Supreme Court Could Upend West Point's Admissions to Military Academy

The Supreme Court could soon decide whether or not to block the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from considering race and ethnicity as a factor in admissions.

The request came from Students for Fair Admissions, the same group behind the legal challenge that resulted in the high court striking down affirmative action in college admissions in June last year. But that ruling didn't cover West Point and the nation's other military academies.

Students for Fair Admissions has sued West Point, accusing the academy of improperly using race and ethnicity as factors in admissions.

The group brought the issue to the Supreme Court's emergency docket, asking the justices to issue an injunction blocking West Point from using race as a factor in admissions while the lawsuit proceeds in a lower appeals court. The group's attorneys have asked the Supreme Court to issue a decision by January 31— West Point's application deadline for the class of 2028.

"To be sure, this case won't become moot on February 1. This Court could still grant an injunction after that date," the group's attorney's wrote in a filing on Wednesday. "But the admissions process for the Class of 2028 will end and West Point's racial discrimination will be complete in 'April or May 2024.' Every day that passes between now and then is one where West Point, employing an illegal race-based admissions process, can end another applicant's dream of joining the Long Gray Line."

The Biden administration has defended race-conscious admissions at West Point.

In a brief filed in November, the U.S. Justice Department said West Point is a "vital pipeline to the officer corps" and its race-conscious admissions process helps the Army achieve its "mission critical" goal of having officers who are as diverse as its enlisted personnel. A diverse army is "integral to ensuring national security," the DOJ said in the filing.

The request for an injunction was addressed to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who handles handles emergency appeals from New York. Sotomayor, one of the court's three liberal justices, could act on it alone to refer it to the full court.

Newsweek has contacted Students for Fair Admissions for comment via email.

Steven Mazie, who covers the Supreme Court for The Economist, said on social media that he doubted there were five justices ready to grant Students for Fair Admissions' request on Wednesday.

"We could find out within hours if there are five justices to extend the affirmative action ban to military academies," Mazie wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "More precisely, we will find out if there are five willing to do this with extremely rushed briefing and no oral argument on the shadow docket."

Mazie said he was "fairly sure" that Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito would side with Students for Fair Admissions, but didn't think Chief Justice John Roberts would "go for it at this stage."

He added: "The question to my mind is whether [Justice Brett] Kavanaugh and/or [Justice Amy Coney] Barrett are willing to upend West Point's admissions season midstream. I doubt it."