by WorldTribune Staff, August 13, 2025 Real World News
Under a settlement reached with the Trump Administration on Tuesday, the Military Academy at West Point and Air Force Academy agreed to stop using race-based admissions preferences and select students “exclusively on merit.”
The settlement is part of President Donald Trump’s effort to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies that were mandated across all federal agencies, the military and military academies during the Biden-Harris regime.
The government settled a similar lawsuit against the Naval Academy earlier this year.
“Today’s agreement ensures that our future military leaders will carry on the greatness that is born of opportunity, effort and a level playing field,” said Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, which was handling the West Point case.
Edward Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions, said the settlement dismisses the group’s lawsuit, but he preserves the right to file again if the academies revert.
“This is a historic day for the principle of equal treatment under the law at our nation’s military academies,” Blum said. “Together with the Naval Academy case earlier this year, this agreement ensures that America’s critically important military service academies will admit future officers based solely on merit, not skin color or ancestry.”
A study by Zach Goldberg found that a white applicant with a 5% chance of admission at the Naval Academy would have had a 50% chance if the same scores were for a black applicant, and more than 70% of black applicants wouldn’t have been admitted under a strict merit system.
The Supreme Court in 2023 struck down affirmative action policies in most college admissions. The justices said the military academies may be able to justify race-based admissions policies because of their special needs for officer training and military readiness.
In its 2023 ruling, the Supreme Court said in a 6-3 decision that race-based preferences in school admissions couldn’t survive heightened constitutional scrutiny under the equal protection clause.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the majority opinion, noted that military academies could be an exception because of the military’s special demands and the potential need to train a diverse officer corps.
“No military academy is a party to these cases, but 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 chief justice wrote in a footnote in the majority ruling.
DOJ reaches agreement with West Point, Air Force Academy on race-based admissions added by Editor Two on
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