A federal judge on Wednesday ruled the U.S. Military Academy at West Point can continue considering race in its admissions process, denying a request to block affirmative action policies in the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a ruling filed Wednesday in the Southern District of New York, Judge Philip Halpern rejected a group\u2019s request for a preliminary injunction that would\u2019ve put a halt to the school\u2019s race-conscious admissions practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Halpern said the group, Students for Fair Admissions, did not meet the burden of proof on several grounds to grant the injunction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Halpern\u2019s ruling comes as part of a lawsuit<\/u><\/a> from Students for Fair Admissions, the group behind the lawsuits that prompted the Supreme Court\u2019s landmark affirmative action ruling<\/u><\/a> last year. The high court\u2019s ruling did not apply to military academies in the U.S., prompting the group to seek an extension for West Point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The group, led by conservative legal strategist Edward Blum,<\/u><\/a> asked a judge<\/u><\/a> to ban West Point from considering or knowing an applicant\u2019s race when making decisions for admissions, arguing the use of race in the process is \u201cunconstitutional\u201d and violates the aspect of equal protection in the Fifth Amendment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a pair of rulings last June, the Supreme Court essentially put an end to affirmative action in higher education across the country when it struck down the race-conscious admissions policies of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n