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1 1 (December 18, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/goverxc0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Federal Court Rejects Legal Challenge to Race-Conscious Admissions at the U.S. Naval Academy December 18, 2024 In 2023, in Studentsfor Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard, the Supreme Court held that the race- conscious admissions policies at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina (UNC) were unconstitutional. The Court reasoned that the justifications for the policies and the manner in which the policies were implemented could not be reconciled with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In response, some suggested that the Supreme Court had not only ruled against these two institutions, but had effectively ended ... the use of affirmative action in college admissions altogether. The Supreme Court's opinion acknowledged, however, that the propriety of race-based admissions systems in the nation's military academies was not before the Court: This opinion .. . does not address the issue, in light of the potentially distinct interests that military academies may present. Based on this carveout, the extent to which military academies may, within the bounds of the Equal Protection guarantee, use race in admissions remains an open question. Three current cases-against the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA), U.S. Air Force Academy, and U.S. Military Academy at West Point-are addressing this unresolved question: whether the Constitution permits the military academies to consider race in admissions. One case has proceeded to trial and resulted in an opinion on the merits: On December 5, 2024, a federal district court rejected a constitutional challenge to the USNA's race-conscious admissions system. The court predicated its opinion on both Supreme Court precedents on race-conscious admissions at civilian colleges and the principle that the courts are to defer to Congress and the President on military matters. This Sidebar summarizes this decision, outlining these two strands of the court's analysis, and notes the status of the two other military academy cases. The Sidebar then offers considerations for Congress. Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB11255 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress