The US Air Force Academy and the US Military Academy at West Point have officially excluded race from their admissions criteria.
The announcement comes as the academies seek to bring to an end discrimination lawsuits brought against them in federal courts in Arizona and New York by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA). In separate letters sent to the courts on Friday, the academies argued that the admissions policies being challenged are no longer in effect, and asked for a 60-day pause to allow them to negotiate a settlement with SFFA.
SFFA previously won a stunning victory at the Supreme Court in 2023, when race-based admissions at public and private universities were struck down. Shortly after the ruling, the group filed lawsuits against both military academies, which had been exempted from the Supreme Court’s ruling. Chief Justice Roberts had said there might be “potentially distinct interests” in ensuring an officer corps subject to race-based admissions.
The change to admissions criteria is a direct result of President Trump’s executive orders to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusivity (DEI) policies across the federal government, including in all branches of the military.
In line with this goal, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the Department of Defense to eliminate all DEI programs and offices and to cease using race- and sex-based criteria for admissions at military academies.
SFFA also has a lawsuit against the US Naval Academy, which announced two weeks ago that it had also ceased considering race and sex as admissions criteria, despite a federal ruling in December of last year that it could continue to do so.
Edward Blum, president of SFFA, praised the Naval Academy’s decision.
“Students for Fair Admissions welcomes the announcement that the U.S. Naval Academy will end its unfair and illegal race-based admissions policies,” he said in a statement in March. “Racial discrimination is wrong and racial classifications have no place at our nation’s military academies.”
In recent weeks, a judge sought to reverse President Trump’s ban on transgenders serving in the military.
US District Judge Ana Reyes, who was appointed by Joe Biden, ruled that Trump’s Executive Order of 27 January, in which he targeted the legal rights of transgenders, was a violation of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.
In a post on X, Secretary Hegseth mocked Reyes, calling her “Commander Reyes” and saying she should take a more active role in military decision-making.
“Since ‘Judge’ Reyes is now a top military planner, she/they can report to Fort Benning at 0600 to instruct our Army Rangers on how to execute High Value Target Raids,” Hegseth wrote.
“After that, Commander Reyes can dispatch to Fort Bragg to train our Green Berets on counterinsurgency warfare.”
The DoD declared on 11 February that it would no longer allow transgenders to join in the military and would stop performing or funding gender transition procedures for service members. Later that month, the military said it would begin to expel serving transgender personnel.
The clash with Judge Reyes is part of a broader ongoing conflict with activist judges who are seeking to stifle President Trump’s agenda, especially his campaign promise of “the largest mass deportation operation in American history.”
