Hegseth orders navy academies to finish affirmative motion

Newly confirmed U.S. secretary of protection Pete Hegseth issued a memo Jan. 29 ordering the Division of Protection to eradicate variety, fairness and inclusion initiatives and workplaces—together with race-conscious admissions at navy academies.

The memo establishes a process drive “charged with overseeing the division’s efforts to abolish DEI workplaces” and particularly prohibits “sex-based, race-based or ethnicity-based targets for tutorial admission” throughout the division, which oversees navy academies. Hegseth wrote that he’s imposing an govt order issued by President Trump instructing navy academy leaders to eradicate DEI initiatives. 

When the Supreme Court docket struck down affirmative motion in 2023’s College students for Truthful Admissions v. Harvard and UNC Chapel Hill, the justices explicitly made an exception for the navy academies. In his majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts argued that the establishments, which practice the navy officer corps, could have “probably distinct pursuits” in terms of admissions and that variety within the armed forces could also be a nationwide safety prerogative.

Three of these academies—the Army Academy at West Level, the Naval Academy and the Air Power Academy—have since been sued by anti–affirmative motion teams searching for to eradicate the exemption. Final February the Supreme Court docket declined to listen to the case towards West Level, and in December a federal choose dominated that the Naval Academy can proceed to contemplate race in admissions; the case towards the Air Power Academy is ongoing. 

It’s unclear if Hegseth’s order to eradicate race-based “quotas” in admissions would prohibit navy academies from contemplating race in any respect when reviewing purposes.