The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a conservative student group’s efforts to force the U.S Military Academy at West Point to cease its race-based admissions policies, saying that the case is still “underdeveloped” in lower court proceedings.
“The application for writ of injunction pending appeal presented to Justice Sotomayor and by her referred to the Court is denied. 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 court said in an order.
The petition to enjoin West Point from making race-based considerations on student applications was sought by the group Students For Fair Admissions in light of its 6-3 victory before justices last year in a different case when the justices ruled that affirmative action was not in accordance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The Biden administration on Tuesday responded to a request by SFFA, telling the Supreme Court not to block affirmative action policies at the school.
“For more than forty years, our Nation’s military leaders have determined that a diverse Army officer corps is a national-security imperative and that achieving that diversity requires limited consideration of race in selecting those who join the Army as cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point,” U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote on behalf of the Justice Department.
SFFA, led by conservative legal strategist Edward Blum, asked the justices last Friday to block West Point from considering race in its admissions process, saying that military academies should follow the same standard set by the justices in its 6-3 decision against Harvard University‘s race-based practices.
The request came as the application deadline for West Point’s class of 2028 was approaching on Jan. 31. SFFA argued that justices should decide the dispute by that deadline. The decision on Friday means that the school will not be enjoined from making some considerations about race for the upcoming class.
Blum’s group went to federal court in New York in September, asking a district court judge to enter an order that would temporarily block the school from considering race while the litigation process continued.
U.S. District Judge Philip Halpern denied that request, saying that what SFFA was actually seeking was to require military academies to “affirmatively change and remodel” an admissions process that has been in place for decades. The judge also said that the student group could not show a likelihood to prevail, a key component to obtaining temporary relief.
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When the high court struck down affirmative action policies at private and state schools last summer in its 6-3 ruling, it provided a footnote in the opinion noting military academies were not part of the case, which served in part as the government’s basis for why the justices should not rule against race-based policies at military academies.
“No military academy is a party to these cases, however, and none of the courts below addressed the propriety of race-based admissions systems in that context. This opinion also does not address the issue, in light of the potentially distinct interests that military academies may present,” the footnote read.