Justice Department accuses UCLA law school of illegally using race in admissions

Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times on Oct 2, 2026

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LOS ANGELES — UCLA's law school discriminated against white and Asian applicants by illegally using race in admissions, the Department of Justice alleged Thursday.

The finding adds to a series of federal actions against University of California admissions that have focused on highly selective law and medical schools. The department issued a similar finding against UC Berkeley's law school on Sept. 9, and other recent findings against the medical schools at UCLA, UC Davis, UC San Diego and UC San Francisco.

All of the campuses deny the allegations.

In an eight-page letter, the Justice Department alleged UCLA Law "intentionally discriminated on the basis of race" in admitting its 2023, 2024 and 2025 classes. It accused the school of favoring Black and Latino applicants in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling ending race-based affirmative action in college admissions.

"UCLA Law School runs a two-tiered admissions system whose academic bar for acceptance shifts up or down depending on the color of your skin," Assistant Atty. Gen. Harmeet K. Dhillon, who leads the department's Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. "The use of race as a thumb on the scale that helps or disadvantages any student is illegal."

UCLA Law said in a statement that it "is committed to making admissions decisions in compliance with all applicable laws." It cited Proposition 209, a 1996 state ban on considering race in public university admissions.

The school said it uses a "comprehensive, merit-based review process" and that it is "confident in our process."

The Justice Department opened its investigation on April 18, 2025, and said it reviewed documents and seven years of application data from the school.

For the 2025 class, the department said, Black applicants had about seven times the odds of admission of "otherwise equivalent white applicants." It said Latino applicants had about two times the odds.

The department also cited scores on the Law School Admission Test. It said the median score of admitted Black applicants was five to seven points lower than that of admitted white applicants each year from 2019 to 2024. In 2025, the medians were 168 for Black students and 172 for white students. The letter said 168 was the median score of white and Asian applicants who were denied admission. LSAT scores range from 120 to 180.

UCLA Law's admissions policy says it places "substantial weight on traditional measures of academic ability, namely grades and standardized test scores." The school also considers "economic, physical or other challenges that have been overcome," "scholarly achievements" and "work experience and career achievement."

The Justice Department said internal communications and policy documents show UCLA Law "is strongly committed to achieving a 'diverse' racial makeup of its student body." It cited a 2023 diversity open house, where it alleged staff told applicants they could reveal their race in answers to essay questions or in a diversity statement. It also cited a June 2023 email, sent before the Supreme Court ruled, in which Assistant Dean of Admissions Robert Schwartz allegedly wrote that "any changes in the law announced by the Supreme Court will not change anything at UCLA Law."

The letter said the discrimination "is ongoing." The department is seeking a voluntary agreement with the university and will sue if it cannot reach one.

The Trump administration released the finding amid an ongoing lawsuit against UCLA's medical school, which it also accuses of illegally using race in admissions.

Do No Harm and Students for Fair Admissions, two advocacy groups, sued the medical school over such allegations in May 2025. Students for Fair Admissions was the plaintiff in the 2023 Supreme Court affirmative action cases. The Justice Department joined the UCLA medical school suit in January and issued a finding in May accusing the school of intentionally considering race in selecting students. The medical school denies the charge.