The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday alleged that the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law illegally used race as a factor in admissions to discriminate against white and Asian applicants.
The findings add to a series of federal actions targeting UC admissions that have focused on highly selective law and medical schools. The department released similar findings on Sept. 9 for the UC Berkeley School of Law and more recently for the medical schools at UCLA, UC Davis, UC San Diego and UCSF.
All campuses deny the allegations.
In an eight-page letter, the Justice Department accused UCLA of “knowingly based on racial discrimination” in its admissions to the classes of 2023, 2024 and 2025. It accuses 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 School of Law has a two-tiered admissions system, and the academic threshold for admission changes up and down based on your skin color,” the assistant attorney said. Gen. Harmeet K. Dhillon, chief of the department’s civil rights division, said in a statement. “It is unlawful to use race as a criterion to measure whether a student is advantaged or disadvantaged.”
The UCLA School of Law said in a statement that it is “committed to making admissions decisions in accordance with all applicable laws.” It cited Proposition 209, the 1996 state ban on considering race in public university admissions.
The school said it used a “comprehensive, merit-based review process” and had “confidence in our process.”
The Justice Department opened its investigation on April 18, 2025, and said it had reviewed the school’s documents and seven years of applications.
For the class of 2025, black applicants have about seven times the odds of admission as “other equivalent white applicants,” the department said. Latino applicants were said to be about twice as likely.
The department also cited Law School Admission Test scores. The report said that each year from 2019 to 2024, the median number of admitted black applicants was five to seven points lower than that of admitted white applicants. In 2025, the median score for black students will be 168 and the median score for white students will be 172. The average score for white and Asian applicants who were denied admission was 168, the letter said. LSAT score range is 120 to 180.
The UCLA School of Law’s admissions policy states that it places “significant emphasis on traditional measures of academic ability, namely grades and standardized test scores.” Schools also consider “financial, physical or other challenges overcome,” “academic achievements,” and “work experience and career achievements.”
The Justice Department said internal communications and policy documents show UCLA School of Law’s “strong commitment to achieving a ‘diverse’ racial composition of the student body.” It cited a 2023 diversity open house in which staff allegedly told applicants they could reveal their race in Q&A questions or diversity statements. It also cited a June 2023 email sent before the Supreme Court’s ruling, in which Assistant Dean of Admissions Robert Schwartz allegedly wrote, “Any changes in the law announced by the Supreme Court will not change anything in the law at UCLA.”
Discrimination “continues,” the letter said. The department is seeking a voluntary agreement with the university and will initiate litigation if an agreement cannot be reached.
The Trump administration released the findings in an ongoing lawsuit against the UCLA School of Medicine, accusing the school of illegally using race in admissions.
Two advocacy groups, Do No Harm and Students for Fair Admissions, sued the medical school in May 2025 over such accusations. Students for Fair Admissions is a plaintiff in a 2023 Supreme Court affirmative action case. The Justice Department joined the UCLA School of Medicine lawsuit in January and released findings in May accusing the school of intentionally considering race when selecting students. The medical school denies the allegation.