The Naval Academy’s consideration of applicants’ race in admissions decisions does not violate the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee, a federal court ruled December 6 in Students for Fair Admissions v. U.S. Naval Academy.
In upholding the Naval Academy’s practice, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland distinguished this case from last year’s Supreme Court Harvard decision, which rejected the use of race as an admissions factor at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. The Supreme Court specifically excluded the federal military academies from Harvard’s applicability.
Here, the district court found that the Naval Academy had established a compelling national security interest in having a diverse Naval officer corps and had shown that it narrowly tailored its use of race to meet that interest.
The district court emphasized the military deference doctrine, which discourages judicial scrutiny of executive and legislative judgments on military matters.
The district court also noted that Harvard’s race-based admissions policy had no clear endpoint, while the Naval Academy plans to end its policy once the racial representation of Navy officers reflects the nation’s.
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