy affords ‘ big racial preferences, particularly for Black applicants, over all other applicants, but finally for Hispanic and Asian applicants over White applicants,'” according to the quick.
Less: Naval Academy may consider race in admissions: determine
Also, he found that” the ordinary SAT scores for admitted black and Hispanic applicants, for instance, are roughly tied or are lower than the average SAT scores for rejected light applicants…” it continues.
The Naval Academy “has numerous workable alternatives to racial preferences to achieve diversity in the Brigade of Midshipmen,” according to the brief. The Academy can maintain racial diversity and broaden diversity, among other things, by promoting socioeconomic preferences.
The academy claims its racial admissions policies are important for “national security” reasons, but its “officials have no idea what would happen if they eliminated racial preferences”, the brief argues.
The U.S. Naval Academy’s media relations office initially responded to a follow-up request for comment on Wednesday, saying it “hope[d ] have a response ] by the end of the day. However, the office did not respond with answers to The Fix‘s questions about the lawsuit and race based admissions.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is taking measures to end military academies ‘ racial admissions practices.
A memo released Wednesday from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directs the U. S. Department of Defense to “prohibit’ sex-based, race-based or ethnicity-based’ goals for academic admissions at the three military colleges under its purview”, Higher Ed Dive reports.
Donald Critchlow, the director of the Center for American Institutions at Arizona State University, has done research on the purported “effectiveness” of DEI policies in college admissions.
In a recent email, Critchlow wrote that” we report extensively on DEI at West Point, Naval Academy, and Airforce Academy” in the Center of American Institutions ‘ National Commission Report on Civic Education in the Military Service Academies.
” What we learned was pretty shocking”, he said.
The report found critical race theory — the “assumption that no matter what progress is made on ensuring equal rights for minorities,’ white privilege’ and’ sub-conscious’ racism continues to prevail among whites” — is “promoted” throughout the military, including its service academies.
Critchlow and his colleagues wrote,” Rather than arguing that diversity ( our differences ) are our strength, it instead asserted that the strength of our military is the result of its unity and commitment to the American ideals of individual liberty and freedom.
He told The Fix,” If diversity means’intellectual’ diversity, I have seen positive results in the past. Today, I see pronounced opposition to intellectual diversity. As for gender, racial, and ethnic diversity, in college admissions and faculty hires, the results have been mixed”.
For example, at Arizona State, Critchlow said “nearly 26 percent are Hispanic, many are first generation college students. The majority of these students are financially aided and do not qualify for preferential admissions.
” I believe that other universities ‘ affirmative admissions policies have been a form of zero-sum game. According to him, “every student who is accepted by affirmative action means the exclusion of another student, regardless of whether the student is Asian or white and from a lower income level.”
Students for Fair Admissions also challenges race-based admissions at West Point in a separate but related case. According to SCOTUS Blog, the Supreme Court in January 2024 refused to temporarily halt the policy, and the lawsuit is currently pending in the lower courts.
MORE: West Point sued for “racial balancing” by the group that killed affirmative action.
IMAGE: United States Naval Academy/Facebook
Follow The College Fix on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
