The military has long maintained that the nation's security depends on having a diverse officer corps that is ready to lead an increasingly diverse fighting force.
It learned that lesson the hard way during the Vietnam war when racial tensions caused serious problems between the overwhelmingly white officer corps and the significantly minority enlisted men.. Though only about 12% of the U.S. population, Black servicemembers were 16.3% of the armed forces, and up to 25% of enlisted men in the Army, but only 2% of officers across all branches.
The Defense Department ultimately concluded that the lack of minorities in the officer corps "threatened the integrity and performance of the military." And since the Vietnam War, the service academies have aggressively addressed that problem by considering race, along with other qualities, in determining who to admit.
The admissions systems at the service academies are quite different than at civilian institutions, with members of Congress, the vice president, and the president all playing a role in recommending candidates for admission. Now, however, students for Fair Admission, the same group that successfully sued Harvard and the University of North Carolina, has West Point and the other service academies in its sights. In its lawsuit filed Tuesday, it asserts that in recent decades West Point has abandoned its tradition of merit-based admissions in favor of a system that it claims is "focused on race.
The suit was filed in Federal District Court in New York, and likely will end up at the Supreme Court next year some time.
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