{"id":33095,"date":"2023-12-14T19:05:50","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T19:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/12\/14\/black-womens-group-defends-affirmative-action-at-military-academies\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T21:13:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T21:13:54","slug":"black-womens-group-defends-affirmative-action-at-military-academies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/education-transition\/2023\/12\/14\/black-womens-group-defends-affirmative-action-at-military-academies\/","title":{"rendered":"Black women\u2019s group defends affirmative action at military academies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An advocacy organization for Black women in the military has voiced support for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2022\/10\/31\/military-a-key-focus-of-supreme-court-argument-on-affirmative-action\/\" target=\"_blank\">service academies\u2019 affirmative action policies, <\/a>which federal lawsuits have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2022\/10\/26\/if-supreme-court-ends-affirmative-action-how-will-the-military-adapt\/\" target=\"_blank\">called discriminatory and have sought to end.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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\u2019 use of race as a factor in admissions decisions, often known as affirmative action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In June, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/22pdf\/20-1199_hgdj.pdf\">the Supreme Court decided<\/a> 6-3 that affirmative action in higher education violated the clause of the Constitution guaranteeing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.archives.gov\/milestone-documents\/14th-amendment#:~:text=No%20State%20shall%20make%20or,equal%20protection%20of%20the%20laws.\">equal protection under the law<\/a>. But Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a footnote that the decision <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2023\/06\/29\/service-academies-exempt-from-supreme-court-affirmative-action-ruling\/\">didn\u2019t apply to the military\u2019s service academies<\/a>, which presented \u201cpotentially distinct interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The footnote left the door open for litigation seeking to ban affirmative action in those military institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A group opposed to affirmative action has walked through that door, suing two service academies for considering race as an admissions factor, arguing the policy is unfair and illegal. The National Association of Black Military Women\u2019s recent briefs defend the policy, making the case that racism still exists in the military and racially diverse leaders can ameliorate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFor people to think that there is no racism in the military, that\u2019s a false narrative,\u201d retired Army Col. Irma Cooper, the association\u2019s vice president for operations, said on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2023\/06\/29\/service-academies-exempt-from-supreme-court-affirmative-action-ruling\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP23145541254003.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Service academies exempt from Supreme Court affirmative action ruling<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">&quot;The potentially distinct interests&quot; of service academies was a reason Chief Justice John Roberts cited as to not yet address their admissions practices.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the fall, Students for Fair Admissions, the same anti-affirmative-action advocacy group that successfully challenged affirmative action in civilian universities, turned its attention to the service academies.<b> <\/b>It filed lawsuits against the Army\u2019s U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, and the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, for what it characterized as unlawful racial discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The National Association of Black Military Women, the American Civil Liberties Union, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund argued in a friend-of-the court brief filed Nov. 29 that affirmative action at the U.S. Military Academy, which educates future Army officers, was \u201ccritical to the success of Black women in the military and to the military\u2019s success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Friend-of-the-court briefs, also known as amicus briefs, are filed by entities that aren\u2019t directly involved in a case but share their insight or expertise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nearly the same set of groups, with the difference being the addition of the ACLU Foundation of Maryland and the subtraction of the New York Civil Liberties Union, on Dec. 6 filed a similar brief in the case against the Naval Academy. That academy educates future officers for the Navy and Marine Corps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>The use of race in admissions<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In arguing that affirmative action is necessary, the amicus briefs point to the low number of Black and Hispanic officers relative to Black and Hispanic enlisted troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/download.militaryonesource.mil\/12038\/MOS\/Reports\/2022-demographics-report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Black troops made up 19% of enlisted active-duty <\/a>service members in 2022 but only 9% of officers, according to data from the Pentagon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The briefs quote service members of color recounting instances of racism they say they experienced, including offensive language and apparently disparate treatment in the military justice system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Retired Army Col. Annette Tucker Osborne, president of the National Association of Black Military Women, says in the briefs that when her new commander on a deployment to Kuwait met her for the first time, he looked at her and back at her resume, over and over<b> <\/b>and over. In Tucker Osborne\u2019s view, the commander was \u201cunable to equate a Black woman with the well-polished and extremely qualified person on paper.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI was asked three times, \u2018Did you complete Army War College?\u201d she said in a Friday interview with Military Times. \u201cI told you the first time. You didn\u2019t have to ask me three times in front of the whole group of military personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On that six-month deployment, young white soldiers often wouldn\u2019t salute Tucker Osborne, a full-bird colonel, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Founded in 1976, the National Association of Black Military Women is an organization \u201cdedicated to giving voice to Black military women across the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The association\u2019s briefs argue racially diverse leaders can foster a better culture for more junior service members of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. Military Academy maintained in a court filing that affirmative action, by increasing racial diversity in the officer corps, also prevents internal racial tensions, boosts recruitment and retention, and builds the military\u2019s legitimacy in the eyes of the nation and the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Students for Fair Admissions has argued the opposite: that considering race in admissions undermines the internal and external trust in the military and amounts to racial stereotyping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAmerica\u2019s enemies do not fight differently based on the race of the commanding officer opposing them, soldiers must follow orders without regard to the