The U.S. Justice Department moved on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, to join a federal lawsuit accusing UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine of unlawfully considering race in admissions, an allegation the school disputes. The filing comes as the Trump administration intensifies scrutiny of race-conscious decision-making in higher education and follows the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling limiting the use of race in college admissions.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division asked a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to allow the government to intervene in an ongoing case brought by Do No Harm, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) and an individual applicant, Kelly Mahoney, who is identified in court papers as white and says she was rejected by the medical school because of her race. (justice.gov)
In a Justice Department statement announcing the move, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said, “Even after the Supreme Court banned race-balancing, the Geffen School kept discriminating by using illegal DEI preferences in admissions.” (justice.gov) The government’s complaint in intervention argues that the medical school continues to consider race in admissions in violation of the Equal Protection Clause and the standards articulated in the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. (justice.gov)
The filing acknowledges that applicants submit race information through the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) as part of their primary application, and alleges UCLA’s admissions process still enables consideration of race through other means. As an example, the Justice Department points to a 2024 secondary-application prompt asking applicants whether they identify as part of a group that has been “marginalized,” with examples including “LGBTQIA, disabilities, federally recognized tribe,” and to describe how inequity and educational or health disparities affected them or their community. The complaint states: “On its face and by design, this question asks Black applicants to reveal their race so that UCLA Med can know and consider it.” (justice.gov)
The Justice Department also cited admissions data it said it obtained from the school, arguing that academic metrics differed by race among the 2024 incoming class. According to The Daily Wire’s account of the Justice Department filing, the complaint said median MCAT scores for the 2024 incoming class were 508 for Black students, 506 for Hispanic students, 513 for white students and 515 for Asian students. (dailywire.com) The Los Angeles Times reported that the Justice Department reviewed median MCAT scores over four incoming classes beginning with 2021, describing lower medians for Black and Latino matriculants than for white and Asian American ones across those years. (latimes.com)
In its court papers, the government described what it called three harms from race-based admissions: lowered academic standards, stigma that could lead patients to question the qualifications of underrepresented minority physicians, and unequal treatment of applicants by race. (justice.gov) It also argued that “There is but one legal avenue for a public or publicly funded medical school to pursue diversity in medicine: admit the most qualified candidates regardless of race, and expect that those most qualified candidates will come from every race, because they do.” (justice.gov)
The Justice Department is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief, asking the court to declare the admissions process unconstitutional and to permanently bar the medical school from considering race in admissions. (justice.gov)
A UCLA medical school spokesperson, Phil Hampton, told the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Bruin that the university does not comment on pending litigation, but added: “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.” (latimes.com)
Do No Harm’s executive director, Kristina Rasmussen, welcomed the federal government’s attempted intervention, saying: “The United States was right in its move to join this case, which is of great public importance.” (dailywire.com)
A federal judge must approve the Justice Department’s request to intervene before the United States can formally join the case as a plaintiff. (dailybruin.com)
