ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The U.S. Naval Academy is reportedly ending affirmative action practices in their admissions process.
According to a Friday court filing by the Department of Justice, ethnicity, race, and sex are no longer being considered when evaluating a candidate's qualifications for acceptance into the Naval Academy.
The filing came in response to an ongoing federal lawsuit against the U.S. Naval Academy over its affirmative action policies.
Students for Fair Admissions sued the military institution after successfully convincing the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Affirmative Action at public and state universities.
The majority's landmark ruling, however, didn't pertain to military academies, prompting Students for Fair Admissions to go after them in court.
In December a federal district court judge in Maryland sided with the Naval Academy setting off an appeal.
Edward Blum, the founder of Students for Fair Admissions, celebrated the latest revelation.
"Students for Fair Admissions welcomes the announcement that the U.S. Naval Academy will end its unfair and illegal race-based admissions policies," Blum told WMAR-2 News. "Racial discrimination is wrong and racial classifications have no place at our nation's military academies."
In light of the change, the DOJ asked the judge for more time to decide whether the case should be deemed moot.
The DOJ also recently dropped its own lawsuit against Maryland State Police over alleged discriminatory hiring practices.
Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has prioritized eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from the Federal Government.
In January Trump issued an executive order titled "Restoring America’s Fighting Force."
While the order did not specifically cite Affirmative Action, or outright mandate its removal, here's what it does state.
"The Department of Defense and the Armed Forces, including any educational institution operated or controlled thereby, are prohibited from promoting, advancing, or otherwise inculcating the following un-American, divisive, discriminatory, radical, extremist, and irrational theories."
"The Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall carefully review the leadership, curriculum, and instructors of the United States Service Academies and other defense academic institutions associated with their respective Departments to ensure alignment with this order."
Last month the Naval Academy told WMAR they would "fully execute and implement all directives outlined in the Executive Orders issued by the President."
In that statement, a Naval Academy spokesperson told us all DEI linked offices and positions were disbanded last summer.
MORE: Naval Academy says DEI offices, positions were closed last summer
During a speech in February, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a longtime Trump loyalist and DEI critic, claimed "the single dumbest phrase in military history is 'our diversity is our strength."
Since then, Trump and Hegseth have appointed several new members to the Naval Academy's Board of Visitors, including Republican Congressmen Ronny L. Jackson, of Texas, and Rep. Derrick Van Orden, of Wisconsin.
Sean Spicer, a former White House Press Secretary during Trump's first administration, and longtime aide Walt Nauta, who was an indicted co-defendant of the President in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case were also named to the board.