Maryland District Court Upholds Affirmative Action

On Dec. 6, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland upheld affirmative action as a basis for admissions to the U.S. Naval Academy. The suit, brought by the group Students for Fair Admission, alleged that race and ethnicity-based admissions violate the equal protection privilege under the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

The ruling follows successful litigation against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, which found that race-based admissions violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, the Maryland District Court stated that “the U.S. Naval Academy is distinct from a civilian university.” According to the court: 

[T]he Naval Academy’s race-conscious admissions program withstands the strict scrutiny in the ambit of the Supreme Court’s opinion in the Harvard case. The program survives strict scrutiny because the Naval Academy has established a compelling national security interest in a diverse officer corps in the Navy and Marine Corps. Specifically, the Academy has tied its use of race to the realization of an officer corps that represents the country it protects and the people it leads. 

You can read the decision here or below: