Black women’s group defends affirmative action at military academies
By Irene Loewenson
Dec 14, 02:05 PM
The U.S. Military Academy Class of 2023 marches during the 2023 Graduation Parade on May 23, 2023, in West Point, N.Y. (Jorge Garcia/Army)
An advocacy organization for Black women in the military has voiced support for service academies’ affirmative action policies, which federal lawsuits have called discriminatory and have sought to end.
The National Association of Black Military Women and left-leaning legal organizations have weighed in on the lawsuits against the U.S. Military Academy and the Naval Academy, filing briefs in defense of the academies’ use of race as a factor in admissions decisions, often known as affirmative action.
In June, the Supreme Court decided 6-3 that affirmative action in higher education violated the clause of the Constitution guaranteeing equal protection under the law. But Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a footnote that the decision didn’t apply to the military’s service academies, which presented “potentially distinct interests.”
The footnote left the door open for litigation seeking to ban affirmative action in those military institutions.
https://www.militarytimes.com/education-transition/2023/12/14/black-womens-group-defends-affirmative-action-at-military-academies/
