The group that played a key role in litigations leading to the effective termination of affirmative action in tertiary level admissions has reappeared in the Supreme Court. This time, the group, known as Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) and led by conservative activist Edward Blum, is asking the justices to provisionally halt the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from considering race as a factor in its admissions process.
Last June, SFFA sat at the heart of a Supreme Court verdict declaring admissions programs employed by the University of North Carolina and Harvard College as contravening the Constitution’s equal protection clause. Chief Justice John Roberts postulated that such findings might not be relevant to service academies, citing potentially distinct interests.
The Academy positions itself as a vital avenue, supplying around a third of Army officers and nearly half of all four-star generals in the U.S. Despite the rigorous nature of the admissions process which includes a questionnaire, physical fitness test, medical evaluation, interview and a nomination, West Point only considers race as part of its admissions process in limited ways, for instance, as a supplementary factor when seats remain vacant after the regular admissions cycle.
SFFA pursued a legal course in the federal court of New York in September. The group claimed that West Point’s consideration of race in admissions violates the Constitution and requested the district court issue an order temporarily preventing the service academy from considering race during ongoing litigation.
However, this request was denied on January 3, 2024, by U.S. District Judge Philip Halpern. In his explanation, Judge Halpern expressed that SFFA was in effect requesting an order necessitating the service academy to alter a decades-old admissions process. The group failed to demonstrate potential success, critical in obtaining temporary relief.
Consequently, SFFA appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing the service academy’s dependency on race is worse than Harvard’s since they offer preferences solely to blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans. The group also suggested courts are ill-equipped to decide whether race consideration is crucial in achieving a diverse officer corps, an argument put forth by the school and the Biden administration in the Harvard and UNC cases.
The group further argued that the immediate concern is interim action while the case proceeds in court. Students for Fair Admissions warned the court that West Point will categorize thousands more applicants based on their color and pressed the justices to stop the school from considering race in admission decisions with urgency.
Reacting to the appeal, the justices moved swiftly, signaling for the U.S. Military Academy to respond to SFFA’s request by Tuesday, January 30, 5 p.m. For more details, feel free to read the original article here.