Students for Fair Admissions takes U.S. Naval Academy to court over affirmative action

The U.S. Naval Academy in Baltimore, Maryland, is being sued over its affirmative action policy. 

The trial, which began Monday, follows a lawsuit by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), the same group that launched two legal challenges that ultimately led to the Supreme Court stopping affirmative action in college admissions in June 2023. 

The SFFA is a nonprofit that believes that “racial classifications and preferences in college admissions are unfair, unnecessary, and unconstitutional,” and works to ensure that college admissions are race-neutral. 

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In its 2023 decision, the Supreme Court made an exception to still permit military academies to take an applicant’s race into consideration during admissions. It is that exception that SFFA is targeting in its lawsuit. 

SFFA claimed that white and Asian students face discrimination in the Naval Academy’s admissions, and stated that the Naval Academy “manipulates admissions outcomes” in the service of racial considerations. 

The lawsuit is part of a broader SFFA campaign to make military academies adopt race-neutral admissions. 

The group launched a project, “West Point Not Fair,” which allows users to submit their stories about potentially unjust rejections from military academies. The website asks: “Were you rejected from West Point? Or the Naval Academy or the Air Force Academy? It may be because you’re the wrong race.”

“Gaining admission to West Point is tough. Not only must an applicant have superior academic accomplishments, one must be in excellent physical shape, and receive an appointment from most often a U.S. senator or member of the U.S. House of Representatives. But West Point, as well as the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy, uses an applicant’s race and ethnicity as a factor in admissions. That’s unfair and unconstitutional,” the project’s website states. 

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SFFA also launched a lawsuit against the West Point Military Academy on Sept. 19, 2023, challenging its consideration of race during the admissions process. 

“SFFA alleges that West Point is violating the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The Fifth Amendment contains an equal-protection principle that binds the entire federal government and is no less strict and demanding than the Equal Protection Clause that binds the States and all public entities,” the group wrote at the time. 

A Naval Academy spokesperson told Campus Reform that “[i]t is the Naval Academy’s policy to not comment on any pending litigation.”

Campus Reform has contacted SFFA and the Naval Academy for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.