2,044 events on record Subscribe September 10, 2026
Standing Record home The Standing Record A non-partisan record of US democratic norms —
and the events that erode them.

DOJ Civil Rights Division found UC Davis Medical School discriminated based on race in admissions

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced on June 11, 2026 that the University of California, Davis School of Medicine discriminates based on race in its admissions process, in violation of the Supreme Court's 2023 SFFA v. Harvard ruling. DOJ said a six-month investigation found Davis Med used a "Davis Scale" ranking applicants on socioeconomic factors as a proxy for race after SFFA. UC Davis disputed the finding, calling its admissions process "rigorous, individualized, and merit-based."

Part of: Trump DOJ Medical School Race-Discrimination Campaign

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced on June 11, 2026 that it had found the University of California, Davis School of Medicine discriminates based on race in its admissions process, in violation of the Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which banned race-conscious college admissions. The finding followed a six-month DOJ investigation into Davis Med's admissions practices. DOJ alleged the school shifted its admissions process after SFFA to covertly continue factoring in race, using an internal ranking mechanism the department calls the "Davis Scale" that scored applicants on socioeconomic factors — including family income, parental education, and residence in an "underserved area" — that DOJ characterized as proxies for race. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the school's practices reflected "unabashed contempt for the rule of law."

UC Davis disputed DOJ's characterization, calling its admissions process "rigorous, individualized, and merit-based" and saying it disagreed with the finding. The Department said it would pursue settlement negotiations with the school to bring its admissions practices into compliance and would sue if those negotiations failed.

The UC Davis finding is at least the third named school, after UCLA and Yale, in the Civil Rights Division's broader Title VI medical-school admissions campaign, which expanded on June 4, 2026 to open investigations into 15 additional medical schools.

Why we recorded this

The Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard banned race-conscious college admissions nationwide. When the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division investigates and publicly announces that a specific medical school evaded that ruling through a race-linked scoring mechanism, it is enforcing a real constitutional boundary — but this action is part of a broader Civil Rights Division campaign that has opened investigations into 18 medical schools since March 2026, using enforcement power built for protecting equal treatment to instead pressure schools away from considering race at all, including through class-based and socioeconomic proxies not addressed by SFFA. This archive records when civil-rights enforcement authority is deployed as a political instrument against a broad class of institutions rather than case-by-case adjudication.

Sources

  1. Justice Department Finds University of California Davis Medical School Discriminates Based on Race in Admissions — U.S. Department of Justice primary accessed July 6, 2026
  2. DOJ accuses UC Davis medical school of illegally using race in admissions — Higher Ed Dive investigative accessed July 6, 2026
  3. DOJ Finds That UC Davis Medical School Considers Race in Admissions — Inside Higher Ed investigative accessed July 6, 2026
  4. UC Davis School of Medicine discriminates based on race in admission processes, DOJ says — CBS Sacramento investigative accessed July 6, 2026

See also