The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an emergency request to temporarily prevent the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from continuing with its race-conscious admissions policy.
The court turned down the request from Students for Fair Admissions, a conservative group that challenged the use of race as an admissions consideration in higher education. Last June, the court ruled a 6-to-3 decision in a case brought by Students for Fair Admissions that argued the race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were unconstitutional. With that ruling, however, the justices stated their decision did not cover the nation’s military academies due to their “potentially distinct interests.”
“The record before this Court is underdeveloped,” the justices wrote in an order handed down on Friday afternoon, adding the “order should not be construed as expressing any view on the merits of the constitutional question.”
Roughly 38% of West Point’s class of 2027 are racial minorities. Students for Fair Admissions claimed West Point practiced “unchecked racial discrimination” by giving preferential treatment to Black, Hispanic and Native American candidates.
Students for Fair Admissions President Edward Blum issued a statement following the court’s ruling that lamented, “It is disappointing that the young men and women who apply to West Point for the foreseeable future will have their race used as a factor to admit or reject them. Every year this case languishes in discovery, trial and appeals means that our nation’s best and brightest young men and women will be classified, sorted, and preferred based on their skin color rather than just on their abilities.”
