In its landmark decision essentially voiding race-based affirmative action admission programs at colleges, the Supreme Court in a footnote made a notable distinction for America's service academies. The court held that its affirmative action ruling did not apply to those unique academic institutions, implying that race considerations weigh differently because of the issues involved in the construction of an effective fighting force.
Within several months of the court's ruling, a challenge to the use of race in admissions at the United States Military Academy (West Point) emerged (the Naval Academy, USNA, is also being sued). The plaintiffs, white applicants to USMA, are alleging through their counsel that West Point's use of race as a determining factor in admissions is unconstitutional, particularly in light of the SCOTUS holding regarding Harvard and the University of North Carolina.
The usual legal skirmishing over a preliminary injunction demand from the plaintiffs reveals at least the outlines of the arguments to be raised by USMA and the other service academies. Fundamentally, the service academies claim that it's essential to have an officer corps that racially mirrors the overall racial percentages of the force because that makes for a more motivated and therefore more effective military. The academies claim that this claim is unassailable because US courts traditionally defer to something called "military judgment" about the management of the Armed Forces in the context of national defense. USMA also claims that race is a minimal factor in its admissions determinations, something that I think is completely incompatible with its professed goal of establishing a perfectly race-harmonized officer corps.
There's lots more data and argument to be developed on this topic, but as a service academy graduate myself, I raise the following objections to USMA's position: 1 ) there is very little credible evidence supporting a claim that people need to be commanded by people who look like them to be effective in combat. If anything, the primary attribute service members worry about in their commanders is job competence. There's absolutely no comfort in the thought that you are going to get killed as a result of the orders from someone who shares your genetic heritage. 2 ) the service academies provide approximately 20% of the officer cadre in the military. Given that 80% of the officer candidates are coming from civilian universities through the ROTC program, you would think the “we need a racially diverse officer corps for effective command” argument would have resonated much more significantly in the SCOTUS FFFA opinion. The argument was raised but apparently found unconvincing. Why would it be more convincing for a school that provides much fewer officer candidates? 3 ) There's a very strong argument for making the service academies the producers of the top officer candidates in all services. The government invests hundreds of thousands of dollars in USMA, USNA, and USAFA graduates, training them not just in academic specialties but military culture and warfighting skills. The goal is to produce career officers capable of performing at the very highest level in the most serious undertaking a government performs- the defense of the country. Why would you not want the very best people in these programs, regardless of their genetic propensities?
In fact, much of the argument in favor of affirmative action for the service academies seems to be motivated by the same credential-seeking mentality present in the affirmative action movements at elite colleges, namely, that the credential somehow guarantees upward mobility into the elite classes. However, this has not been the case for the military because of its relatively ruthless performance requirements. And in any event, discounting merit in support of questionable social engineering seems a guaranteed way to degrade the value of the certificate across the board.
This case will likely be the subject of other blog entries but, at the outset, I think USMA and the others are going to be facing an uphill push.
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