Federal judge rejects challenge to Naval Academy’s use of race in admissions practices

By Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — A federal judge has rejected a challenge to the Naval Academy’s use of race in its admissions practices, ruling that the school has “established a compelling national security interest” in maintaining diversity within the US military.

While the ruling issued Friday by US Senior District Judge Richard Bennett, a George W. Bush appointee, represents a significant blow to the legal effort to nix affirmative action policies at the academy, it also makes clear that decisions on such matters begin and end with the executive branch – which will soon be controlled by a commander in chief who has shown hostility to such diversity efforts.

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, has criticized the military’s diversity programs, saying in a podcast, “Woke sh*t has got to go.”

“Either you’re in for warfighting and that’s it, that’s the only litmus test we care about,” he said. “You’ve got to get DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and CRT (critical race theory) out of military academies so you’re not training young officers to be baptized in this type of thinking.”

In the 179-page ruling, Bennett wrote: “At bottom, the Court, considering all evidence before it, finds that the military’s interest in growing and maintaining a highly qualified and diverse officer corps is informed by history and learned experience, and that a highly qualified and diverse officer corps remains critical for military effectiveness and thus for national security.”

“Plaintiff’s suggestion to the contrary contradicts decades of broad historical and military consensus,” Bennett added, referring to the conservative group Students for Fair Admissions, which brought the case in federal court in Maryland.

The judge said he “defers to the executive branch with respect to military personnel decisions” and that under the Constitution, “‘the President of the United States, not any federal judge’ ultimately makes such decisions.”

The ruling comes several months after a nine-day trial was held in the case, and more than a year after the US Supreme Court ruled that colleges and universities could no longer take race into consideration as a specific basis for granting admissions – except for US military service academies. That decision also came in cases brought by Students for Fair Admissions.

In a footnote in the majority opinion last year, Chief Justice John Roberts said that the cases before the court did “not address the issue” and left open the possibility that there are “potentially distinct interests that military academies may present” in a future case.

Students for Fair Admissions soon brought legal challenges against the Naval Academy and West Point, arguing that the schools’ policies of using race as a factor in admissions run afoul of the US Constitution.

Quoting the Roberts footnote, Bennett wrote in his ruling that the “record in this case demonstrates the wisdom of that caution.”

“Defendants have proven that the Naval Academy’s limited use of race in admissions has increased the racial diversity of the Navy and Marine Corps, which has enhanced national security by improving the Navy and Marine Corps’ unit cohesion and lethality, recruitment and retention, and domestic and international legitimacy,” he wrote.

Students for Fair Admissions said that it will appeal the ruling to the Richmond, Virginia-based federal appeals court and, if necessary, the Supreme Court.

“It is our hope that the U.S. military academies ultimately will be compelled to follow the Supreme Court’s prohibition of race in college admissions,” Edward Blum, the group’s president, said in a statement.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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