The US Military Academy at West Point continues to consider race ahead of its Jan. 31 application deadline amidst a challenge to the policy. The decision arrived this Monday from a panel at the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The judges’ decision is in line with an earlier one from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York which rejected a preliminary injunction bid earlier this month. The Students for Fair Admissions advocacy group appealed that ruling and requested an emergency injunction.
The aforementioned group, which previously secured a Supreme Court decision against affirmative action at public and private universities last year, has also previously seen their requests to bar West Point and the US Naval Academy from considering race in admissions processes denied.
West Point’s stand on the issue, as voiced by US Attorney Damian Williams in a November filing opposing the preliminary injunction bid in district court, cites the detrimental effects of an order demanding different admissions policy application in the middle of the admissions cycle, as it far outweighs the claimed constitutional rights burden of SFFA’s members.
In a related ongoing development, the anti-affirmative action advocacy group appealed to the Supreme Court last week to temporarily stop West Point from considering race in its admissions process before the Jan. 31 deadline. The justices noted in their June opinion that the ruling on civilian universities did not cover the military academies due to “potentially distinct interests”.
The case is titled Students for Fair Admissions v. US Military Acad. at West Point, 2d Cir., No. 24-40, 1/29/24.