DOJ says UCLA used race-based admissions for medical school

In a findings letter, the DOJ concluded that UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine discriminated against applicants based on race in its incoming classes of 2023 through 2025, in violation of federal law and the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which banned the consideration of race as part of the college admissions process.

According to the report, admissions officials circulated guidance from the Association of American Medical Colleges that outlined ways to maintain diversity goals without explicitly using race. The DOJ said the document encouraged strategies to sidestep the ruling.

“What cannot be done directly cannot be done indirectly,” the document said. “The Constitution deals with substance, not shadows, and the prohibition against racial discrimination is levelled at the thing, not the name.”

The findings also scrutinized UCLA’s use of the AAMC’s PREview exam and its secondary application, which asked applicants whether they were part