Washington
Supreme Court allows West Point to continue using race as a factor in admissions
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is allowing West Point to continue taking race into account in admissions, while a lawsuit over its policies continues.
The justices on Friday rejected an emergency appeal seeking to force a change in the admissions process at West Point. The order, issued without any noted dissents, comes as the military academy is making decisions on whom to admit for its next entering class, the Class of 2028.
The military academy had been explicitly left out of the court’s decision in June that ended affirmative action almost everywhere in college admissions.
The court’s conservative majority said race-conscious admissions plans violate the U.S. Constitution, in cases from Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest private and public colleges, respectively. But the high court made clear that its decision did not cover West Point and the nation’s other service academies, raising the possibility that national security interests could affect the legal analysis.
In their brief unsigned order Friday, the justices cautioned against reading too much into it, noting “this order should not be construed as expressing any view on the merits of the constitutional question.”
Students for Fair Admissions, the group behind the Harvard and North Carolina cases, sued the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in September. It filed a similar suit against the U.S. Naval Academy in October.
Lower courts had declined to block the admissions policies at both schools while the lawsuits are ongoing. Only the West Point ruling has been appealed to the Supreme Court.
“Every day that passes between now and then is one where West Point, employing an illegal race-based admissions process, can end another applicant’s dream of joining the Long Gray Line,” lawyers for Students for Fair Admissions wrote in a court filing.
West Point graduates account make up about 20% of all Army officers and nearly half the Army’s current four-star generals, the Justice Department wrote in its brief asking the court to leave the school’s current policies in place.
In recent years, West Point, located on the west bank of the Hudson River about 40 miles (about 65 kilometers) north of New York City, has taken steps to diversify its ranks by increasing outreach to metropolitan areas including New York, Atlanta and Detroit.
“For more than forty years, our Nation’s military leaders have determined that a diverse Army officer corps is a national-security imperative and that achieving that diversity requires limited consideration of race in selecting those who join the Army as cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point,” wrote Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the Biden administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer.
Georgia
Group will appeal court ruling that voter challenges don’t violate law
ATLANTA (AP) — A group trying to stop voter challenges in Georgia says it will appeal a trial court ruling that such challenges don’t violate federal voting rights law.
Fair Fight Action on Friday filed notice that it would ask the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the lower court’s ruling. Democratic lawyer Mark Elias said his firm would handle the appeal without charging Fair Fight.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ruled last month that Texas-based nonprofit True the Vote did not violate the Voting Rights Act when it announced it was challenging the eligibility of more than 360,000 Georgia voters just before a 2021 runoff election for two pivotal U.S. Senate seats.
Fair Fight, a voting rights group founded by former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, had sued True the Vote and several individuals, alleging that their actions violated a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that prohibits voter intimidation.
Although Jones ruled that True the Vote didn’t intimidate or attempt to intimidate any particular voter, he expressed concerns about the group’s methods. Jones wrote that its list of voters to be challenged “utterly lacked reliability” and “verges on recklessness.”
In the weeks after the November 2020 general election, then-President Donald Trump and his supporters were promoting false claims of widespread voter fraud that had cost him the election. In Georgia, two U.S. Senate races that would ultimately decide control of the Senate were headed for an early January runoff election.
True the Vote announced the voter challenges saying it believed voters no longer lived in districts where they were registered and were ineligible to vote there.
Georgia election officials rejected only a few dozen ballots cast in the runoff, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock went on to beat Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler by tens of thousands of votes, securing Senate control for their party.
Tennessee
Preliminary injunction hearing set for Feb. 13 in case targeting NCAA ban on recruiting inducements
A judge on Feb. 13 will hear a request by the attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia for a preliminary injunction that would put on hold NCAA rules banning recruiting inducements and pay-for-play, the court posted Friday.
The lawsuit challenging NCAA recruiting rules was filed earlier this week in the Eastern District of Tennessee, a day after it was revealed the NCAA was investigating the University of Tennessee for potential violations related to name, image and likeness compensation being used to recruit athletes.
The attorneys general quickly followed up the lawsuit with the request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. The plaintiffs asked for a judge to rule on the TRO by Feb. 6. If granted it would also force the NCAA to stop enforcing those rules immediately.
The court said the NCAA had until Saturday at 6 p.m. EST to respond to the TRO request and the plaintiffs until Sunday at 6 p.m. to file a reply. The plaintiffs requested a ruling on the temporary restraining order by Tuesday.
The AGs suing the NCAA over transfer rules in December used a similar strategy. After a temporary restraining order was granted, the NCAA quickly decided to join the plaintiffs in asking the court to keep it in place through the end of the spring semester to provide clarity to schools and athletes immediately impacted. A judge granted the request.
