Can the United States Naval Academy (USNA) continue to use race in admissions decisions, even though the U.S. Supreme Court expressly forbade the use of race in college admissions last year in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. UNC? I believe the clear answer is no, as I have argued in a forthcoming law review article. The Supreme Court’s holding should apply to all the military service academies.
But that’s the issue being litigated at trial before a federal district court judge in Baltimore this week. That’s because the military service academies were not parties to the lawsuits against Harvard and the University of North Carolina, and not subject to the ruling from last year. So, it’s an open legal question.
In this first of three opinion editorials, I will discuss the legal arguments of the plaintiffs and the…
