Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered all military service academies to no longer consider race, ethnicity or sex for admissions, according to a memo released Friday.
The move appears to not only effectively end affirmative action efforts at the three military service academies, which were spared from a Supreme Court ruling on race-based admissions two years ago, but goes even further by including ethnicity and sex.
Hegseth's memo goes on to say that admission to the academies will be based "exclusively on merit," because "selecting anyone but the best erodes lethality, our warfighting readiness, and undercuts the culture of excellence in our armed forces[2]."
It is not clear why Hegseth felt the need to issue the directive now.
In March, the Naval Academy[4] told a federal court it was not considering race, ethnicity or sex as a factor for admission because of President Donald Trump's Jan. 27 executive order that said "every element of the armed forces should operate free from any preference based on race or sex."
It is also not clear how this directive would work with the service academy requirement for a congressional or presidential nomination, which have their own criteria.
When asked both questions, a defense official told Military.com[5] that Hegseth's office didn't have anything additional to add.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said "policies like this enable the department to develop a strong officer corps, foster a culture of excellence, and achieve the mission, now and in the future” in a statement released Friday[6].
While Hegseth and Trump have been aggressive in targeting any diversity or affirmative action efforts inside the military, the courts have repeatedly found that the military and its academies have unique interests when it comes to its admissions.
When Chief Justice John Roberts wrote his majority opinion striking down the ability to use race in university admissions in 2023, he noted the Army[7]'s Military Academy at West Point[8], the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy[9] may have "potentially distinct interests" when it comes to admissions and that diversity in the armed forces may be a national security issue.
In December, another judge again ruled[10] the Naval Academy could continue to consider race in its admissions, finding "the academy has tied its use of race to the realization of an officer corps that represents the country it protects and the people it leads."
"The academy has proven that this national security interest is indeed measurable and that its admissions program is narrowly tailored to meet that interest," the judge wrote in an opinion.
Parnell said the three academies have 30 days to "confirm that admission will be based exclusively on merit for the 2026 admissions cycle and beyond."
