A prominent anti-affirmative action group filed a lawsuit challenging racial preferences in admissions at the United States Air Force Academy in federal court on Tuesday.
The suit came just four days after another challenge, against the Naval Academy, failed its first test in a different federal court. The lawsuits are part of a campaign to extend a Supreme Court ban on race-conscious admissions at civilian universities to military academies.
The plaintiffs, Students for Fair Admissions, filed their suit in Federal District Court in Colorado, site of the Air Force Academy, as they push to bring the issue to the Supreme Court for review.
Students for Fair Admissions successfully sued Harvard University and the University of North Carolina over their admissions policies, resulting in a Supreme Court decision last year that barred the use of affirmative action in admissions at those schools. The decision also forced colleges and universities across the country to end the use of racial preferences in their admissions systems.
The court’s decision, however, carved out an exemption for the military academies, saying they might have special interests.
The complaint filed this week argued that the Air Force Academy “has no justification” for its policies, however.
