UCLA Law School accused of racial discrimination in admissions by DOJ

The Department of Justice has accused the UCLA School of Law of engaging in discriminatory admissions practices against white and Asian applicants over a three-year period. According to the DOJ, the school violated the 2023 Supreme Court ruling by using essay questions and personal statement prompts designed to elicit information about an applicant's race.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon stated that the school operated a “two-tiered admissions system” where academic standards shifted based on race. The investigation, covering the 2023, 2024, and 2025 entering classes, found that Black and Hispanic applicants often had different admission odds and median LSAT scores compared to white and Asian applicants with similar profiles.

Specifically, the DOJ noted that in 2025, Black applicants had approximately seven times the admission odds of otherwise equivalent white applicants, while Hispanic applicants had about twice the odds. The department maintains that using race as a “thumb on the scale” is illegal and pledged to continue enforcing equal treatment in law school admissions.