The United States Department of Justice sought to join a lawsuit Wednesday that alleged UCLA’s medical school illegally considers race in its admissions.
Do No Harm – a group focused on “keeping identity politics out of medical education, research, and clinical practice” – and Students for Fair Admissions – an anti-affirmative action group – originally filed the suit in May. The groups alleged that the David Geffen School of Medicine discriminated on the basis of race and ethnicity by considering such factors in its admissions processes.
John Holcomb, a federal district judge, must approve the DOJ’s request before it can join the case as a plaintiff, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The suit specifically points to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in a 2023 case outlawing the use of affirmative action, which came in response to a suit brought by SFFA. Proposition 209 made affirmative action illegal for public institutions in California in 1996.
Harmeet Dhillon, an assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, alleged in a press release about the department joining the suit that the medical school uses “illegal DEI preferences” in its admissions.
“This invidious racism not only violates the U.S. Constitution, but stigmatizes minority applicants as less qualified, and causes the medical school to admit applicants who are substantially less qualified to become medical doctors,” the DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs said in a statement.
The May filing alleged that this consideration of race “has no end date.”
Phil Hampton, a spokesperson for UCLA Health, said while he cannot comment on pending litigation, the medical school is committed to “fair processes” in its admissions. The medical school follows federal and state anti-discrimination laws, he added.
The Do No Harm filing alleges that the percentage of White and Asian applicants to UCLA Medical School stayed consistent between 2020 and 2023, but the amount of enrolled students from these backgrounds decreased by 12%.
The defendants in the case include Chancellor Julio Frenk, former Chancellor Gene Block and Jennifer Lucero, the medical school’s associate dean of admissions.
The lawsuit cites Lucero saying she values “diversity issues in medicine” in her public profile as evidence.
“After a long history of moving incrementally away from racial preferences in education, this Nation and its Supreme Court cast off this vestige of our troubled history surrounding race and set out to mandate colorblind admissions in all public (and publicly funded) universities,” the DOJ said in the complaint.
The move follows the DOJ opening an investigation into UCLA in March for the alleged use of affirmative action in admissions.
[Related: Department of Justice investigates UCLA for alleged use of affirmative action]
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also announced in March that it was investigating a “major medical school” in California. The May filing named “Geffen” as the school under investigation.
Dhillon announced in a June letter to then-UC President Michael Drake that the DOJ was opening an investigation into the University for alleged employment discrimination, specifically referring to the 2030 Capacity Plan – which intends to increase access to UC schools.
[Related:Department of Justice opens investigation for alleged UC employment discrimination]
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Workforce also put the medical school under investigation for alleged antisemitism in August.
[Related: David Geffen School of Medicine under investigation for antisemitism claims]
“Today’s intervention is the Department of Justice’s latest effort to hold our universities accountable for unlawful policy – especially in the state of California,” said U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi about the Wednesday filing.
