Justice and Education departments found UC Berkeley Law discriminated against white, Asian applicants

On September 9, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights announced joint investigative findings that the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Berkeley Law) violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discriminating against white and Asian applicants in its admissions process. In a six-page findings letter, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said Berkeley Law's "deliberate efforts to circumvent the Supreme Court's decision in SFFA demonstrate a complete disregard for the rule of law."

The letter said Berkeley Law used application essay prompts asking about diversity contributions as "a backdoor to solicit applicants' racial demographics," then grouped admitted students by "primary identity." Citing 2024-25 admissions data, the departments said Black applicants had 5.8 times higher odds of admission than comparable white applicants in 2025, with roughly half of admitted Black applicants scoring below the 95th percentile of admitted white applicants on the LSAT.

The action follows a series of Trump administration Title VI investigations into universities' race-conscious admissions and aid programs since the Supreme Court's 2023 Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard ruling, including prior actions against the College of William & Mary and Smith College. DOJ said it is seeking a "voluntary resolution agreement" to bring Berkeley Law's admissions into compliance and will sue if negotiations fail; the findings letter itself is an investigative/compliance-review action, not a lawsuit.

Chemerinsky said in a statement that Berkeley Law "scrupulously complies" with Title VI and California's Proposition 209, the 1996 ballot measure barring race in public-university admissions, adding: "Our admissions policy is clear that race is not considered in any way ... Berkeley Law does not do so."