The Supreme Court in June 2023 ruled that colleges and universities can no longer use the affirmative action practice, except for the U.S. military academies. Students for Fair Admission had brought that lawsuit and want it extended to the service academies.
But the court denied the group's request for a temporary injunction while their lawsuit, filed in September against West Point, makes its way through the lower courts. The student group has also sued the U.S. Naval Academy.
Bob Maginnis is senior fellow for national security at the Family Research Council.
"Justice [Sonia] Sotomayor suggests that the court needs to allow the military academies to use affirmative action recruiting policies that they've long had in order to make sure that certain minorities gain access," he explains, "giving them an edge over others when in fact it should be based upon merit and not the color of someone's skin or their sex or whatever."
But Maginnis expects the case will be heard by the entire Supreme Court.
"I suspect that the Supreme Court at large will decide that a discriminatory policy at [West Point] should not continue. It should be just like it is imposed on other higher institutions: that [admission] should be merit-based."
