(CN) — A legal battle over military admissions took a stunning turn Friday when a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Naval Academy can continue to factor race in its admissions process — a decision that appears at odds with the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision last year to gut similar affirmative action policies at civilian colleges.
In a blow to the conservative movement that has fiercely opposed race-conscious admissions, U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett balked at the claims of Students for Fair Admissions, an influential anti-affirmative action group led by Edward Blum.
“The U.S. Naval Academy does not set any racial quotas or engage in racial balancing in its admissions process. No candidate for admission is admitted based solely on his or her race,” Bennett wrote in the 179-page opinion.
Blum had argued the Academy’s affirmative action admissions practice discriminates against white and Asian applicants and violates the Fifth Amendment’s equal protection clause, but Bennett dismissed these assertions, siding with the institution’s right to pursue diversity. He dismissed the group’s challenge of “any consideration of race by the Naval Academy in its admissions process.” The Academy trains officers for leadership roles in both the Navy and Marines.
Statistics from the Justice Department indicate that 62.8% of Navy sailors and 75.5% of its officers are white. The majority applies in the Marines too, where 56.5% of Marines and 81.4% of its officers are white.
By comparison, just 17.5% of Navy sailors are Black and 10.5% of Marines. Black officers are even rarer, making up only 8.3% of Navy and 5.9% of Marine officers.
“The program survives strict scrutiny because the Naval Academy has established a compelling national security interest in a diverse officer corps in the Navy and Marine Corps,” wrote Bennett, a George W. Bush appointee who served more than two decades in the U.S. Army Reserve and the Maryland National Guard. “Specifically, the Academy has tied its use of race to the realization of an officer corps that represents the country it protects and the people it leads.”
Blum said Friday he will appeal the decision to the Fourth Circuit.
The opinion is in line with the Biden administration’s stance that less diversity among military officers can sow distrust within the armed forces.
Demographic data cited in the decision revealed a stark racial disparity within the U.S. Navy with racial minorities making up 52% of enlisted servicemembers but only 31% of Naval officers. Further data showed that in 2020, while 46% of the enlisted Naval force were minorities, just 23% of the officer corps were.
With Republican President-elect Donald Trump set to take office next month, the fate of the policy remains uncertain as he has historically been a fierce opponent of affirmative action.
Blum, who led the plaintiff Students for Fair Admissions organization in this case had hoped to build on his previous high court victory in June 2023. Lead by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, the 6-3 decision shot down affirmative action admissions at major universities like Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The majority opinion by Justice Brett Kavanaugh had left military academies out of the decision, noting that they have “potentially distinct interests” when it comes to fostering diversity.
Nevertheless, Blum’s group filed a pair of lawsuits against both the Naval Academy and West Point after the Supreme Court ruling, arguing that the same logic used to invalidate civilian college admissions should apply to these elite military institutions.
The Naval Academy case went to trial first.