DOJ accuses UC Berkeley Law of covert race-based admissions tactics
The Justice Department alleges that UC Berkeley's law school uses hidden methods to consider race in admissions, despite California voters rejecting such practices.
The U.S. Department of Justice has sent a detailed letter accusing the University of California, Berkeley School of Law of covertly using race in its admissions process. According to the DOJ, the school asks applicants to explain how they would contribute to campus diversity and includes an identity box with a “decline to state” option, effectively prompting candidates to reveal their race. The department points to dean Edwin Chemerinsky’s public statements about using “proxies for race” as a basis for its findings.
Statistical data in the letter shows Black applicants are admitted at higher rates than Asian or white applicants with comparable test scores. Chemerinsky responded by asserting that pursuing diversity is permissible so long as no explicit racial preferences are applied. This controversy adds to ongoing legal scrutiny of California’s public and private universities, which are bound by Proposition 209, Proposition 16, and the 2023 Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. Critics, including Harmeet Dhillon and the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, argue that such practices violate voter intent and federal law.
