Justice Sotomayor: Excluding military academies 'highlights the arbitrariness' of affirmative action ruling

29 June 2023

In the United States Supreme Court's Thursday ruling, which banned Harvard University and the University of North Carolina (UNC) from using affirmative action — "ruling that race can no longer be a factor in college admissions," Chief Justice John Roberts made one exception.

According to Politico, Roberts wrote, "The Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause. Both programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points. We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today."

On the other hand, The Hill reports, the justice also included in a footnote, "that military academies are exempted from the court's opinion," writing, "No military academy is a party to these cases, however, and none of the courts below addressed the propriety of race-based admissions systems in that context. This opinion also does not address the issue, in light of the potentially distinct interests that military academies may present."

Several notable Democrats criticized the high court for its "devastating" decision Thursday, including Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), Rep. Cory Bush (D-Missouri), Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Pennsylvania) and former First Lady Michelle Obama.

However, one Democrat, Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colorado) specifically called out the court for the military academy exemption.

Crow shared a screenshot of the Politico article to Twitter, writing, "This decision is deeply upsetting but outright grotesque for exempting military academies. The court is saying diversity shouldn't matter, EXCEPT when deciding who can fight and die for our country—reinforcing the notion that these communities can sacrifice for America but not be full participants in every other way. Justice Jackson is right: 'deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.'"

Business Insider reports:

The conservative majority's exemption for service academies was noted in liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor's dissent on the decision, which argued that the exemption undermines the conservative majority's argument and 'highlights the arbitrariness' of the decision.

The longtime justice wrote, "The majority recognizes the compelling need for diversity in the military and the national security implications at stake, but it ends race-conscious college admissions at civilian universities implicating those interests anyway."

The Hill's full report is available at this link.Politico's report is here. Business Insider's report is here.

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