Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has barred the U.S. military service academies from considering race, gender or ethnicity in their admissions processes, ending the practice of affirmative action upheld by the Supreme Court two years ago.
In a memo published Friday, Hegseth directed the schools to rank applicants by an aggregate score factoring in athletic ability, past military experience and other qualifications.
“It is the department’s expectation that the highest-ranking candidates within each nomination category should receive appointments,” Hegseth wrote.
The schools have until the end of the 2026 admissions cycle to comply.
The U.S. military’s service academies, including the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Naval Academy and U.S. Air Force Academy, are among the most elite universities in the country, selecting applicants who often go on to promising careers in the armed forces.
The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action for universities nationally in 2023, ruling 6-3 against considering race in the admissions process. In the court’s decision, however, Chief Justice John Roberts permitted an exception for U.S. military schools, arguing the schools held “potentially distinct interests” in continuing the practice.
A year later, the court declined to take up a separate case related directly to affirmative action at the academies.
Since entering office, Hegseth has continually targeted areas of the military that take race and gender into account, repeatedly declaring “DEI is dead” at the Pentagon. In an earlier memo, published in January, Hegseth banned the teaching of what he called “critical race theory” across the Defense Department and included separate instruction for the service academies.
“The U.S. Service Academies and other defense academic institutions shall teach that America and its founding documents remain the most powerful force for good in human history,” he wrote.
Along with the memo published Friday, the Pentagon also directed all of the Defense Department’s libraries to pull books focusing on diversity from their shelves.
During an oversight hearing in March on service academy operations, the superintendents of the three academies fielded questions about the schools’ affirmative action admissions practices and cuts to diversity programs.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., noted the uncomfortable position academy leaders faced in the fight over inclusion programs.
“You need to teach people how to deal with diverse groups that they will command, and you want to include people from different backgrounds and races and religions,” Blumenthal said. “I hope that the Congress can help you, rather than hinder you.”
But Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel panel, blasted the affirmative action practices and encouraged leaders to abandon the policies on their own before a Pentagon mandate.
“Any effort to teach our future leaders to judge or sort people by immutable characteristics like race runs counter to the Constitution and is devastating to good order and discipline,” Tuberville said.
Noah Robertson is the Pentagon reporter at Defense News. He previously covered national security for the Christian Science Monitor. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and government from the College of William & Mary in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia.
Leo covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He has covered Washington, D.C. since 2004, focusing on military personnel and veterans policies. His work has earned numerous honors, including a 2009 Polk award, a 2010 National Headliner Award, the IAVA Leadership in Journalism award and the VFW News Media award.
