The U.S. Department of Justice alleged Wednesday that UCLA’s medical school illegally considered race in its admissions processes, discriminating against white and Asian American applicants.
The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division alleged in a Wednesday press release that the David Geffen School of Medicine illegally used race as a selection criteria for candidates and admitted Black and Latino students who had lower academic qualifications than their white and Asian counterparts. The DOJ added in the press release that the school committed such discrimination intentionally, acting on the belief that patients receive better care when treated by doctors of their race.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon wrote in the report that UCLA’s medical school violated the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling, which banned the consideration of race in college decisions. Affirmative action, however, had already been illegal for California public institutions since 1996.
The medical school is currently reviewing the report, a spokesperson said in a Wednesday emailed statement.
“The admissions process at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA is based on merit and grounded in a rigorous, comprehensive review of each applicant,” a spokesperson for the School of Medicine said in an emailed statement. “We are confident in our practices and our mission to maintain access to a high-quality education to all qualified students.”
The school is also facing a lawsuit filed by Do No Harm – a group focused on “keeping identity politics out of medical education, research, and clinical practice,” according to its website – and Students for Fair Admissions, the anti-affirmative action group the Supreme Court sided with in its 2023 decision. The lawsuit – which was filed in May 2025 and which the DOJ sought to join in January – alleged the School of Medicine racially discriminated against applicants by considering race in its admissions processes.
[Related: DOJ seeks to join lawsuit against David Geffen School of Medicine]
“Federal law and the Supreme Court precedent are clear: Race discrimination has no place in our nation’s institutions of higher learning,” said Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, in the press release. “The pattern of illegal and odious conduct by UCLA’s medical school is abhorrent to our Constitution and our nation’s founding principles.”
The DOJ also announced in March 2025 that it was investigating UCLA’s alleged use of data on applicants’ race and ethnicity in admissions. A UC Office of the President spokesperson said in a March 2025 statement that the University only collects data on race and ethnicity for statistical purposes and does not use affirmative action, in accordance with state law.
[Related: Department of Justice investigates UCLA for alleged use of affirmative action]
The DOJ is seeking to enter into a voluntary agreement with UCLA to ensure its admissions processes comply with the law, Dhillon said in the report.
“UCLA’s admissions process has been focused on racial demographics at the expense of merit and excellence — allowing racial politics to distract the school from the vital work of training great doctors,” Dhillon said in the press release. “Racism in admissions is both illegal and anti-American, and this Department will not allow it to continue.”
