DOJ finds UCLA medical school illegally considered race in admissions

The Justice Department claims that UCLA and other med schools give too much weight to race in choosing students. But its analysis is fundamentally racist.

UCLA Medical School Accused Of Racial Discrimination In Defiance Of Supreme Court Authored by Jonathan Turley, We previously discussed a disturbing account of how medical students at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) were subjected to a bizarre class where one of the university’s “activists-in-residence” showered them with anti-Semitic postings and racist rhetoric. Now, the Justice Department has found that the university engaged in systemic racial discrimination in the admission of medical students. Given the university’s history, it is hardly surprising, but it remains unclear how the university will respond to the findings. The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division announced that the medical school violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by giving preferential treatment to black and Hispanic applicants. The investigation followed the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which barred race-based admissions. In the DOJ’s “Findings” letter, black and Hispanic admits in some years averaged MCAT scores in the 66th to 72nd percentile, while Asian and white students averaged scores in the mid-to-high 80th percentiles. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon indicated that the Justice Department found that UCLA medical school leadership discussed how to achieve “diversity goals” and other strategies after the Supreme Court ruling. After the historic ruling in the Harvard and North Carolina cases barring the use of racial criteria in admissions, administrators and academics admitted what they had long denied: that race was having a major role in admissions. In anticipation of the rulings, many schools, including the California system, eliminated standardized testing. Without objective scores, there is less ability to identify the use of non-scholastic criteria for admissions. By eliminating or devaluing standardized testing, admissions offices can use the more subjective essays to achieve the same race-based results. I wrote about how administrators were already preparing to use essays as an indirect way to achieve the same identifications and preferences in admissions. The essay “prompts” encourage students to effectively self-identify by discussing incidents where they faced discrimination. The shift to the essays would allow the removal of high-scoring students while elevating those with lower scores. That prediction was quickly confirmed, as top candidates were rejected based on their essays, while schools used essays to flag their backgrounds. Faculty and administrators at UCLA and other schools remain adamant in using race-based admissions. They simply justify discrimination as equity and diversity.  This is the same school that required medical students to sit through a raving lecture from “a formerly unhoused and incarcerated poverty scholar who prefers to keep their face covered in public.” In her two-hour lecture, Gray-Garcia dismissed modern medicine as “white science” and told the medical students to engage in a prayer to “mama Earth.” Students were expected to pray and affirm that “Mama Earth was never meant to be bought, sold, pimped or played.” The scene captured the erosion of academic integrity at schools like UCLA as woke agendas overwhelm the curriculum. After yielding to that agenda for years and allegedly struggling to evade the Supreme Court decision, UCLA remains a hardened silo of woke priorities and policies. It will take the threat of the most serious consequences to dislodge this academic administration. In the end, they may yield or draw out the conflict in the hope that a new Democratic administration will allow them to return to racially discriminatory admissions. Tyler Durden Fri, 05/15/2026 - 15:10

UCLA Med School Illegally Using Race In Admissions: DOJ A DOJ investigation into the University of California–Los Angeles (UCLA) found its medial school allegedly used applicants' race to discriminate against white and asian candidates.  Royce Hall on University of California, Los Angeles, campus is seen in Los Angeles on Aug. 15, 2024. AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File In a seven-page letter released on Wednesday, the agency’s Civil Rights Division wrote that UCLA "continues to intentionally discriminate against applicants based on their race after the Supreme Court’s decision in Harvard by granting and denying admission on the basis of race," citing a 2023 decision - Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard - which barred race-conscious admissions at colleges and universities, but still allowed schools to consider how race affected students if they wrote about their experiences in essays.  The finding is the latest salvo in the clash between the Trump administration and woke institutions since last year, after federal investigators went after DEI initiatives in higher education. "Racism in admissions is both illegal and anti-American, and this Department will not allow it to continue," said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division. The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA responded - saying its process was "based on merit and grounded in a rigorous, comprehensive review of each applicant."  "We are confident in our practices and our mission to maintain access to a high-quality education to all qualified students," a spokesperson told the Epoch Times, which notes further:  The medical school was reviewing the DOJ’s report and was “committed to providing equal opportunity to all applicants and fully complying with federal and state laws,” the spokesperson said. The DOJ issued a letter to the university’s medical school on May 6 notifying officials of the school’s failure to comply with federal civil rights law for the 2023, 2024, and 2025 classes. Federal law authorizes the DOJ to conduct periodic compliance reviews and investigations of practices and policies of institutions, such as UCLA, that receive federal funding. A student walks near Royce Hall on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles on April 23, 2012. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images The DOJ found the medical school’s internal policies, literature, and email correspondence to leadership consistently demonstrated its intent to use race as a factor in admissions despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2023 in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard that found race-based admissions programs were unconstitutional. The medical school allegedly used different academic metrics to discriminate against all racial groups except black and Hispanic applicants to accept more black and Hispanic applicants into its program, according to the DOJ. If the DOJ determines that the institution can’t voluntarily change its practices to comply with federal law, the DOJ may seek enforcement through the courts, according to the letter. The school is also facing a class-action lawsuit filed in May 2025 by Do No Harm, a nonprofit organization opposed to “radical, divisive, and discriminatory ideologies” in health care and medical education. In the lawsuit, the group also claims UCLA’s medical school has ignored federal law by discriminating against applicants based on race. Tyler Durden Fri, 05/08/2026 - 19:40

The Justice Department accuses UCLA's medical school of illegal race-based discrimination in admissions, favoring minority students over merit.

School said its admission process is ‘based on merit’ and it is committed to complying with state and federal lawsThe US Department of Justice found on Wednesday that the medical school at the University of California, Los Angeles illegally considered race in admissions as the Trump administration ramps up scrutiny of colleges’ processes for selecting students.The finding escalates the Trump administration’s ongoing standoff with UCLA, which has focused mostly on the main campus’s response to allegations of antisemitic harassment. Continue reading...

The Justice Department said Wednesday that UCLA medical school violated federal law by discriminating based on race in admissions, accusing the university of abiding by the "dubious contention" that patients do better when treated by doctors who share their skin color.