DoD continues DEI crackdown with Naval Academy ending race-based admissions
The U.S. Naval Academy will no longer consider race as a factor in admissions, reversing a December ruling by a federal judge that upheld the practice.
The Dept. of Defense announced a 'task force to assess progress of DEI elimination,' according to an April press release.
The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, is rolling back race-based admissions practices in compliance with the Trump administration’s directives to eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the military.
President Donald Trump issued a Jan. 27 executive order titled “Restoring America’s Fighting Force,” which seeks to abolish special treatment or disadvantages “on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, color, or creed.”
This decision follows a federal judge’s ruling in December that the Naval Academy could continue using race as a factor in admission, Campus Reform reported.
In his ruling, Senior District Judge Richard Bennett cited “national security interests in unit cohesion and lethality” and “recruitment and retention” as reasons to continue using race in admissions.
The case was brought forth by Students for Fair Admissions, which is the same group that won the Supreme Court’s 2023 Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case that ruled against race-based college admissions practices, as Campus Reform reported. This decision, however, exempted military academies.
[RELATED: Coast Guard Academy rolls back DEI as cuts at Naval Academy may soon follow]
The Department of Defense also announced a “task force to assess progress of DEI elimination,” per an April 4 press release.
The task force will be comprised of nine members who will carry out the directives outlined in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “Restoring America’s Fighting Force” memorandum.
The directives in the memo seek to uphold “merit-based, color-blind policies,” shutter DEI offices, rid military institutions’ curricula of DEI and gender ideology, and abolish race- and gender- based considerations for “promotion, command, or special duty.”
”This is about the Department of Defense getting back to merit-based, colorblind policies because, at the end of the day, our responsibility is to make sure that we take the best people and put them in positions of responsibility to lead America’s sons and daughters,” said Jules W. Hurst III, Army veteran and head of the task force.
The task force has announced plans to visit military academies in April and May.
Sec. Hegseth recently made his first visit to the Naval Academy, where he discussed the restoration of the “warrior ethos” as well as the Trump administration’s investments in the military.
Campus Reform has reported the reversal of DEI intiatives throughout all military institutions.
The Coast Guard Academy closed its DEI office, the Air Force Academy and West Point no longer offer “Diversity and Inclusion Studies” minors, and President Trump has removed board members he described as “Woke Leftist Ideologues” from service academies.
As military academies have reversed DEI policies, Campus Reform has reported an uptick in military recruitment among young people. The U.S. Army and Air Force have reported record recruitment numbers.
“Our soaring recruiting stats continued in March! 16,426 active-duty recruits have already been sent to Basic Training in FY25…Young Americans want to become American Airmen!” Air Force General David Allvin wrote on X.
