It’s Complicated: The Use of Race in Military Academy Submissions
JANUARY 9TH, 2024 BY WALTER PINCUS | 0 COMMENTS
OPINION — “We can’t blow past racial tension in the military…There have always been racial tensions in the military. They have lessened, but they are still there.”
That was U.S. District Judge Richard N. Bennett on December 14, during a hearing over which he presided in Federal District Court in Baltimore, Md., where Students for Fair Admissions, the group that successfully challenged the use of race and ethnicity for admission consideration to Harvard, was trying to halt using race when the U.S. Naval Academy was considering candidates for acceptance.
As part of Chief Justice John Roberts’ Supreme Court decision in the Harvard case, there was a footnote in which Roberts said there were “race-based admissions programs [that] further compelling interests at our nation’s military academies…This opinion also does not address the issue, in light of the potentially distinct interests that military academies may present.”
In fact, the military academies openly use race in selecting candidates for their classes, the same way they carry on diversity programs within the services, so that the military reflects the diversity of the nation it serves and in which every member is treated with dignity and respect.
https://www.thecipherbrief.com/column_article/its-complicated-the-use-of-race-in-military-academy-submissions
