Government counters call to halt consideration of race in U.S. Military Academy admissions

EMERGENCY DOCKET

The U.S. Navy Academy on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court docket to remain out of a dispute over the usage of race within the faculty’s admissions coverage. Telling the justices {that a} group of scholars against the consideration of race in school admissions was looking for to dam “insurance policies that army leaders have lengthy deemed important to making sure the effectiveness of the Nation’s army,” the academy requested the court docket to show down the group’s request for an order that might quickly bar the college from utilizing race as a part of its admissions course of.

The 35-page submitting by U.S. Solicitor Common Elizabeth Prelogar, on behalf of the college and the Division of Protection, got here in response to a request filed final week by College students for Truthful Admissions, the identical group that filed final yr’s challenges to the admissions packages on the College of North Carolina and Harvard School. In these instances, the Supreme Court docket struck down the colleges’ packages, successfully ending the usage of affirmative motion in school admissions.

In his opinion for almost all within the Harvard and UNC instances, Chief Justice John Roberts indicated that the court docket’s ruling didn’t apply to West Level and the opposite service academies due to the “doubtlessly distinct pursuits” concerned in admissions for these faculties.

College students for Truthful Admissions went to federal court docket in New York final fall, looking for to dam the college from contemplating race till its problem to the constitutionality of West Level’s admissions program is resolved. However the decrease courts declined to take action, setting the stage for the group’s enchantment to the Supreme Court docket final week.

Calling West Level’s reliance on race much more egregious than Harvard’s, the group requested the Supreme Court docket to quickly prohibit the college from contemplating race in its admission course of. Within the absence of such an order, the group argued, West Level will “label and kind hundreds extra candidates primarily based on their pores and skin coloration” whereas the litigation continues.

The varsity pushed again in its submitting on Monday. “For greater than forty years,” Prelogar wrote, “our Nation’s army leaders have decided {that a} numerous Military officer corps is a national-security crucial and that attaining that range requires restricted consideration of race in deciding on those that be a part of the Military as cadets at the USA Navy Academy at West Level.” College students for Truthful Admissions, Prelogar contended, has not supplied any good motive for rejecting these determinations – “not to mention doing so in a rushed preliminary posture on an incomplete file.”

And though the official software deadline is Jan. 31, Prelogar noticed, the college’s admissions course of is already properly underway, in order that the order that the group seeks can be “profoundly disruptive.”

College students for Truthful Admissions has the choice to file a second transient to answer the academy’s submitting. As soon as that transient is submitted, the justices might rule on the group’s request at any time.

This text was originally published at Howe on the Court.