By R. Lawrence Purdy, USNA ’68

One of President Trump’s first Executive Orders, signed on January 20, 2025,[1] explicitly condemned DEI’s “illegal and immoral discrimination programs.”[2]  A second order ending these “shameful” programs[3] should be fully applied to our Nation’s Armed Forces.

In an important nod to civil rights pioneer, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the first order was signed on the same day our Nation celebrated Dr. King’s memory and legacy.

As the new President promised in remarks delivered immediately following his inauguration, the goal is to return our Nation to a “colorblind merit-based society,” the very society Dr. King envisioned more than sixty years ago in his never-to-be-forgotten “I Have A Dream” speech.[4]

As the new Commander-in-Chief has made clear, there is little doubt he and his Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, will order our military to fully comply with this colorblind merit-based mandate.

It goes without saying that if such a mandate is considered necessary for our Federal Government to follow (and broad majorities of Americans across all races believe it is), it is even more essential that it be made fully applicable to our Armed Forces.

As the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board opined on January 22:

The American people made clear they’re tired of DEI’s divisive ideology. [In one of his first Executive Orders, President Trump] repeal[ed] Executive Order 13985, which [President Biden] signed on his first day in office to promote “equity across the federal government.” By “equity” [Biden] meant equal outcomes, not equal opportunity. (Emphasis added.)

Mr. Trump’s order rightly notes that DEI can lead to “illegal discrimination or preferences.” . . .[5]

The Journal goes on to observe that Dr. King “called America to its better self—by making good on its founding promise that people would be judged on their character and merit”[6] rather than on the color of their skin.

For the Armed Services to implement President Trump’s directives, step one is to transparently end their massive jumble of DEI programs; and second, to immediately return our Nation’s service academies to using colorblind merit-based admissions systems that do not discriminate against any applicant on the basis of race, color, creed, or national origin.

Based on the new Commander-in-Chief’s words and actions, and however one may view a recent lower federal court decision upholding the U. S. Naval Academy’s current race-based admissions policies, that verdict must be reversed or otherwise vacated because race-based policies directly contravene both (a) the Supreme Court’s recent landmark decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U. S. 181 (2023) and (b) the Commander-in-Chief’s decision to return our Nation to a fully constitutional colorblind society.

The use the phrase “return . . . to a fully constitutional colorblind society” is appropriate because colorblindness, especially in the military context, is not a new concept.  In fact, it has a long (if, at times, uneven) history that began nearly eighty years ago under an Executive Order issued by President Harry S. Truman.  It read in part:

It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, . . . or national origin.[7]

Though change was slow in coming, this universal principle eventually gained broad support based on powerful constitutional and case law precedents, and historic legislative actions.

In recent decades, and notwithstanding a slew of diversity ideologues arguing for race-centric “equity” versus “equal opportunity,” colorblindness garnered further support via a multitude of DoD regulations and directives[8] guaranteeing equal opportunity without regard to race – including language found in DoD’s Human Goals Charter.[9]

With the above in mind, I respectfully urge our service academy Superintendents to take a proactive leadership role when it comes to eliminating the academies’ race-based policies.

Each should consider the adoption of a policy along the following lines that is fully consistent with both the Constitution and President Trump’s announced directive that we return to a colorblind merit-based society:

A Service Academy applicant’s race or ethnicity will neither enhance nor diminish his or her chances for admission.

No minority cadet or midshipman should ever question that he or she has become a member of the Corps of Cadets or the Brigade of Midshipmen because of their skin color; and no cadet or midshipman of any race or ethnicity should ever question whether objectively better-qualified applicants were rejected because of theirs. 

Henceforth, every applicant must be assured that his or her application will be decided solely on the basis of their individual merit when measured against the same high standards applied to every other applicant.

A candidate’s immutable characteristics such as race or ethnicity should play no role in that decision.

As a graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy, I am hopeful that under our current Superintendent’s leadership, guided by direction from the new Commander-in-Chief, our Navy and Marine Corps will now firmly be back on the path of restoring true equality of opportunity for all our sailors and Marines, and the officers who lead them.

All Americans should hope for the same outcome within each of our services.

Mr. Purdy is a 1968 graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy.  After completing his military service obligation (which included a year-long tour in Vietnam), he graduated from the William Mitchell College of Law (St. Paul, MN).  While in private practice, he served as a member of the pro bono trial and appellate team for the plaintiffs in two separate United States Supreme Court cases that challenged the University of Michigan’s race-preference admissions policies.  He is the author of several law review articles and essays addressing the use of race in college and university admissions.  His most recent law review article is forthcoming in Volume 56 of the St. Mary’s Law Journal. He is a member of the Calvert Task Group, a collection of USNA graduates who have been working to eliminate DEI and CRT programs at the Naval Academy and return it to a thoroughly colorblind meritocratic institution.

Notes:

[1] Ending Radical Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing (Executive Order, Jan. 20, 2025).

[2] Id., at Sec. 1.

[3] Executive Order Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025).

[4] Coretta Scott King (ed.), The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr. 95 (1983) (“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”).

[5] “Trump’s Shrewd Order Killing DEI,” Wall Street Journal (Online edition) (January 22, 2025) (emphasis added).

[6] Id.

[7] Exec. Order No. 9981 signed by President Harry S. Truman on July 26, 1948.

[8] See, e.g., U.S. Dep’t of Def., DoD Instruction 1350.02, Military Equal Opportunity Program 37 (2022); and Dep’t of Navy, Gen. Regul. 1164 (Dec. 16, 2015) (“Equal Opportunity shall be afforded to all on the basis of individual effort, performance, conduct, diligence, potential, capabilities and talents without discrimination of race, color . . . or national origin.”).

[9] U.S. Dep’t of Def., Human Goals Charter (2014), see Steve Hoarn, Revised Department of Defense Human Goals Charter Disseminated Far and Wide, Def. Media Network (Jun. 8, 2014).

First published on Real Clear Defense