The U.S. Air Force Academy will no longer consider applicants’ race in the admissions process, a reversal of its previous practice.
The academy detailed the change in a Department of Justice federal court filing in Denver, Colorado. The DOJ asked the judge to put on hold a December lawsuit by the group that successfully brought a case to the Supreme Court that ultimately resulted in the end of race-conscious admissions at civilian universities.
That group, Students for Fair Admissions, was behind the 2023 Supreme Court Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case. The court’s 6-3 ruling did not apply to military academies, prompting the group to file additional lawsuits to bar similar practices at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.
Various courts sided with the Biden administration’s defense of race as an admissions factor at the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Military Academy. The SFFA did not sue the Air Force Academy until after President Donald Trump won the 2024 election.
During his first several days in office, Trump signed an executive order ending the military’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
The DOJ said on Friday that the Air Force Academy’s new policy could render the lawsuit moot. Last month, it noted that the Naval Academy had ended race as an admissions consideration.