The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has sought to intervene in a lawsuit against the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles, over the school’s use of race in its admissions policies and practices.
The underlying lawsuit against UCLA was brought by several groups, including Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA). In 2023, SFFA won a historic victory against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, in which the Supreme Court determined that U.S. universities were no longer allowed to use race as a factor in admissions decisions.
SFFA, and now the United States, allege in this lawsuit that UCLA has continued to use race in its admissions decisions after the Supreme Court’s decision in SFFA v. Harvard. “As the Supreme Court has made clear, admission into our nation’s educational institutions cannot be based on discriminatory racial policies,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “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.”
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, notes that the Geffen School gathers data on the race of its applicants and uses racial preferences to illegally balance its admissions classes by race such that they will “look like” America. This case is brought by the Educational Opportunities Section of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
Complaint in Intervention - Us v Ucla Med by scott.mcclallen
“Even after the Supreme Court banned race-balancing, the Geffen School kept discriminating by using illegal DEI preferences in admissions,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “As the Supreme Court stated more than 80 years ago, a free people, founded on the doctrine of equality, regard distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry as inherently odious. This Civil Rights Division will not tolerate such conduct and welcomes the Court’s role in ensuring justice.” “
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The United States’ complaint notes that, based on admissions data obtained from the Geffen School, large disparities exist between the academic preparation of minority applicants and non-minority applicants.
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 law is clear: Discrimination on the basis of race is illegal and immoral,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California. “As a state where so many of its leaders pride themselves on being on the ‘right side of history,’ California can and must do better.”
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