Students walk on Duke University’s campus.
Duke University file photo
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced today that it found Duke University “intentionally discriminated based on race in granting and denying admission” to its law school over three admissions cycles.
It’s the first law school that the department has found to have violated the Supreme Court’s 2023 ban on considering race in college admissions decisions. Up to this point, the DOJ has focused its efforts on proving medical schools discriminated against white and Asian students in their admissions processes, opening investigations into at least 26 schools and announcing findings of discrimination in four.
In its six-page letter to Duke, the department cites internal documents that describe the law school’s commitment to diversity as evidence that the law school’s admissions team intended to discriminate based on race, such as a clause in the mission statement that says the law school aims to “to help build and sustain a dynamic legal profession that embodies commitment to … diversity of perspective and experience (emphasis the DOJ’s).”
