An unusual argument for affirmative action: national security – By Mark Satter (Roll Call) / Nov 2, 2022
Some Senate Democrats worry that ending affirmative action will dry up the pipeline for minority officers
The conservative-controlled Supreme Court appears ready to curtail the use of race in college admissions. But the federal government on Monday offered an unexpected defense of the practice: national security.
The court is mulling whether to toss a 19-year-old precedent that has allowed schools to consider race as one of multiple factors in admissions, and justices are expected to issue a ruling before the end of the term in June that could upend admissions policies nationwide.
But the federal government, represented by Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, argued that so-called affirmative action policies have an impact on military readiness and that ending them could have downstream effects on the cohesion of the nation’s armed forces.
During arguments in Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina on Monday, Prelogar said the military is a closed system in which future leaders are brought up from within over the course of decades. Should the court curtail affirmative action policies, the government is concerned that diversity in service academies and university-based officer training programs will decline as fewer minorities enter universities and the officer corps.
CONTINUE: https://rollcall.com/2022/11/02/an-unusual-argument-for-affirmative-action-national-security/
