DOJ Says UC Davis Medical School Still Using Race-Based Admissions
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday that the University of California, Davis School of Medicine violated federal civil rights law by using race-based admissions practices after the Supreme Court barred affirmative action in college admissions.
The finding followed a six-month investigation by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division into admissions policies adopted after the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which prohibited colleges and universities from using race as a factor in admissions decisions.
According to the Justice Department, UC Davis Medical School attempted to preserve racial diversity by relying on socioeconomic factors that effectively operated as substitutes for race.
Investigators reviewed admissions records, internal communications, and applicant data from 2019 through 2025. The department concluded that school officials intentionally developed admissions policies meant to maintain racial balancing despite the Supreme Court’s clear ruling.
At the center of the investigation was the “Davis Scale,” a system created by Associate Dean of Admissions Dr. Mark Henderson. The scale measures socioeconomic disadvantage through factors such as parental income, parental education, growing up in medically underserved communities, participation in assistance programs, and family responsibilities.
Admissions officials then used that scale to alter the weight assigned to applicants’ academic records, including grade point averages and MCAT scores.
The Justice Department pointed to internal remarks that it said showed an attempt to maneuver around the Supreme Court’s decision.
“I’d call it class-based affirmative action. Class struggles have a huge overlap with race — that’s how we skirted the issue,” Henderson reportedly said, according to the department’s findings.
The investigation also cited a 2023 article in which Henderson discussed increasing enrollment of underrepresented minority students by emphasizing lived experience and socioeconomic background during admissions review.
According to the Justice Department, UC Davis did not simply use the Davis Scale internally. The school also promoted it as a model for other institutions searching for ways to preserve diversity goals after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action.
Federal officials said the applicant data revealed major disparities in admission rates among racial groups.
The department reported that Black and Hispanic applicants were admitted at substantially higher rates than white and Asian applicants, even though those groups had lower average academic metrics.
Investigators also found that, for incoming classes between 2023 and 2025, 93 percent of admitted white and certain Asian students had MCAT scores at or above the average score of admitted Black students.
White and Asian applicants also had higher average GPAs and MCAT scores than admitted students from some other racial groups, according to the department’s investigation.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the evidence showed UC Davis Medical School violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“Based on our review, the Department has found that Davis Med is violating Title VI by discriminating on the basis of race in its admissions process,” Dhillon wrote in a letter outlining the department’s findings.
“The Department finds that Davis Med discriminated against white and Asian applicants to Davis Med on the basis of race,” the letter continued.
The Justice Department said it will seek voluntary settlement negotiations with the university before considering further enforcement action.
Possible remedies could include requiring UC Davis to revise its admissions policies, eliminate the Davis Scale or similar methods if they function as racial proxies, adopt race-neutral review procedures, and submit to ongoing monitoring or reporting.
The finding marks one of the most important federal enforcement actions involving higher education admissions since the Supreme Court rejected affirmative action in 2023.
The University of California, Davis had not publicly responded to the Justice Department’s determination at the time of the announcement.
If no agreement is reached, the department could pursue additional legal action to force the medical school into compliance with federal civil rights law, Trending Politics reported.
The case is likely to draw close attention from universities across the country as schools continue adjusting their admissions systems in the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling.
For conservatives, the investigation is a major test of whether elite institutions will actually respect the Constitution, equal protection, and the rule of law — or simply rebrand racial preferences under new bureaucratic language.