US Military Academies End Racial Preferences in Admissions

The U.S. Air Force Academy and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point said that race is no longer a factor in their admissions processes—a policy shift that could move ongoing litigations closer to settlement. In separate letters sent Friday to federal courts in Colorado and New York, the academies requested a 60-day pause in the lawsuits brought against them by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), arguing that the admissions policies in question are no longer in effect. SFFA, which secured a landmark victory in the Supreme Court in 2023 that struck down race-based admissions at both public and private universities, filed lawsuits against the military academies shortly after the ruling. At the time, the court explicitly exempted the academies from the same constitutional standards applied to civilian institutions, with Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledging that they may have “potentially distinct interests” in maintaining a racially diverse officer corps....