A military watchdog organization filed a lawsuit against the United States Air Force on Monday to force the Air Force to provide records regarding an experiment that was launched under the Biden-Harris administration to increase the graduation rates of women and other minority pilots.
According to The Daily Caller, The Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) filed a lawsuit on Monday under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), requesting that the United States District Court for the District of Columbia force the Air Force to provide communication records from any organizations and individuals involved in the Biden-Harris administration’s experiment, which was carried out by the 19th Air Force command.
According to documents previously obtained by The Daily Caller, the Air Force experiment launched under the Biden-Harris administration attempted to “cluster” women and racial minorities into a different class than other trainees to test whether the cluster grouping would improve the graduation rates of women and racial minorities.
The Daily Caller reported that the experiment was not successful and did not show any increase in the graduation Air Force’s graduation rates. The outlet also noted that officers involved in the project allegedly were required to unlawfully discriminate against trainees.
READ MORE: Air Force requiring trainees to carry M4 rifles in basic training
CASA Director James Fitzpatrick told The Daily Caller, “In 2021, the Biden DoD ran a DEI experiment in the Air Force aimed at increasing flight school graduation rates for women and minorities. It failed miserably and some involved were openly skeptical of its legality.”
In a memo previously obtained by The Daily Caller, officers involved in the Biden-Harris administration’s program indicated that they were verbally pressured to meet certain demographic characteristic requirements as part of the separate class of trainees that was labeled “America’s class.”
According to The Daily Caller, 62% of “America’s class” was made up of underrepresented groups, while a data analysis conducted from 2020 to 2023 showed minorities in other Air Force classes only made up roughly one-third of the classes.
An anonymous Air Force instructor pilot and former trainer for the Air Force’s Undergraduate Pilot Training told The Daily Caller, “When other priorities, like gender or race, are introduced as a metric of assignment and advancement, the foundations of performance-based competition are sacrificed and the emphasis on safety takes a backseat.”
Fitzpatrick told The Daily Caller that CASA’s new lawsuit will “force the Air Force to provide the records and communications related to this effort in order to educate the public on this failed attempt by the Biden administration to inject DEI into Air Force flight school.”
