The US Department of Justice announced on Wednesday (January 28) that it has filed a motion in court to intervene in a lawsuit accusing the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical School of using race in its admissions process.
The lawsuit was brought by several groups, including Students for Fair Admissions and a medical advocacy group called Do No Harm, alleging that UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine continues to use racial factors in its admissions practices and policies.
In a landmark ruling in June 2023, the US Supreme Court prohibited educational institutions from considering race as a factor in admissions. In that ruling, Students for Fair Admissions won a historic judgment against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. UCLA now faces similar allegations to those universities.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi stated in a press release, “Today’s intervention is the latest effort by the Department of Justice to hold our universities accountable for illegal policies, particularly in California.”
UCLA had previously stated that collecting racial and ethnic data from applicants is “solely for statistical purposes and not used in admissions.”
A spokesperson for the David Geffen School of Medicine said the institution is committed to following “fair process” in compliance with state and federal anti-discrimination laws.
The lawsuit against UCLA was filed in May 2025 in the Central District of California federal court, accusing the university’s medical school of collecting applicants’ racial data and using racial preferences to balance the class to “mirror” the demographics of the US population.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon stated, “Even after the Supreme Court banned ‘racial balancing,’ the David Geffen School of Medicine continues to discriminate by using illegal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) preferences in admissions. The Civil Rights Division will not tolerate this behavior and welcomes the court’s role in ensuring fairness.”
The Department of Justice also pointed out in a press release that data obtained from the David Geffen School of Medicine indicated that the MCAT scores and GPAs of Black and Hispanic applicants were lower on average than those of White and Asian applicants, suggesting racial discrimination in admissions.
Bill Essayli, the Deputy Chief of the Central District of California, stated in the DOJ press release, “As a state where many pride themselves on being on the ‘right side of history,’ California can do better and must do better.”
Do No Harm organization alleges that UCLA practices racial discrimination under the guise of “holistic admissions,” continuing to violate the US Constitution.
Kristina Rasmussen, the organization’s Executive Director, said in a press release, “We look forward to the Department of Justice’s further efforts to investigate the apparent ongoing implementation of racially-based medical school admissions practices at the University of California, Los Angeles.”
The plaintiffs accuse the David Geffen School of Medicine of continuing to use direct or indirect racial factors in the admissions process to achieve “racial balance,” allegedly violating the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1866 Civil Rights Act, and California’s Proposition 209, which prohibits the use of racial factors in admissions by public institutions.
Based on the analysis of publicly available admissions data from 2021 to 2024, the median MCAT scores for admitted Black and Hispanic students were 506 to 509, while White and Asian students had median scores of 513 to 516. The plaintiffs argue that this significant difference constitutes a clear pattern of “illegal racial preference,” as the MCAT is one of the most objective academic indicators in medical school admissions, indicating systemic differences in admission probabilities for different ethnicities under equal conditions.
The plaintiffs also point out that an “Anti-Racism Roadmap” document within the medical school redefines “merit” to include diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) factors in the evaluation system, aiming to have the medical student body reflect the demographics of California, increase opportunities for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) faculty and researchers, among other goals. The plaintiffs believe that these contents demonstrate the school’s pursuit of racial proportion goals, thus constituting a circumvention of the law.