The U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Education announced Wednesday that the University of California, Berkeley School of Law violated federal civil rights law by using race in its admissions process for the incoming classes of 2024 and 2025.
A six-page letter from the agencies stated that Berkeley Law’s application prompts, including an essay question about racial identity, illegally weighed race when selecting students. The departments jointly concluded that the school’s practices discriminated against white and Asian applicants, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling banning race-based affirmative action in college admissions.
Berkeley Law denied the allegations, asserting that its admissions process complies with all applicable laws. A university spokesperson stated that the school remains committed to fair and legal admissions practices.
Federal Findings and Broader Context
The Justice Department’s investigation was part of a broader federal effort examining admissions policies across the University of California system. In recent months, the department has issued similar findings against UCLA and UC Davis medical schools, alleging that their admissions processes disproportionately favored Black applicants while disadvantaging white applicants with comparable qualifications.
For example, the department reported that in 2025, Black applicants at UCLA’s medical school had 5.8 times higher odds of admission than white applicants with similar qualifications. The agencies described this discrimination as ongoing, despite the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
Legal and Political Responses
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, who oversees the Justice Department’s civil rights division, stated that the findings reflect a commitment to enforcing anti-discrimination laws consistently. The departments did not announce specific penalties but indicated that further action could follow.
UC system officials have repeatedly disputed the federal findings, arguing that their admissions policies adhere to state and federal laws. A UC spokesperson emphasized that the university system does not use race as a factor in admissions, despite the federal allegations.
Background and Legal Framework
The controversy stems from the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision, which struck down race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The ruling prohibited colleges from considering race as a factor in admissions, a practice that had been used to promote diversity for decades.
California has long prohibited race-based affirmative action in public university admissions under Proposition 209, passed in 1996. Despite this, the federal government has continued to investigate UC schools, alleging that some programs circumvented the ban through indirect methods, such as essay prompts or identity-based questions.
The latest findings against Berkeley Law mark the most recent escalation in a years-long dispute over admissions policies in higher education.