By Chris Wade
The Center Square

The Justice Department has reached a settlement with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to resolve a federal lawsuit targeting the elite schools over race-based admissions policies.

Lawsuits filed by Students for Fair Admissions Inc., a group that represents students, targeted West Point and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Boulder, Colo. over their consideration of race in admissions, but dropped the legal challenges this week after the Trump administration negotiated a settlement.

The DOJ said the settlement with the group “avoids the need for continued litigation” in both cases and includes “agreed-upon terms that help ensure that admission to these prestigious institutions is based exclusively on merit, not race or ethnicity.”

“This Department is committed to eliminating DEI practices throughout the federal government,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “We are proud to partner with the Department of Defense to permanently end race-based admissions at West Point and the Air Force Academy — admission to these prestigious military institutions should be based exclusively on merit.”

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York echoed those sentiments, saying it “ensures that our future military leaders will carry on the greatness that is born of opportunity, effort, and a level playing field.”

Under the terms of the agreement, both academies have agreed not to consider race or ethnicity in admissions; set no race-based goals or quotas; shield race and ethnicity information from admissions decision makers and train admissions personnel to adhere to strict merit-only standards, according to the group. The policies, approved by the U.S. Department of Defense, will be permanent and apply to all future admissions cycles, it said.

The West Point lawsuit, filed in 2023, was initially rejected by a federal judge in New York, but the student group petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court which had sided with the anti-affirmative action group in its landmark ruling banning race-conscious admissions at colleges. But justices declined to consider the case, saying it was “undeveloped.”

But the situation changed earlier this year after President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring that “every element of the Armed Forces should operate free from any preference based on race or sex.” The Defense Department also formally abandoned a Biden administration policy that a “compelling national security interest in a diverse officer corps” justified race-based admissions policies.

Edward Blum, executive director of Students for Fair Admissions, called the settlement a “historic day for the principle of equal treatment under the law at our nation’s military academies” that “ensures that America’s critically important military service academies will admit future officers based solely on merit, not skin color or ancestry.”