- Admissions practices at the U.S. Naval Academy will no longer recognize factors such as race, ethnicity or gender.
- The service academy's revised admissions policy comes in response to Trump executive order prohibiting "raced-based" discrimination in the military ranks.
- Democratic congresswoman calls the Naval Academy's admissions policy change a "disastrous decision."
A candidate’s race, ethnicity or gender are no longer factors considered for admission to the United States Naval Academy.
That recent admission policy change at the 179-year-old service academy comes following President Donald Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order directing all elements of the U.S. Armed Forces to operate “free from any preference” based on race or sex.
In his Jan. 27 order, Trump wrote that as the military’s commander in chief, he is “committed to meritocracy and to the elimination of race-based and sex-based discrimination within the Armed Forces of the United States.”
“No individual or group within our Armed Forces should be preferred or disadvantaged on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, color, or creed.”
The president’s executive order was followed days later by a memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Pentagon leadership noting that “the most qualified individuals” being placed in positions of responsibility in accordance with “merit-based color-blind policies” is fundamental to the nation’s military.
In his memo, Hegseth also called for the elimination of quotas, objectives and goals that might speak indirectly to admission policies at the Naval Academy and other service academies:
“No Department of Defense component will establish sex-based, race-based or ethnicity-based goals for organizational composition, academic admission, or career fields.”
A Department of Justice court filing made public last week noted that the academy’s superintendent, U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Yvette Davids, had complied with Trump’s and Hegseth’s directives and changed the academy’s admission policy.
“Under revised internal guidance issued by (Superintendent Davids) on Feb. 14, 2025, neither race, ethnicity, nor sex can be considered as a factor for admission at any point during the admissions process, including qualification and acceptance,” according to the court filing.
And during a March 26 hearing before a U.S. Senate subcommittee, Davids testified “at no time are race, sex or ethnicity considered in the qualification of a candidate — and there are no associated demographic goals or objectives.”
Davids made military history last year when she took command of the USNA — becoming the first woman to serve as the institution’s superintendent.
Trump’s order counters recent court ruling regarding USNA admissions
The recent change in the Naval Academy’s admission policy comes after a federal judge ruled in December that the academy could continue considering race in its admissions process. In that case, the judge found that military cohesion and other national security factors mean the school should not be subjected to the same standards as civilian universities, Navy Times reported
The Naval Academy had continued to employ its affirmative action admissions program even after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023 rejected such policies at civilian colleges and universities. That ruling was an outcome long sought by many U.S. conservatives who have complained that white and certain other applicants were being disadvantaged, Reuters reported.
During a two-week bench trial in September, attorneys for the academy argued that prioritizing diversity in the military makes it stronger, more effective and more widely respected.
The case against the admissions policy was brought by the group Students for Fair Admissions, which was appealing the judge’s decision.
Attorneys for Students for Fair Admissions argued during trial that prioritizing minority candidates is unfair to qualified white applicants and that cohesion should arise from other sources such as training and command structure.
The academy argued in that case that its admissions process considers many factors — including grades, extracurricular activities, life experience and socioeconomic status, according to court testimony. Race often played no role in the process, but sometimes it came under consideration in a “limited fashion,” attorneys for the academy wrote in court papers.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration argued in the case that senior military leaders had long recognized that a scarcity of minority officers could create distrust within the U.S. armed forces, which were racially segregated until 1948.
U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett decided that the academy’s program was narrowly tailored to meet that interest by rectifying the “significant deficiency” in the number of racial minorities who are Navy and Marine officers and are trained at the Naval Academy.
Bennett said that while racial minorities currently make up 52% of enlisted Navy service members, only 31% of its officers are minorities. In the Marine Corps, the judge added, minorities comprise 35% of enlisted Marines but just 29% of its officer ranks, according to Reuters.
Congresswoman: USNA admission policy change a ‘disastrous decision’
Maryland Rep. Sarah Elfreth, a Democrat who serves on the academy’s Board of Visitors, criticized the Naval Academy admissions policy change, saying “this disastrous decision will have negative implications on our military’s recruitment and retention for decades to come.”
“A Navy and Marine Corps that reflect the diversity of our country is our strongest Navy and Marine Corps,” Elfreth said in a Navy Times article. “Diversity and inclusion allow our academies to not just reflect how our country looks but are critical to mission readiness and strong national security.”
Meanwhile, Students for Fair Admissions President Edward Blum saluted the academy’s recent modification to its admission practices.
“Students for Fair Admissions welcomes the announcement that the U.S. Naval Academy will end its unfair and illegal race-based admissions policies. Racial discrimination is wrong and racial classifications have no place at our nation’s military academies,” Blum said in a statement.
DEI-related books banned at the Naval Academy
Hegseth’s office has also ordered the Naval Academy to identify books related to DEI themes that are housed at the school’s Nimitz Library, and to remove them from circulation, The New York Times reported.
Thus far, the review of Nimitz Library’s holdings has reportedly identified 900 books that may run afoul of the defense secretary’s order — including “The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.,” “Einstein on Race and Racism,” and a biography on baseball’s Jackie Robinson.
Hegseth is scheduled to visit the Naval Academy on Tuesday and to speak to the Brigade of Midshipmen. It is unclear whether the secretary expects the books to be removed before his arrival, according to The New York Times.
Defense officials said they were unaware whether the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the U.S. Air Force Academy or the U.S. Coast Guard Academy had received similar orders, or whether the military’s graduate schools, such as the Naval War College and the Army’s Command and General Staff College, were expected to comply.