skin color of those giving them, and battlefield realities apply equally to all soldiers regardless of race, ethnicity, or national origin,\u201d the group wrote in a September filing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And because race helps some applicants, race necessarily hurts other applicants, Students for Fair Admissions argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat\u2019s illegal,\u201d the group wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The service academies\u2019 admissions officers insisted in court filings that race isn\u2019t the determinative factor in deciding whether to admit or deny students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To get accepted to the academies, applicants must not only meet the academic and physical standards but also receive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usna.edu\/Admissions\/Apply\/Nomination-Sources.php\">official nominations<\/a>, often from members of Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Race can help students get letters of assurance, early conditional acceptances for \u201coutstanding\u201d applicants, according to the admissions officers. It could play a role in the academy\u2019s decision to provide its handful of direct nominations, though those are typically reserved for standout athletes. And it can be a \u201cplus factor\u201d in final admissions decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Students for Fair Admissions wrote that the academies should pursue race-neutral alternatives to affirmative action. The group described affirmative action as \u201cracial box-checking\u201d and \u201cracial pseudoscience\u201d because it relies on broad racial classifications like \u201cHispanic\u201d and \u201cAsian\u201d that encompass a huge variety of ethnic backgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nearly <a href=\"https:\/\/prhome.defense.gov\/Portals\/52\/Documents\/POPREP\/appendixb%20(1).pdf?ver=OGIpMnLKcX0sAlZwDTkdlQ%3D%3D\" target=\"_blank\">19% of the military\u2019s active duty officers<\/a> are service academy grads, but that percentage falls to approximately 13% for Black officers, according to Pentagon data from 2019. ROTC programs at civilian universities are the leading source of officers\u2019 commissions overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><b>Next steps<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Students for Fair Admissions is seeking preliminary injunctions that would order the Army\u2019s and Navy\u2019s service academies<b> <\/b>to cease using race as a factor in admissions immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For that to happen, Judge Philip Halpern in New York and Judge Richard Bennett in Maryland would have to decide that Students for Fair Admissions\u2019 arguments should win on the merits, and that waiting for the typical legal process to run its course would create harm that couldn\u2019t be repaired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Students for Fair Admissions, which is representing two anonymous white high schoolers who would like to apply to West Point, has said the judges need to act now. One of those students is applying in this admissions cycle and might miss out on a spot that he would have gotten if he weren\u2019t white, the group argued in the complaint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cUnless West Point is ordered to stop using race as a factor in admissions, [his] race will prevent him from competing for admission on an equal footing,\u201d Students for Fair Admissions wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lawyers for Students for Fair Admissions didn\u2019t respond to a Military Times request for an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Division are representing the academies. Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the New York office, declined to comment. The Civil Division didn\u2019t respond by time of publication to a Military Times request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whether or not the judges decide to end affirmative action in the academies immediately, it\u2019s likely those decisions will get appealed, Sarah Hinger, an ACLU attorney who worked on the amicus briefs, told Military Times on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The cases likely will one day end up before the Supreme Court, in Hinger\u2019s view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although six of the nine Supreme Court justices voted in June to scrap affirmative action in civilian universities, the service academy cases would force them to balance a desire to enforce equal protection consistently with the norm of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2022\/10\/26\/if-supreme-court-ends-affirmative-action-how-will-the-military-adapt\/\">courts deferring to the military<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bloomberglaw.com\/litigation\/why-west-point-may-get-to-keep-affirmative-action-noah-feldman\">Noah Feldman<\/a>, a Harvard Law School professor, wrote in Bloomberg in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s likely to be a close call, but consider: If there had been five firm votes on the court for striking down the military\u2019s use of affirmative action, there would have been no need for Roberts to exclude the academies from June\u2019s decision,\u201d Feldman wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>The case in the Southern District of New York is Students for Fair Admissions v. United States Military Academy at West Point et al (7:23-cv-08262).<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>The case in the District of Maryland is Students for Fair Admissions v. The United States Naval Academy et al (1:23-cv-02699).<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawsuits filed against West Point and the Naval Academy seek to end the use of race as a factor in admissions there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":64984,"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":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["education-transition","news","pentagon-congress","your-military","home","newsletters"],"primary_category":"education-transition"},"4":{"categories":["education-transition","pentagon-congress","disaster","news","your-air-force"],"primary_category":"education-transition"},"5":{"categories":["education-transition","pentagon-congress","your-army","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","news"],"primary_category":"education-transition"},"7":{"categories":["education-transition","pentagon-congress","your-navy","daily-news-roundup","newsletters","news"],"primary_category":"education-transition"},"8":{"categories":["fedlife","home","lifestyle"],"primary_category":"fedlife"}}},"categories":[101,22,7,23,12,25,67,69],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3360],"class_list":["post-33095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-disaster","category-education-transition","category-home","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress","category-your-marine-corps"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"LQ6MDUJO2RGSTI2BYE6ZZG7DXA","arc_canonical_url":"\/education-transition\/2023\/12\/14\/black-womens-group-defends-affirmative-action-at-military-academies\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Black women\u2019s group defends affirmative action at military academies - Marine Corps Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lawsuits filed against West Point and the Naval Academy seek to end the use of race as a factor in admissions there.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Black women\u2019s group defends affirmative action at military academies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lawsuits filed against West Point and the Naval Academy seek to end the use of race as a factor in admissions there.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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