The US Supreme Court on Friday denied an anti-affirmative action organization’s emergency application to block the US Military Academy, known as “West Point,” from using race in its admissions process.

In September 2023, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), the group that recently won the significant case of SFFA v. Harvard, challenging the constitutionality of race-based admissions processes, filed a lawsuit against West Point, for employing similar policies. The Court declined the emergency application writing, “The record before this Court is underdeveloped, and this order should not be construed as expressing any view on the merits of the constitutional question.”

Initially, the plaintiffs in the case sought an injunction from Judge Philip Halpern of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York but were denied. A three-judge panel for the Second Circuit on Monday decided not to halt West Point’s policies, but provided no explanation.

SFFA wrote in its reply supporting a request for injunction:

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. This Court should grant interim relief as soon as possible.

US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing West Point, countered that SFFA had not met the criteria for the Court to grant emergency relief. She wrote:

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.

The suit against West Point is one of two pending cases, both filed by SFFA, challenging race-based admissions at service academies. The second lawsuit is directed at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.