The Trump administration on Wednesday sought to join a lawsuit filed in federal court alleging UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine illegally considers race inits admission process.
In documents filed in California’s Central District, the Department of Justice alleges that UCLA’s medical school uses a “systemically racist approach” to admissions that privileges Black and Latino applicants over those who are white and Asian American.
Justice Department lawyers also allege that the school engages in “racial balancing” — trying to create a student body that is racially reflective of California — in violation the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that banned race-based affirmative action policies in college admissions.
The 17-page filing is in response to a May lawsuit by Do No Harm — a group founded in 2022 to oppose “disastrous consequences of identity politics” in medicine — and Students for Fair Admissions, the organization that filed a suit leading to the Supreme Court ruling. Kelly Mahoney, a white woman who said she was rejected by the UCLA medical school because of her race, is also a plaintiff.
The original suit cited unnamed “whistleblowers” who allege that Jennifer Lucero, the medical school’s associate dean of admissions, “requires applicants to submit responses that are intended to allow the committee to glean the applicant’s race” and that she and admissions officers “routinely and openly” have discussed using race in admissions.
Lucero did not respond to a email requesting comment. In a statement, UCLA medical school spokesman Phil Hampton said that UCLA does not comment on pending litigation.
“UCLA’s medical school is committed to fair processes in all of our programs and activities, including admissions, consistent with federal and state anti-discrimination laws,” Hampton said.
Under state law, UCLA is required to follow Proposition 209, which in 1997 banned the use of race in admissions to public institutions.
In a statement, U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said that the court intervention “is the Department of Justice’s latest effort to hold our universities accountable for unlawful policy — especially in the state of California.”
In its court filing and a news release, the U.S. government said it had reviewed median Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT, scores obtained from UCLA for four consecutive years beginning with the incoming class of 2021. Those scores, the Justice Department said in court documents, show lower medians for Black and Latino matriculants (506 to 509) compared with those for white and Asian American ones (513 to 516).
The medical school does not have a minimum MCAT score requirement and uses a holistic evaluation that considers areas outside test scores and grades, according to the UCLA website.
The government’s filing uses anonymous quotes from admissions officials published in the Free Beacon, a conservative news site, as evidence in alleging that the medical school has used race in admissions.
It also cited an amicus brief the University of California filed in the 2023 affirmative action case that said “UC’s experience demonstrates that for some universities — particularly the very selective institutions — race-neutral measures may prove insufficient, necessitating that the university engage in limited consideration of race.” And the filing pointed to a 2030 plan UC published that stated a goal of “reflecting California’s diversity.”
U.S. District Judge John W. Holcomb has to approve Justice Department’s request before the Trump administration can formally join the case as a plaintiff.
The Justice Department’s action against the medical school is the latest of several moves by Republican leadership and the Trump administration to probe alleged wrongdoing at UC and its academic health centers.
On Aug. 25, House Education and Workforce Committee Chair Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) sent letters to the UCLA and UC San Francisco medical schools ordering each to submit years worth of internal documents about alleged antisemitism and how the schools responded. Walberg cited reports of Jewish people “experiencing hostility and fear” and said the schools had not “meaningfully responded.”
The letter followed a $1.2-billion settlement demand sent to UCLA on Aug. 8, which alleges the university had violated federal law by using race in admissions, recognizing transgender women by their gender identity and not responding adequately to complaints of alleged anti-Jewish incidents during a 2024 pro-Palestinian encampment.
On Nov. 14, U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin blocked vast swaths of the settlement proposal. This month, the U.S. appealed her decision to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