Supreme Court allows West Point to continue using race as a factor in admissions
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is allowing West Point to continue taking race into account in admissions, while a lawsuit over its policies continues.
The justices on Friday rejected an emergency appeal seeking to force a change in the admissions process at West Point. The order, issued without any noted dissents, comes as the military academy is making decisions on whom to admit for its next entering class, the Class of 2028.
The military academy had been explicitly left out of the court’s decision in June that ended affirmative action almost everywhere in college admissions.
The court’s conservative majority said race-conscious admissions plans violate the U.S. Constitution, in cases from Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest private and public colleges, respectively. But the high court made clear that its decision did not cover West Point and the nation’s other service academies, raising the possibility that national security interests could affect the legal analysis.
In their brief unsigned order Friday, the justices cautioned against reading too much into it, noting “this order should not be construed as expressing any view on the merits of the constitutional question.”
Students for Fair Admissions, the group behind the Harvard and North Carolina cases, sued the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in September. It filed a similar suit against the U.S. Naval Academy in October.
Lower courts had declined to block the admissions policies at both schools while the lawsuits are ongoing. Only the West Point ruling has been appealed to the Supreme Court.
“Every day that passes between now and then is one where West Point, employing an illegal race-based admissions process, can end another applicant’s dream of joining the Long Gray Line,” lawyers for Students for Fair Admissions wrote in a court filing.
West Point graduates account make up about 20% of all Army officers and nearly half the Army’s current four-star generals, the Justice Department wrote in its brief asking the court to leave the school’s current policies in place.
In recent years, West Point, located on the west bank of the Hudson River about 40 miles (about 65 kilometers) north of New York City, has taken steps to diversify its ranks by increasing outreach to metropolitan areas including New York, Atlanta and Detroit.
“For more than forty years, our Nation’s military leaders have determined that a diverse Army officer corps is a national-security imperative and that achieving that diversity requires limited consideration of race in selecting those who join the Army as cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point,” wrote Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the Biden administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer.
Georgia
Group will appeal court ruling that voter challenges don’t violate law
ATLANTA (AP) — A group trying to stop voter challenges in Georgia says it will appeal a trial court ruling that such challenges don’t violate federal voting rights law.
Fair Fight Action on Friday filed notice that it would ask the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the lower court’s ruling. Democratic lawyer Mark Elias said his firm would handle the appeal without charging Fair Fight.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ruled last month that Texas-based nonprofit True the Vote did not violate the Voting Rights Act when it announced it was challenging the eligibility of more than 360,000 Georgia voters just before a 2021 runoff election for two pivotal U.S. Senate seats.
Fair Fight, a voting rights group founded by former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, had sued True the Vote and several individuals, alleging that their actions violated a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that prohibits voter intimidation.
Although Jones ruled that True the Vote didn’t intimidate or attempt to intimidate any particular voter, he expressed concerns about the group’s methods. Jones wrote that its list of voters to be challenged “utterly lacked reliability” and “verges on recklessness.”
In the weeks after the November 2020 general election, then-President Donald Trump and his supporters were promoting false claims of widespread voter fraud that had cost him the election. In Georgia, two U.S. Senate races that would ultimately decide control of the Senate were headed for an early January runoff election.
True the Vote announced the voter challenges saying it believed voters no longer lived in districts where they were registered and were ineligible to vote there.
Georgia election officials rejected only a few dozen ballots cast in the runoff, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock went on to beat Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler by tens of thousands of votes, securing Senate control for their party.
Tennessee
Preliminary injunction hearing set for Feb. 13 in case targeting NCAA ban on recruiting inducements
A judge on Feb. 13 will hear a request by the attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia for a preliminary injunction that would put on hold NCAA rules banning recruiting inducements and pay-for-play, the court posted Friday.
The lawsuit challenging NCAA recruiting rules was filed earlier this week in the Eastern District of Tennessee, a day after it was revealed the NCAA was investigating the University of Tennessee for potential violations related to name, image and likeness compensation being used to recruit athletes.
The attorneys general quickly followed up the lawsuit with the request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. The plaintiffs asked for a judge to rule on the TRO by Feb. 6. If granted it would also force the NCAA to stop enforcing those rules immediately.
The court said the NCAA had until Saturday at 6 p.m. EST to respond to the TRO request and the plaintiffs until Sunday at 6 p.m. to file a reply. The plaintiffs requested a ruling on the temporary restraining order by Tuesday.
The AGs suing the NCAA over transfer rules in December used a similar strategy. After a temporary restraining order was granted, the NCAA quickly decided to join the plaintiffs in asking the court to keep it in place through the end of the spring semester to provide clarity to schools and athletes immediately impacted. A judge granted the request.
