CV NEWS FEED // The group behind the landmark Supreme Court case that struck down race-based affirmative action at colleges in June is now suing West Point for allegedly discriminating against white applicants.
“For most of its history, West Point has evaluated cadets based on merit and achievement,” the lawsuit filed on behalf of Students for Fair Admissions stated:
For good reasons. America’s enemies do not fight differently based on the race of the commanding officer opposing them, soldiers must follow orders without regard to the skin color of those giving them, and battlefield realities apply equally to all soldiers regardless of race, ethnicity, or national origin.”
Over the past few decades, however, West Point has strayed from that approach. Instead of admitting future cadets based on objective metrics and leadership potential, West Point focuses on race. In fact, it openly publishes its racial composition ‘goals,’ and its director of admissions brags that race is wholly determinative for hundreds if not thousands of applicants.
“West Point has no justification for using race-based admissions,” the suit claimed. “Those admissions are unconstitutional for all other public institutions of higher education.”
In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023), a 6-2 majority of the Supreme Court held that college admissions on the basis of race violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection clause.
The Court stopped short of expanding the decision to include military academies, however.
“The United States as amicus curiae contends that race-based admissions programs further compelling interests at our Nation’s military academies,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a footnote of his June 29 opinion.
“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,” Roberts wrote. “This opinion also does not address the issue, in light of the potentially distinct interests that military academies may present.”
As The Daily Wire reported, the new lawsuit
mentions two prospective candidates for West Point, both white, who joined Students for Fair Admissions in the lawsuit because they supports its mission. Both have excellent grade point averages, are in excellent physical condition, have family members who served in the military, and believe it would be an honor to serve their country.
The suit said each of these candidates, who are currently high school students, believes that “unless West Point is ordered to stop using race as a factor in admissions, his race will prevent him from competing for admission on an equal footing.”
“President Joe Biden has urged the military to continue filtering applications by race,” The Daily Wire added.
