Anti-affirmative Action Group Challenges US Naval Academy Admissions

The group that successfully challenged race-conscious college admissions policies at the U.S. Supreme Court sued the U.S. Naval Academy on Thursday in its second lawsuit challenging affirmative action in U.S. military academies.

Students for Fair Admissions, founded by affirmative action opponent Edward Blum, filed a federal lawsuit against the Annapolis, Maryland-based Navy school weeks after it launched a similar case against the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Both lawsuits by the Virginia-based non-profit seek to bring an end to an exemption tucked inside the Supreme Court's June ruling that allowed U.S. military academies to continue considering race as a factor in student admissions.

"The Naval Academy has no legal justification for treating midshipman applicants differently by race and ethnicity," Blum said in a statement.

The Naval Academy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a ruling powered by its conservative majority, the U.S. Supreme Court in June rejected policies long used by American colleges and universities to increase the number of Black, Hispanic and other minority students on American campuses.

The Supreme Court's invalidation of admissions policies used by Harvard University of the University of North Carolina did not address the consideration of race in admissions at military academies, which Chief Justice John Roberts said had "potentially distinct interests."

The Biden administration had argued in a brief in that case that "the effectiveness of our military depends on a diverse officer corps that is ready to lead an increasingly diverse fighting force."

In Thursday's lawsuit, filed in federal court in Baltimore, Blum's group alleged that the Naval Academy in recent decades had strayed from admitting midshipmen solely on leadership potential and objective metrics to focus on race.

It argued the policy was discriminatory and violated the principle of equal protection contained in the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment. The lawsuit sought an order barring the academy from considering an applicant's race during admissions.