I didn't say that the GAO wanted to (or did) "expose unfair practices." Its 2022 report (item 5 below) is just one reference that contains relevant information.
Below is a list of some of the sources where data are found. One has to connect a lot of dots. The most significant are the exhibits to COL MacDonald's declaration. Don't understand "Because the AA category has a stipulation that, before any diversity/sports appointments, to take the top 250 applicants who didn't succeed in getting a nomination in an order of merit (as has been mentioned in another post)." If you are saying that the additional appointment statutes (10 USC 7443, 8456 and 9443) contain a provision requiring that 250 applicants be selected under those provisions, respectively, in order of merit, before diversity and recruited athletes are selected under those provisions, that would not be correct.
I prefer to remain anonymous, but can tell you that I have studied SA admissions, and the legal issues surrounding them, for many years.
1. Preferences in the Service Academies, Lerner, R & Nagai, A, Ctr. For Equal Opp. (Oct. 16, 2006), pp. 8, 11.
2. Analysis of Effect of Quantitative and Qualitative Admissions Factors in Determining Student Performance at USNA, Phillips, Barton L. Naval Postgraduate School 2004, pp. 1, 2, 24, 25, 28, 32, 71, 72.
3. Declaration of COL Deborah McDonald, fmr Dir. of Admissions, USMA filed Nov. 22, 2023 in
SFFA v. USMA, et al, (U.S. Dist. Ct., So. Dist. NY), Exhibits A&B.
4. Report of Special Inspection – Assessment of Race or Ethnicity Based Treatment of Cadets at USMA
, Oct. 2020, USMA Inspector General, pp. 38, 40, 42, 49.
5. GAO Report to Congressional Committees – Military Service Academies GAO-22-105130, July 2022, pp. 21-23, 70-75.
6.
Carved from Granite, Lance Betros (BG, USA ret.), fmr Professor USMA, fmr Provost, Army War College, Texas A&M University Press, 2012, pp. 301-316.
7.
Still Soldiers and Scholars? An Analysis of Army Officer Testing, Dec. 2017. Coumbe, A.T., Condly, S.J., Skimmyhorn, W. L., Strategic Studies Institute and U.S. Army War College Press, pp. xix, 8, 9, 353.
8. Examining Diversity in Developmental Trajectories of Cadets’ Performance and Character at USMA, (2021). Schaefer, H.S. et al. Journal of Character Education, Vol. 17, No. 1, p. 73.
9. On Diversity as Strength, usmadata (June 10, 2018),
https://usmadata.com/2018/06/10/on-diversity-as-strength/.
10. U.S. Service Academy Admissions, Selecting for Success at the Military Academy/West Point and as an Officer. RAND Corporation 2015, pp. x, xi. U.S. Service Academy Admissions, Selecting for Success at the Air Force Academy and as an Officer. RAND Corporation 2016, pp. 35-36, 39-40, 41-43.