The military academies present positive images of themselves on websites and in the media. But they minimize critical scrutiny and accountability by making it difficult or impossible for the public, and even Congress, to see how they are forcing Marxist ideology into their curricula and onto our soldiers.
For example, in October 2020, a Freedom of Information Act request was filed seeking from the Air Force Academy (AFA) documents regarding “systemic racism,” “discrimination,” and “racial bias” alleged to exist there. Only a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch in September 2022 resulted in the AFA declassifying and providing its “Internal Racial Disparity Review Final Report” and other documents that existed before they were requested.
Similarly, Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services, Inc. ( STARRS.US ) filed more than 30 FOIA requests with West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy for documents about leftist ideologies in their curricula with little or no response and repeated stonewalling.
This pattern of not providing documents about academy operations dates back to the early days of the FOIA, when federal courts required the Air Force Academy to provide to the public documents about retention and the operation of the AFA’s Honor System.
The Biden administration exponentially increased the lack of transparency and accountability regarding leftist ideological indoctrination at the academies by taking three actions to neuter the Board of Visitors (BOVs) of West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy: First, on Jan. 30, 2021, the secretary of defense suspended the operations of the BOVs; second, on Sept. 8, 2021, the president fired all Trump appointees on these Boards of Visitors; and third, on Sept. 17, 2021, the secretary of defense authorized the service secretaries to create BOV “subcommittees” staffed by appointees, including non-members of the BOVs, selected at the sole discretion of the secretary of defense or the deputy secretary of defense.
All these actions were flatly illegal, and we are challenging them today in court on statutory and constitutional grounds.
By Michael T. Rose and Richard A. Epstein
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