DOJ opened 15 new race-discrimination investigations into medical school admissions

The Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division announced on June 4, 2026, that it had opened 15 new investigations into U.S. medical schools over alleged race discrimination in admissions. The Division did not name the schools and said it had not reached any conclusions, stating that the probes would examine whether the institutions — each a recipient of millions of dollars in federal funding — are complying with the Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which restricted race-conscious admissions.

The announcement extends an enforcement campaign that the Division, led by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, has directed at medical schools. In the weeks prior, the Division issued findings that the Yale School of Medicine (announced May 14, 2026) and UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine had discriminated by favoring Black and Hispanic applicants over white and Asian applicants with comparable records. The simultaneous opening of 15 investigations — rather than case-by-case action — signals a coordinated effort, with the schools' federal funding cited as the jurisdictional hook.

The Civil Rights Division was historically the federal government's principal enforcer of anti-discrimination law on behalf of marginalized groups. Under the current administration, it has been redirected to treat race-conscious admissions and diversity practices as the violation, advancing a "reverse discrimination" theory grounded in the 2023 ruling. Critics characterize the expansion as the use of federal investigative power and funding leverage to pressure institutions into abandoning diversity-oriented practices; the administration frames it as enforcing the law equally and protecting students from illegal preferences.