The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declined to block the U.S. Military Academy from implementing a race-based admissions program that had been challenged by anti-affirmative action groups.

In September of 2023, the group Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) — which most recently prevailed in the landmark case of SFFA v. Harvard, which ruled that race-based admissions processes by universities are unconstitutional — sued the U.S. Military Academy, known as “West Point,” for practicing such policies. On Friday, the court declined an emergency application to enjoin the program on Jan. 27, citing an “undeveloped record.”

“The application for a writ of injunction pending appeal presented to Justice Sotomayor and by her referred to the Court is denied,” wrote the court in its decision. “The record before this Court is underdeveloped, and this order should not be construed as expressing any view on the merits of the constitutional question.”

 

The plaintiffs in the case were initially denied an injunction from Judge Philip Halpern of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Supreme Court’s ruling means that West Point’s current admissions process will remain in place.

The case against West Point is one of two ongoing cases regarding race-based admissions against service academies filed by SFFA. The other is a suit against the U.S. Naval Academy located in Annapolis, Maryland.

“It is disappointing that the young men and women who apply to West Point for the foreseeable future will have their race used as a factor to admit or reject them,” wrote SFFA President Edward Blum in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Every year this case languishes in discovery, trial and appeals means that our nation’s best and brightest young men and women will be classified, sorted, and preferred based on their skin color rather than just on their abilities.”

Arjun Singh on February 2, 2024