{"id":79259,"date":"2025-05-09T20:35:40","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T20:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/05\/09\/hegseth-bans-affirmative-action-at-military-service-academies\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:00:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:00:35","slug":"hegseth-bans-affirmative-action-at-military-service-academies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/05\/09\/hegseth-bans-affirmative-action-at-military-service-academies\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth bans affirmative action at military service academies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has barred the U.S. military service academies from considering race, gender or ethnicity in their admissions processes, ending the practice of affirmative action upheld by the Supreme Court two years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2025\/May\/09\/2003707514\/-1\/-1\/1\/CERTIFICATION-OF-MERIT-BASED-MILITARY-SERVICE-ACADEMY-ADMISSIONS.PDF\" rel=\"\">In a memo published Friday,<\/a> Hegseth directed the schools to rank applicants by an aggregate score factoring in athletic ability, past military experience and other qualifications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt is the department\u2019s expectation that the highest-ranking candidates within each nomination category should receive appointments,\u201d Hegseth wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The schools have until the end of the 2026 admissions cycle to comply. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. military\u2019s service academies, including the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Naval Academy and U.S. Air Force Academy, are among the most elite universities in the country, selecting applicants who often go on to promising careers in the armed forces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action for universities nationally in 2023, ruling 6-3 against considering race in the admissions process. In the court\u2019s decision, however, Chief Justice John Roberts permitted an exception for U.S. military schools, arguing the schools held \u201cpotentially distinct interests\u201d in continuing the practice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A year later, the court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/search.aspx?filename=\/docket\/docketfiles\/html\/public\/23a696.html\" rel=\"\">declined to take up a separate case<\/a> related directly to affirmative action at the academies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since entering office, Hegseth has continually targeted areas of the military that take race and gender into account, repeatedly declaring \u201cDEI is dead\u201d at the Pentagon. In an earlier memo, published in January, Hegseth banned the teaching of what he called \u201ccritical race theory\u201d across the Defense Department and included separate instruction for the service academies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe U.S. Service Academies and other defense academic institutions shall teach that America and its founding documents remain the most powerful force for good in human history,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Along with the memo published Friday, the Pentagon also directed all of the Defense Department\u2019s libraries to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/05\/09\/pentagon-orders-military-to-pull-all-library-books-on-diversity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2025\/05\/09\/pentagon-orders-military-to-pull-all-library-books-on-diversity\/\">pull books focusing on diversity<\/a> from their shelves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During an oversight hearing in March on service academy operations, the superintendents of the three academies fielded questions about the schools\u2019 affirmative action admissions practices and cuts to diversity programs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., noted the uncomfortable position academy leaders faced in the fight over inclusion programs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou need to teach people how to deal with diverse groups that they will command, and you want to include people from different backgrounds and races and religions,\u201d Blumenthal said. \u201cI hope that the Congress can help you, rather than hinder you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee\u2019s personnel panel, blasted the affirmative action practices and encouraged leaders to abandon the policies on their own before a Pentagon mandate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAny effort to teach our future leaders to judge or sort people by immutable characteristics like race runs counter to the Constitution and is devastating to good order and discipline,\u201d Tuberville said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hegseth directed schools to rank applicants by an aggregate score factoring in athletic ability and past military experience, among other qualifications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":109441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,16,26,65,67],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3374,3328],"class_list":["post-79259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress","category-your-air-force"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QZJXMIWLVRAJNFOYT6XOULOEV4","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2025\/05\/09\/hegseth-bans-affirmative-action-at-military-service-academies\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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