A federal judge on Friday denied an effort to stop the U.S. Naval Academy from considering race and ethnicity in admissions, finding that the academy has a distinct interest in using affirmative action to achieve diversity in its student bodyjb casino, and that doing so is a matter of national security.

The decision is a blow to the hopes of an anti-affirmative action group, Students for Fair Admissions, to extend its successful challenge to race-conscious admissions at civilian schools to the nation’s military academies. In that case, against Harvard College and the University of North Carolina, the Supreme Court decided in 2023 that race-based admissions at those schools violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

But the effort to bring those arguments to the Naval Academy “has FAILED,” U.S. Senior District Judge Richard D. Bennett of Maryland wrote in a 175-page decision.

Judge Bennett wrote that there was a “compelling national security interest in a diverse officer corps in the Navy and Marine Corps,” and that “the U.S. Naval Academy is distinct from a civilian university.”

The judge cited a U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services report from this year that found a continuing problem of underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities in the military service academies. “This is fundamentally a military personnel issue,” he said.

Students for Fair Admissions said on Friday that it was disappointed in the ruling and that it would appeal all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary.

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