On Monday, the U.S. Justice Department asked a federal court of appeals to dismiss a case challenging racial admissions at U.S. Naval Academy, the elite military academy said that it had changed its admissions policy under Republican president Donald Trump.

In March, the Naval Academy in Annapolis (Maryland) announced that it would no longer consider race or ethnicity when making admissions decisions, following orders from President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

On Monday, the Justice Department and a group against affirmative action that sued the Academy jointly informed the court that the policy changes rendered the legal dispute moot.

In a press release, Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that "this Department is committed" to ending discrimination in the federal government and restoring opportunities based on merit.

The filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit, asks that the court vacate a ruling made by a federal judge last year, which found the previous race-conscious policy legal.

The administration of Democratic President Joe Biden defended affirmative actions at the Naval Academy, after the U.S. Supreme Court excluded U.S. Military Academies from its ruling in 2023 that barred consideration of race for college admissions.

The Naval Academy has long relied upon its previous policy to increase its enrollment of Blacks, Hispanics and other minorities.

Conservatives in the United States and Trump's administration argue that these policies are unfair to white and other applicants, and don't improve military readiness. (Reporting and editing by Andrew Goudsward, CaitlinWebber and Ryan Patrick Jones)

(source: Reuters)